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In 1991 when stationed at the Tindal RAAF base, in charge of police dog training and husbandry, I bought a Triumph Bonnevile, it looked pretty grubby, but, it was British. The former owner had fitted it with nearly 18" high bars, so riding it was really odd having the hands higher than your shoulders. They got the chop real quick and I fitted lower bars.
I'm not a fan of bikes the same as everyone else's, so started modifying it straight away: The seat went in the bin along with the exhaust and mufflers, side panels, air filter, engine spacers and brackets, foot pegs, tail light bracket, triple zener pack, tacho, Instrument cluster, battery holder and clutch plates.
I beat up an aluminium seat pan, tail light and side panels and fashioned some aluminium engine mounts, replaced the triple zener pack with a single, mounted the speedo in the middle of the top tree, bought some 2" drag pipes and some Barnet plates and made up a new battery carrier.
I sewed up a seat cover on my Singer treadle using dimpled vinyl on top and smooth vinyl on the sides I got from the on base safety equipos. I used the original foam, just reshaped it a little.
We came into some money via the RAAF's resign policy and being the responsible type I bought a lathe, forerunner to the Hafco AL-51, made in Taiwan. I'd never used a lathe before and as there were no books available on turning I had to figure out how to use the thing. Jumping in at the deep end, the first thing I made were two stainless push rod tubes. The originals had a hump near the top where the sealing O ring sat, but it kept rolling over the hump creating an oil leak. The stainless one I turned up had a proper land so the O ring sealed against the head correctly.
Next I decided to play around with cutting threads. The master cylinders were plated steel things, 1" round with a 1" x 26 TPI on one end, the other end had a 3/8" UNF thread, the bore was 5/8" and there were two tiny holes in middle, one being around .7mm. Between these two tiny holes was welded a 1/4" BSF threaded piece to hold the reservoir in place on the front and a take off saddle for the rear. I replicated these two master cylinders in 304 and also turned up a piston, achieving better tolerances than the originals.
The reservoir for the rear was turned up from a solid lump of 50mm aluminium I got from one of the workshops on base, same place I got the 304. I turned the reservoir and cap with an Acme thread and plumbed it to the rear master via the original saddle and hose. I turned up a few other bits and pieces: Several threaded T nuts to hold rubber mounted items like guards, tail lights and side panels in place, Left handed bolt for the tacho drive, but then I discarded the tacho so that wasn't needed. To turn the LH thread I had to make a reverse tumbler for the change gears.
The motor was disassembled, cases sand blasted, barrel rebored, new pistons, rings and big end shells. I formed all the gaskets in the workshop, polished the combustion chamber and piston crowns, valve faces and backs and ports, reshaped the the cam plate in the gearbox and stuck the motor back together. The air filter was a single, holding the twin Mk2 concentric together.
I rewired the bike with a simpler design harness and fitted an oil cooler I sent off for. Building bikes wasn't easy in Katherine, all parts and bits and pieces had to be shipped up from Sydney. Only one bike shop in Katherine at the time and he only dealt in Japanese bikes.
The bike was painted in metallic charcoal grey and I rode it around Katherine and surrounds for a couple of years. The pipes were 2" drag pipes into which I punched a couple of baffles, but geez this thing was loud, you couldn't hear a brace of Harleys through the din this thing made. No speed limits in the Territory back then and police presence was all but non existent. I was posted overseas in 93 to head up the police dog section in Malaysia, so the bike was disassembled and put into storage for two years until I returned to Australia in 95.
I was posted back to Australia in 95, to head up the police dog section at RAAF Edinburgh SA. Once settled I started putting the Bonneville back together, but this time I decided to do a number on it: The bike was sprayed in gloss back this time. The engine was stripped and I mirror polished the crankcase halves, side covers, carbs, fork sliders, hubs, rockers and a heap of other parts, respoked with stainless spokes, fitted a couple of mufflers, spun up a new tall reservoir and and a spin on oil filter and put it over the pits. It passed first go and I rode it to and from work for the three years we were there.
Posted North again, Darwin this time to head up Police Dog, Police, Investigations and Counter Intel sections, also PT, Ground Defence and Cyclone Preparedness at various times, I again stripped the bike and shipped it North. Once settled I reassembled the bike again, but as our MQ was within walking distance to work, I never bothered registering it again.
I did enter the bike in the European Bike Show around 99, and won best Triumph.
In 2000, my body was just about spent so the RAAF kicked me out. I disassembled the bike yet again and we landed in Port Kennedy in Perth where we built a house and retired. I couldn't kick the bike to life anymore, so it sat around in boxes in the garage for a couple of years before I finally sold it as a basket case.
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