Now that I had the project bike, it was time to put my thoughts together on what I wanted to do with it. As mentioned in my first post, I have a bunch of ideas for the bike. I like the ideas individually, but I'm not sure how (or if at all) they will work together. Some part of me actually doesn't mind if they don't work together. I'm picturing the bike turning out as some sort of bob job creation.
I'm not the best at visualising creative ideas, which doesn't help me much. So I figure I'll just put my ideas together on the bike, see how it looks and modify/undo as necessary. As you may have guessed already, I secretly have reservations about the project, but if I don't try it I will die wondering and that's a worse outcome than making something hideous, right?
What to do? I would like a few of the changes to subtly (and possibly not so subtly) make reference to the bike's British heritage. Starting with the most important real estate on a bike - the tank. I would like to get an old British comic book and stick the pages to it. I had no idea how to get this done. I envisaged issues getting the right glue for the job, getting the pages to stick flat to the angled tank surface, getting clear coat to hold it all together and not discolour, etc, etc. To be honest, this part of the project is the one I expect there to be the greatest issues getting the outcome I picture in my head. The alternative option I have is to get the comic made into decals and apply them. I will get a much better result, but I would feel like I've cheated a bit.
Going back to my early childhood, one of my first memories of automotive beauty was the first time I lay eyes on the Martini racing Porsches from the 1970s. To this day, the Martini colours are firmly at the top of my list of my favourite racing livery. I would like my project bike to have some throw back to that childhood memory - at this stage I'm thinking the light blue from the Martini colour scheme.
For some reason, I picture that my bike will look good with random bits from other bikes on it. I want to get some retro indicators and wire them into the bike. Possibly do the same with the headlights. I want to remove the front cowl above the headlights and replace it with a metal grill of some sort.
Some of the changes to the bike will be less bob job and more run of the mill. I want to get rid of the stock cans and put something fruitier on the bike and I will probably change the rear sets, levers, grips.
That's not an exhaustive list of things I want to do to the bike, but I have enough to get started...
Shav
