(Photos By: Robert Milchling)

The “Bonnie” Files  - Part 1

By Marco Capoccia (@marcocapoccia)

November 14th, 2022

Roberto, Ryan, and I agreed it was only appropriate to kick open the series of Parallel Twin moto-builds, with none other than a platform fitted with a parallel-twin motor configuration. While the new “retro-styled” bikes on the market are fantastic machines and potential candidates for the build, they miss to capture the aura that older carbureted bikes possess that we crave.

We wanted to select a machine that would perfectly suit the task of covering “daily-duty” throughout the work week and satisfy the urge to carve the windy country roads on the weekends. After a couple weeks of scaring through the internet, we landed upon the perfect specimen, a lightly modified 2004 Triumph Bonneville T100.

(Photos By: Robert Milchling)

This bike had a lot of the common power upgrades such as a British Customs Sleeper Pro Exhaust, re-jetted carburetors, and K&N pod filters all squared away by Rob (@robmilchling), the previous custodian.

This allowed us to start our build by remedying the chassis, ergonomics, and the style of this bustling brit to meet our needs.

(Photos By: Robert Milchling)

We drew a lot of inspiration for this build from the café racer builds of the late 60’s like those of Rickman Motorcycles, and WWII aircrafts such as the B-17 Flying Fortress (more about that later).

Harking back to our goals from this build; we wanted to stray away from the generic “solo-seat” approach that most café racer builds encompass. Our goal is to create a motorcycle that can be rocked’ solo, or with a pillion aboard.

The rear end of the bike will be sorted with Hagon Shocks and retain the saddle seat. This will allow us to set the proper “rake” to the bike that we are looking for, besides ensuring a stable ride when riding a passenger. To balance out the rear end, we plan on refreshing the front forks with a progressive rate fork spring kit to keep it planted.

To address the styling of the front end of the bike, we acquired a handmade aluminum fairing from our friends at Omega Racer (@omegaracer). The craftsmanship of this piece is top notch, and we cannot wait to show you guys how we “spice” up that fairing...

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