Bonneville 650 - "Valerie"

In keeping with the "orphaned kitten that shows up at your house" theme present on this blog, my first British bike was a total and complete rescue operation. 

My friend Austin and I went to the Isle of Man TT in the spring of 2025, and I think we both fell in love with British motorcycles on that trip. Not that I'd ever had anything against them prior, but I hadn't grown up exposed to them much, and when I started getting interested in my own bikes as a teenager, I guess they weren't flashy or loud enough for my young American sensibilities. But three weeks in the British Isles will make you a believer. 

A good Bonneville seemed to occupy the same space in my mind as a good Sportster - probably the best engine the parent company ever designed, and so indulgent and unforgiving in its stripped-down, simplified, barky nature that a simpleton can't help but be a little attracted to its attitude. Farm hands and tractors are drawn to each other I suppose. 

Anyway, both of us vowed to get Triumphs some day, and as fate would have it, I got one that summer, and there wasn't much I could do about it. Austin sent me a vague message that he had found a Triumph for cheap, and I got a couple of bad photos of an orange bike with the short description that if somebody didn't take it, it was going to be scrapped. 

I panicked at the threat, and told him to pick it up no questions asked, and we would assess later which one of us wanted it.  

The bike came from a stranger, so the story remained somewhat vague, but from what we could gather, the guy came into possession of a building and this bike was part of it. To me, it seemed like he described that the Triumph being displayed inside the lobby/waiting area for what seemed most of its life. Miraculously, the title was with it somehow. The owner of the business passed away and the building came to this new guy, and his people were preparing to level the building indiscriminately, throwing everything away in dumpsters. The guy claimed he barely managed to save the bike from being scrapped, but if he couldn't pawn it off on someone soon, it ultimately would be. He didn't know what it was, and didn't want to. He just knew that someone out there would want it. Bless that man. Austin made him a low (read as: really low) offer, and he took it.  

He sent me a couple messages over the summer as he considered it here and there, but before long he had relinquished it - he's a sport touring guy at heart and long bikes with no front brakes weren't his thing - and said it was all mine. So after my summer season spent guiding in the national park that year with a fat stack of tip money in my pocket, I got my hands on my old Toyota Tacoma (that's another story) and made a vacation down to Denver for a week.

(Interestingly enough, a second Triumph came into my life around the same time, and under similarly orphaned circumstances - a 1954 T110. I guess adopting British long chops was now my thing)

I told Austin that if the paint got any more damage in the sun, the deal was off. So he hid it in his horse trailer with a mantie over it. 

 

It actually looked better in person than I expected. The rubber was toast and some of the cheaper chrome shit was gone, but the steel, paint, bodywork, and engine looked fantastic. The motor in particular looked brand new. 

 

"What is best in life?" "Riding kickass long chops and making all the Dyna bros jealous"

Paint by Denny at Sundance Auto Body, presumably out of Sundance WY, which was fitting.

I had brought my tools with me on the trip under the presumption that I was going to have to pull the front end in order to get it to fit in the small truck bed. Happy to find out, it loaded up easily and perfectly with nary a bolt removed. This bike wanted a new home.

 

Initially, it got hidden away with my other random hoardings, until I could find the time and space to make it a rider again. Since I didn't want to worry about it, I stopped at the DOT before getting it unloaded and got a VIN inspection on the spot, and got a title and plate for it right away. She's legal! I ain't handing these keys over to no lady cops!  

A vacation with an old truck and a new bike. This was a fun vibe!

For a long time, I considered naming the bike "Jodie", after a British girl I went on a date with who I regretfully didn't hear from again but retained a frustratingly massive crush on. But I realized that name was way too similar to "Judy", so it went out the window. I landed on Valerie for two reasons: first, partially inspired by the Conan [movie] character, Valeria, and second, after my godmother, Valerie Walsh, who rode with the Hells Angels in the early 70s and looooves psychedelic long choppers, which she calls "Hippie Bikes". 

I'm posting this now so I can get these photos online as a time capsule to document the survivor status of this bike. But in the future, I would like to put some plans into motion with this machine. This bike is a survivor and deserves to keep that status, so for the most part, I'll honor that. As it happens, I've got a collection of old period chopper parts that will make the perfect match with this one. The rotten front end is going to get replaced with a 54" girder I've had lying around waiting for a donor. Front wheel will be a 19" Hallcraft Invader. Double headlights will be a weird set of scalloped Chevy fog lights from the 50s. A pair of MCM cocktail shaker mufflers (new with stickers!). And a set of Flanders dogbones to move the original bars onto the girder. Not that I usually care about this, but everything I listed is period shit, so that's cool. 

New, more contemporary changes will be a freshly upholstered seat (velvet? Hmm), a rear wheel (any suggestions? email me), tires, and a better brake light. 

Obviously, I want to more or less keep the bike within its original vision, however, the one thing I do want to fabricate myself is a new sissy bar. I'd like that to be my main contribution to this bike's history. 

Other than that, just small restoration things, like rubber parts and wiring and whatever else it needs in order to go. Between the bike's overall good condition and the stack of parts I already have for it, this should be a fairly cheap and painless restoration.  

That trip to "storage" was the last time I saw it. This post will likely (hopefully) be updated beneath this line in the next couple years...