Ya gotta start somewhere

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a motorcycle.  For one reason or another, that didn't happen.  Mom and Pop said no - it was too expensive/dangerous.  But - still, as a kid I learned to ride on some of my friend's bikes (sorry Mom and Dad - at least I wasn't doing drugs).  I didn't learn well, and I didn't become a great rider, but I learned the basics - how to start, how to shift, how to stop without hitting blunt objects (well, mostly).

Life keeps progressing.  College (poverty), graduation, job.  Meet a girl.  Marry the girl.  Start a family.  But - some passions don't die.  Even after 20 years.

With the quasi-blessing of my wife, I made my wish come true last Sunday.  I bought a 1966 Bultaco Mercurio.  175 cc's of smoking fury.  A giant chain-saw with 2 wheels.

So - I rode around the neighborhood (yep - no license, no insurance, no helmet) - and I never realized how fast 25 mph is when you are out in the open like that.   I feel like I felt when I first started driving a car (YIKES - what do i do!).  But - didn't buy it to ride - yet.  I really bought it because I thought it would be fun to restore a classic motorcycle.  So - here goes nothing.

My inspiration is to build something that looks like a cafe racer.  Maybe something like one of the old TSS bikes - but without the fairing.

Today I pulled off the rotten stock seat.  Rotten because whenever I sat on it, you could hear the old dried out foam cracking.  All 4 bolts holding it on were rusted to death, and all twisted off.  The seat pan is a rusted mess.  I'll save it for a template for now.

Ewwwww.....

I pulled off the toolbox that sits below the seat, plus the faux toolbox that sits on the other side of the bike from it.  I think both of those will stay off the bike.  Rear fender came off, and I pulled the tank.  Drained the tank and found two 8 mm nuts in side, which I fished out with a magnet on some string.  Removed the petcock, and ordered a rebuild kit (yep - found that on e-bay).  Also going to look at rebuilding the Amal 376 carb.  The good news is that you can find these carb kits pretty easily, as they were apparently used on told Triumphs and BSA motorcycles.  Bad news is - the float bowl covers warp.  The only new ones I can find say "made in England", while mine says "Espana".  So - I may have to search for one, or try and un-warp mine.

I realize that this will probably be a few years (and infrequent blog updates), but maybe - just maybe we'll get a nice looking bike out of it.....