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Before coming to the main topic of discussion lets have a brief background of how things started. This post might become long so please jump to the third paragraph or the pictures if you want to avoid reading everything. I am a production engineer and have recently completed my MBA in Marketing from IM-BHU. However, since my childhood, I've always wanted to become a mechanic or an automobile builder, a thought which has grown intense over the years. Around 5 years ago in 2015 during my B. Tech days, I was a part of my institute's Formula Student India team and was actively involved in many automotive related activities. For those not familiar with Formula Student India (considering this platform I highly doubt it 
), it is a national level competition wherein institutes from all over the country build 'race cars'. Our institute was selected in the competition and we decided to use a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 for the drivetrain of the car. Though we couldn't come out as the winners in the competition we managed to reach a somewhat respectable position. Once the competition was over, we decided to sell off the bike as we had blown off our budgets and had to clear off some payments. I quickly jumped in and decided to purchase the bike in the very condition it was in. The bike was in pieces and the chassis and the body parts had been lying in a workshop completely neglected while the engine and gearbox had been decently abused in the race car.
After purchasing the completely dismantled bike, initially, I decided to load the parts onto a mini truck and bring it to my trusted mechanic around 160kms in my home town. But what's the fun in that and I decided to assemble it in a small space I had at my flat where I used to stay during my college days. The mere assembly turned out to be somewhat troublesome as many parts had gone missing while in storage and the nearest Royal Enfield spare parts centre that had the parts was around 130kms away in Kolkata. Nevertheless, I managed to completely assemble the bike in less than a day and at around 2 am at night the bike roared into life. It was an all smiles moment for me and couple of my friends who were helping me with the whole process. The bike ran fine with a few dents and scratches in its body that could have been fixed with a little effort. However, my plans with the bike were pretty simple and straightforward i.e. to customize it (mainly cosmetically) as per my choice. I decided to paint the bike in a yellow and black paint combo which matched my other bike, a mustard yellow Pulsar 200NS that I had been gifted by my father on my 18th birthday. The Thunderbird turned to be quite a head-turner and became an inspiration for many. After owning the bike for around 3 years & around 18k km I decided to sell it as I was leaving my home for higher studies and there was no one to ride the bike apart from my father who was pretty happy with his new Suzuki Access and his beloved LML Vespa NV.
Meanwhile, in 2016 I had impulsively purchased an old Yamaha RX145 4-speed which was in a pretty bad shape from a friend of mine with an intent to restore it to its former glory. However, the RC of the bike had expired in 2013 which made it a gamble to invest huge money for restoration as pretty much every part needed to be either replaced or repaired. The bike remained pretty much unattended for the next 4 years in my garage. I tried to sell it a couple of times but couldn't find a buyer with the right offer price. Come 2020 and I was at home for my holidays when the whole country decided to enter into a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown days were pretty uneventful and quickly became boring which led me to find something to do that would keep me interested and excited. I decided to start my restoration project of the RX135 that had been lying in my garage. I wasn't sure about the cost of renewing all the expired documents of the bike so decided to invest as little money as possible. I decided to give away the thought of restoration and to instead focus on customizing the bike as a cafe racer or a scrambler as I had a lot of parts lying with me that could come in handy. I quickly disassembled the bike and began working on the project. As I had intended to invest as little money as possible, I decided to leave the engine as it is but quickly realized that it needed some much-needed attention. I began working on the overall design of the bike and kept the engine aside to get it fixed from my mechanic once the shops start opening as I did not have all the tools required to fix it. The build started off at a pretty leisurely pace as everything was in a lockdown state and many of the work needed to be done externally such as the frame repair. Meanwhile, in May, the company in which I was about to join the next month decided to revoke my job offer along with the other selected candidates. This further delayed the overall project as I was in a bit of a shock and started hunting for jobs. Soon, I restored the work on my RX135 while eagerly searching for a suitable job. By the end of June, most of the mechanical and frame repairs were done and the bike was ready for the painting process. Initially, I decided to get the bike painted by a professional but considering the high quotes I got, I decided to paint it myself. I did not want to use spray cans as the quality and reliability is not great and the overall cost was still pretty high. So, I decided to experiment with an idea I had for a very long time. I decided to use the spray attachment (with a few modifications) of my vacuum cleaner for the painting and got a small amount of matt black paint form a local auto paint shop to experiment. The paint quality turned out to be pretty decent and I was quite happy. Once the painting was done it took me a couple of days to assemble the bike and sort out the wiring and stuff. But as with any projects, the last 20 per cent takes up 80 per cent of the time and it was not until November that the bike finally turned out the way I wanted it to be. I won't call it perfect or complete as it still needs some updates and upgrades to make it better which will eventually come with time (suggestions & ideas are most welcome). By this time I have decided to start my own automotive business as finding a suitable and satisfactory job during this pandemic has turned out to be a nightmare. Enough talking, now let the pictures speak for themselves. P.S - The pics might not be the best as most of them were random ones as I was busy building it and forget to document the process properly.
), it is a national level competition wherein institutes from all over the country build 'race cars'. Our institute was selected in the competition and we decided to use a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 for the drivetrain of the car. Though we couldn't come out as the winners in the competition we managed to reach a somewhat respectable position. Once the competition was over, we decided to sell off the bike as we had blown off our budgets and had to clear off some payments. I quickly jumped in and decided to purchase the bike in the very condition it was in. The bike was in pieces and the chassis and the body parts had been lying in a workshop completely neglected while the engine and gearbox had been decently abused in the race car.After purchasing the completely dismantled bike, initially, I decided to load the parts onto a mini truck and bring it to my trusted mechanic around 160kms in my home town. But what's the fun in that and I decided to assemble it in a small space I had at my flat where I used to stay during my college days. The mere assembly turned out to be somewhat troublesome as many parts had gone missing while in storage and the nearest Royal Enfield spare parts centre that had the parts was around 130kms away in Kolkata. Nevertheless, I managed to completely assemble the bike in less than a day and at around 2 am at night the bike roared into life. It was an all smiles moment for me and couple of my friends who were helping me with the whole process. The bike ran fine with a few dents and scratches in its body that could have been fixed with a little effort. However, my plans with the bike were pretty simple and straightforward i.e. to customize it (mainly cosmetically) as per my choice. I decided to paint the bike in a yellow and black paint combo which matched my other bike, a mustard yellow Pulsar 200NS that I had been gifted by my father on my 18th birthday. The Thunderbird turned to be quite a head-turner and became an inspiration for many. After owning the bike for around 3 years & around 18k km I decided to sell it as I was leaving my home for higher studies and there was no one to ride the bike apart from my father who was pretty happy with his new Suzuki Access and his beloved LML Vespa NV.
Meanwhile, in 2016 I had impulsively purchased an old Yamaha RX145 4-speed which was in a pretty bad shape from a friend of mine with an intent to restore it to its former glory. However, the RC of the bike had expired in 2013 which made it a gamble to invest huge money for restoration as pretty much every part needed to be either replaced or repaired. The bike remained pretty much unattended for the next 4 years in my garage. I tried to sell it a couple of times but couldn't find a buyer with the right offer price. Come 2020 and I was at home for my holidays when the whole country decided to enter into a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown days were pretty uneventful and quickly became boring which led me to find something to do that would keep me interested and excited. I decided to start my restoration project of the RX135 that had been lying in my garage. I wasn't sure about the cost of renewing all the expired documents of the bike so decided to invest as little money as possible. I decided to give away the thought of restoration and to instead focus on customizing the bike as a cafe racer or a scrambler as I had a lot of parts lying with me that could come in handy. I quickly disassembled the bike and began working on the project. As I had intended to invest as little money as possible, I decided to leave the engine as it is but quickly realized that it needed some much-needed attention. I began working on the overall design of the bike and kept the engine aside to get it fixed from my mechanic once the shops start opening as I did not have all the tools required to fix it. The build started off at a pretty leisurely pace as everything was in a lockdown state and many of the work needed to be done externally such as the frame repair. Meanwhile, in May, the company in which I was about to join the next month decided to revoke my job offer along with the other selected candidates. This further delayed the overall project as I was in a bit of a shock and started hunting for jobs. Soon, I restored the work on my RX135 while eagerly searching for a suitable job. By the end of June, most of the mechanical and frame repairs were done and the bike was ready for the painting process. Initially, I decided to get the bike painted by a professional but considering the high quotes I got, I decided to paint it myself. I did not want to use spray cans as the quality and reliability is not great and the overall cost was still pretty high. So, I decided to experiment with an idea I had for a very long time. I decided to use the spray attachment (with a few modifications) of my vacuum cleaner for the painting and got a small amount of matt black paint form a local auto paint shop to experiment. The paint quality turned out to be pretty decent and I was quite happy. Once the painting was done it took me a couple of days to assemble the bike and sort out the wiring and stuff. But as with any projects, the last 20 per cent takes up 80 per cent of the time and it was not until November that the bike finally turned out the way I wanted it to be. I won't call it perfect or complete as it still needs some updates and upgrades to make it better which will eventually come with time (suggestions & ideas are most welcome). By this time I have decided to start my own automotive business as finding a suitable and satisfactory job during this pandemic has turned out to be a nightmare. Enough talking, now let the pictures speak for themselves. P.S - The pics might not be the best as most of them were random ones as I was busy building it and forget to document the process properly.
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