The Thunder Toad Cometh

i personally would do the black to have it blend to the frame, or if you want color match the tank. the gold looks a bit out of place

WOW man, awesome work on that battery cover! Looks great! I say the green would match better, a gold accent of some sort may look cool, but I believe you would also need a little gold accent on the tank as well. I say go with the bottom two inches of the tank in the gold, then like the top three inches of the cover in gold, then go to the auto parts store and pick up a roll of the vinyle pin stripping, the two line one where one line is heavier than the other, and lay the heavy strip on the transition from green to gold, and have the thinner one in the gold. That would tie in the frame color to the rest of the scheme and provide a smooth visual break between the green and gold. That would give you a very clean look.
Like This:

hey guys,

great idea twisted wheels, would look good. with the style and look of the bike.
he has some good ideas now, lets see what he goes for...

i have followed the build from the begining, and like what has been done this far, can't wait to see it done, and on the road.
keep the up dates coming.
later.

Wow, thanks for all the input! I like a lot of these ideas, I definitely don't want the cover to blend into the frame, but I'm also not trying to make it the focal point. I've got primer on the cover now, soon I'll start playing with color.

I'd love to lose or reduce the gauges, but that's got to be on the "eventually" list for now. I might do something stiffer for rear springs as well, but right now I've got to figure out what the clearance situation is since the seat is about two inches lower than stock.

I got everything together today and went for a maiden voyage! Pretty short, just down to the store and back, but it was nice.

Here are the first confirmed photos of the ThunderToad in the wild:





Problems I found on this ride:

Backfires - probably air adjustment issue
Soft front brake
Fork tubes pulled up too far - not actually a problem, but I think they're too extreme now
License plate needs to find a better home
Most troublingly - oil appears to be leaking from a scary spot, more on that later

Thanks again for the input, it really helps to keep me moving along!

One last photo since I took it just before covering for the night:



Dan

Right on man, great to see it in action! I must say, that seat is growing on me. My 400 also backfired a lot when the mufflers were off of it, I am thinking a re-jet would be in order?
Looking great!

Anything new? I love this build, its definitely a bike that stands outside the commonplace ideas of bobber or tracker or cafe. I just started tearing into my 400 a couple weeks ago and am still looking for inspiration, the Thunder Toad has definitely been a great tool in planning a new look.