Wow, sharing the story of the bike in a few sentences would be tough, but I guess I'll give a go at the highlights:
Was living in India from 2011-2013, hadn't ever owned a motorcycle or ridden one beyond going around the block or a parking lot. Always wanted one since riding on the tank of my dad's CB750, so when I saw that old women in India were negotiating the chaos on a scooter with 5 kids hanging off it, I figured I could man up and just get one, especially since they're so cheap. Foreigners in India always get Royal Enfields, and first I got a newer unit-constructed one and learned to ride India-style. But gradually I fell more into like (wouldn't say "love" but maybe obsession would figure in given the amount I've stuck with this shitpile) with the older bikes and picked up a 1977 Army bike from a salvage yard. Goal was to make it into something with the ergos I wanted in my own bike for rough roads and blasting through traffic posted up on the pegs, not the staid Enfield chair-like riding position.
I planned, plotted, and paid an Indian mechanic to rebuild and refinish the bike to my specs, since I figured I wanted it on the road faster than I wanted to learn the complete ins and outs of the bike, and work there is cheap. (Amateur bicycle mechanic for a long time, but internal combustion was a mystery to me.) Turns out mechanics are cheap for a reason, and after months of frustration, I got a bike that was pretty much a non-shifting, barely-running POS that looked kinda nice. So I ended up swapping out a transmission, putting in a new engine barrel, cutting out the wiring harness and learning to design and rebuild the electrics, swapping out the fork for a disc model, putting in cartridge valve emulators, slightly longer rear shocks to tighten up the geometry a bit, etc. etc. But it was always a little jacked up.
Once I got the bike back to the US, in transit to another assignment, I tore it down to the frame and got some real quality work done by my friends Tom McVay in Rhode Island, a fabricator, and Ace Engineering (Tom and Chumma), the US's Enfield experts. Negotiating an international move and dealing with the bike were a handful, but thanks to these guys and some hustling of my own, I ended up in Africa with an engine in a rolling chassis and proceeded to risk malaria rebuilding it to a running bike, now a 535cc, flowed/ported engine with hotter cams and performance valves and springs, breathing through a flatslide 32mm Mikuni. Gone from Fred Flintstone to Fonzie...
Got it moving and worked through various problems, fit a rear disc working through my bad French in a Malian machine shop, managed to fab up an exhaust at the welding shop at work, etc.
In the end, it's taken me around to some unlikely places in Mali, and it's always better to learn a country on two wheels and without a cage than it is by driving through in the (armored) land cruiser. It'll be heading back with me for a long assignment Stateside, but I'll be deployed a lot--it'll serve as a decompression mechanism for me in my break time, I think, especially now that I can just ride the damned thing without so much worrying. Few more mods are due, like some new high-lift rockers Ace is cooking up, and may end up going more street-oriented in the US and putting on some clip-ons.
blah blah blah.
DTT build thread is here: http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=54115.msg609720#msg609720
Enfield forum thread, starting way back in like 2011, is here: https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,12334.msg136886.html#msg136886
Will post some more pics once I've put the daughter to bed. (The bike's biggest fan...she graduated to riding pillon on this, from her initial seat smushed between me and the tank....)
Edit: OK, pics etc:
Original bike as salvaged; I needed something more than 25 years old so I could import to the US and this was the only one I found...almost too bad I wasn't looking for something to simply restore...I know. But there are a million like this one in India, and nothing else like what it has become, for better or worse.
Original work being done streetside:
Because this was what the "inside" of the shop looked like:
First time home:
Out and about local:
Tried clip-ons; as a 350 with a 6.5-1 compression ratio it didn't really suit:
I designed the seat and Ken Hosford on the board here built it; had an Indian fabricator make a mounting that literally could have served as a boat anchor.
Back Stateside and getting ready to be re-born. Tom McVay in east Providence worked on some better peg mounts and a much better seat mount/under-tray for my electrics.
Working on the tear-down in a New England condo while between India, Pakistan, and Africa:
Unnecessary internal and external bling. Belt drive setup with Newby racing clutch, and alloy rims on cheap Enfield hubs which now have ceramic bearings:
Heart of the matter; the Indian-made main bearings just don't cut it, especially when the engine starts making triple the horsepower of stock. (Impressive work by Ace Engineering...yet still a heavy old single...)
Lump assembled by Chumma of Ace Engineering while i was overseas:
And graciously installed for me. (Thx to Chumma and Kai.) It pained me to not be part of some of this, but I was in Africa and the bike needed to be a roller to be included in my household shipment to meet me.
Got to me in Africa!
Various working-on-it in my carport there, and or local junkyards, machine shops, etc:
And finally running: