I’m going to lead into this story with a little background info. I was one of the counselors at Bryan “Trot” Trottier’s High School, in Sanger Texas. Trot was a Junior when we first met. He walked into my office, introduced himself and said, “I hear that you’re a pilot.” Upon my confirming that rumor, Trot shared that he was pursuing his Private Pilot License himself.
That introductory conversation started a friendship that’s been strong for over 15 years now. In working with Trot at the school, he shared that he was going to graduate, attend Texas A&M in pursuit of an engineering degree, enlist in the Air Force Reserve, become a Hurricane Hunter, and become a commercial pilot. Trot’s done all those things. Last conversation Trot said, “Shin, I had a plan up to a point, and then I’m still trying to figure things out.”
Now, I’m going to share Trot’s words on his Honda Nighthawk, with some interjections on my part.
Keith “Shin” Schindler
After my first year at Texas A&M I was secretly looking for a motorcycle. I didn’t want my parents knowing that I was aiming to buy one. It was so much easier to get around campus and town on a bike due to all the car parking lots being a major walk away from anything. This was around 2003-2004.
I did the same, Fall of 1978, when I was at Texas A&M, my one semester. Unlike Trot, A&M sent me a polite letter asking me not to come back.
Shin
Through a mutual friend, I stumbled on a 1991 Honda Nighthawk CB750 that a guy was looking to sell. He was the 3rd owner of the bike, 1st being his older brother and 2nd being his brother’s friend. It was pretty rough cosmetically but the engine/transmission were in great shape. It had a rattle-can paint job and spots on both sides where it had been laid over. After I saved up all summer I paid about $1200 for the bike, set up insurance, and used the bike to get my M endorsement on my driver’s license.
I rode it for a semester as it was. Then during the Christmas break I trucked the bike back home where Keith “Shin” Schindler and I started cleaning it up. We did some small upkeep fixes, like new front strut seals, new throttle and clutch cables, but primarily we focused on repainting the main body parts, cleaning up the gauge cluster (tach was INOP, stayed that way until years later) and recovering the worn factory seat with and aftermarket replacement.
We did decide to replace handlebars with a set off of a scrap bike Shin had in his backyard. While stripping the old paint we found about 5 layers before hitting metal. Rattle-can black, rattl-ecan blue, primer, factory Honda red, and factory primer. Also we uncovered a dent in the tank about the size of my fist that had been bondo’ed and sprayed over. I had to leave for classes so Shin kept the bike, finished cleaning up, filling the dent, and spraying the new paint. Next chance I got home I loaded up the bike and took it back down to college and rode it the next 4 years in that condition with the only exception being I added some custom decals I had made to add a WWII fighter plane look to the bike, and typical upkeep maintenance.
As Trot mentioned, we painted the Nighthawk, as well as taking care of mechanical issues. The bike was moved to my shop, where I had a large compressor, and the work began. The tank had a large dent in the front on one side, where a fork had hit it in a hard wreck. We don’t remember which side, as no pictures were taken of the damage.
The dent was filled with multiple layers of stranded filler; not the best way to fix a large dent. Surprisingly, after all these years, the filler has remained sound, and there is NO sign of the original dent.
Shin
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After college (2008 grad), and over two years in the US Air Force training pipeline, I moved to Mississippi where I started upgrading more stuff on the bike. My goal was to eventually clean it up as nice as possible and then just ride it without needing any upgrades, now that I had a little money to do it. While in MS I found a Nighthawk on eBay that had been totaled and was being parted out. I was able to acquire lots of like-new parts for a fraction of what OEM replacements would have been. The list of replacements was: Front brake master cylinder, both left and right side handlebar switch controls, replaced the whole primary gauge cluster, entire wiring harness (that I bought new), upgraded the key ignition switch, all 4 turn signals, added a voltage gauge, and added engine guard bars.
Fast forward to about 2016. After a few job changes and moves I found myself in a position to really tackle anything else leftover on the Nighthawk. I tried to make it as much of a finishing-restoration as possible. I took the bike apart to the engine and frame. I cleaned up rust on the frame and painted it, replaced the chain and sprockets, replaced anything rubber gasket wise (main leak was valve cover gasket), repainted all other black plastic or metal parts to look new, added a factory Honda backrest I found off eBay, installed new spark plugs, cleaned out all four carburetors, replaced the headlight with a nice chrome one, new horn, upgraded the original factory rear shocks to Progressive adjustable shocks, replaced the front sport fairing with a sport windshield, polished the wheels, and replaced both tires.
Although Trot didn’t say above, he’s shared with me that the Nighthawk is running great, despite it’s age, and he’s enjoying tooling around on his Vintage Japanese Motorcycle. We’re both pleased that we turned an ugly bike into something to be admired. I haven’t had the chance to ride with Trot in a while, or ride the Nighthawk, but I’m hoping to rectify that in 2021.
It was a blast working with Trot on the bike, and I’m looking forward to our plans for a “Battle Scarred” 2003 Kawasaki Nomad of mine, that’s to be Trot’s in the near future.
Stay tuned for my Vehicularly Addicted stories.
Shin
