Monthly Archives: March 2025

What I watch on the One eyed Monster at home

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
23 Mar

Wow! Here we are almost through March andI have so much to get done in the workshop, but, there comes a time to stop and have a cuppa and reflect on life in general, I had a Mild Heart attack 13 years ago and that was due to stress and anxiety caused by working 84 hours a week just working on Motorcycles and prototyping parts etc, I think that was just the man above sending me a message to slow the heck down.

I have always had a hard work attitude but now try and manage it a bit more, I am fortunate to be able to ride every single day of the week, that’s part of my release as if I have a problem that needs solving, I jump on my steed and take it for a run around all the twisting canyon roads we are lucky to have here, and by the time I get back to the Barn, I have come up with a plan to execute that issue and 99% of the time it is resolved.

When I was living in my Mother country of Great Britain, I always had bikes and drive, I was a Motorcycle Dispatch rider for a long time and that took me all over Europe, i have been fascinated by Motorcycles my entire life, so today I wanted to tell you about a series that I have been watching on You Tube for a long long time. Must be over 600 episodes now and she records twice a week at this moment and posts on the YouTube channel, I love all of them but after season 3 the quality shoots up and panoramic views from the drone she flys just shows how cool and picturesque the places are that she visits. You will become hooked just as I did, some places I have been to but a different perspective and being a woman on your own like Afrika, India and Saudi Arabia was brave i thought but, Noraly takes it all in her own stride.

 

I just wanted to show something that I am into, I have ridden all over the world but this is on another level, follow Noraly on youtube and instagram, she is a great Vlogger.

A 31-year old, Dutch, solo-female traveler – currently on a mission to travel the world by motorbike! I blog about my travels at Itchy Boots .

Noraly Schoenmaker was a thirtysomething geologist living in the Netherlands when she learned that her live-in partner had been having a long-term affair. In desperate need of a new beginning, she decided to quit her job and jet off to India..

But her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, she felt alive and free—nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.

First, she set off toward the Pacific, through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, then into Malaysia. Rather than satisfy her appetite for the open road, this ride only piqued it. She shipped her bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and embarked on a journey through Iran, across Tajikistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia, and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. She covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territory, broke down on impossibly steep mountains, and pushed too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty of the world, the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, and a new and unshakable belief in her capabilities.

How did this all start?

It all started when I went to Australia at age 23 to work in gold mining. I became rich and traveled around the world for 2 years straight. Completely broke, homeless and jobless, I returned to Holland. The next 5 years I worked for an international contractor on big ships all over the world, from Kuwait, Kazakhstan to the Bahamas and beyond.

But even though I saw a lot of the world, it wasn’t the same as full-time travel.. So I quit that job and sold all my stuff – to be on the road again! This time I’m traveling by motorbike, which is just the BEST adventure.

2. What is your earliest travel memory?

When I was 18 years, I traveled to Egypt. By myself! I absolutely loved it and have been traveling solo ever since. I got my PADI diving certificate there, rode camels through the desert and went quad biking over sand-dunes. Even though I’ve seen a lot more of the world in the years after – that first solo trip was unforgettable!

3. Where was the last place you travelled to?

I’m now traveling full-time, so there is no really a last place! Currently I’m in India, and riding on my motorbike to Malaysia via Myanmar and Thailand. Because I had to sort out a lot of paper works for crossing borders by motorbike, and get the bike ready for a long road-adventure; I’ve spent the last month in Delhi. It’s a place I never thought I would be spending a long time, but absolutely fell in love with this massive city!

4. What was the best thing you did there?

Staying in one place for a longer time has its perks. I made a lot of local friends! I got in touch with a local motorbike group and I’ve been going on rides with them and watching motorbike races at the circuit in Delhi. Those experiences you miss out on when you travel fast!

5. What was your best holiday ever? Why?

So thinking about a holiday – then it’s one involving motorbikes again! I flew to Spain and rode around the mountains on a Ducati Monster there. Riding hair-pin bends on a Ducati gives such a thrill!

6. What is your favourite travel destination?

I’ve got so many favourite places! But in my top you’ll find Greenland (because nobody goes there), Mongolia (for riding horses and reindeer in the mountains there) and Siberia in Russia for the generous people there.

7. What must one do there?

In Greenland – go on hikes! You will not come across a single soul and the nature is breathtaking there. In Mongolia – ride the sturdy ponies and stay with locals in yurds. The food is horrible but the hospitality on an entire different level. Siberia – have drinks with the locals and chat about their lives in some of worlds harshest environments to live in.

8. Who is your favourite travel companion/s?

Although I’m always traveling solo, there is one friend that I met 8 years ago in India. Her name is Mandy and she is South-African too! We hit it off from day 1, and have been trying to meet up every year since! We’ve met up again in Nepal, Tanzania, Holland, Spain and Denmark. I hope to see her again next year and travel together for a bit.

 

9. Name one item you must have when travelling.

My favourite travel item is a PacSafe. It’s a kind of portable safe, in which you can lock your valuables. It’s light but big enough to fit a laptop, money, passport etc. It has given me a lot of peace of mind knowing my valuables are safely stored when there is no locker/safe available in your hostel or hotel.

10. Your best travel advice?

Travel solo! Don’t be afraid, you will meet lots of people along the way. Locals to help you and travellers to hang out with and take your pictures ;). That is the whole point of traveling solo, you will meet tons of new people!

11. The one place you want to visit before you die?

Antarctica! It has been on my list for a long time and I actually almost made it once there.  I love cold environments and just seeing all the wildlife must be an experience of a lifetime. Sign me up!

12. Your favourite place in South Africa?

I am just finishing up my series on you tube there so go check it out.

13. Any embarrassing travel moments?

Oh where to start! Perhaps that one time I was traveling from Indonesia to Australia. I came from the Gili Islands and had to take a small boat to Lombok first, before continuing on to Bali and straight to Australia after that. When I tried to get off the small boat with both my backpacks attached to me – I lost my balance and fell in the sea. Face-planted myself on the beach and couldn’t get up because of the weight of my backpack. Completely soaked and stinky, I had another 24 hours of travel to do! You can just imagine the face of the immigration officer in Australia when I finally rocked up there..

14. Worst travel experience?

Traveling from Panama to Colombia, I took (obviously) the cheapest sailboat to get to Colombia. The captain lit up a gigantic joint when we just sailed out of the port of Panama. He was drunk and stoned most of time, there was no wind so the journey took several days longer and there was no water on board. Only booze! The food consisted of plain rice. My goodness, it was awful! When we finally reached Cartagena, I was just the happiest puppy ever!

But her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, she felt alive and free—nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.

First, she set off toward the Pacific, through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, then into Malaysia. Rather than satisfy her appetite for the open road, this ride only piqued it. She shipped her bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and embarked on a journey through Iran, across Tajikistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia, and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. She covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territory, broke down on impossibly steep mountains, and pushed too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty of the world, the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, and a new and unshakable belief in her capabilities.

https://www.itchyboots.com/about

 

15. How can people connect with you?

Connect with Itchy Boots on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube,  or check out my blog Itchy Boots !

Thank you, Noraly , for sharing your fascinating adventures with us!

Read these books about other motorcycle and cycle travellers

Around the World on a Motorcycle, 1928 to 1936

GOT2GO: How I rode around the world on a motorcycle solo and what I learned along the way

Honda CB750K Gas Tank refurbish for 1976 SOHC HONDA K6

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
11 Mar

Well, I seem to be trying to do too many things in one go some days and must learn to relax and get to a slower pace and then get it all done. LOL!  Easy to say but they do say that integrity is the winning ingredient in the race for complacency , and to be honest, in my older age, I now seem to stop for a second and look back on things and try to dissect my days at the workshop and become more productive but in less hours, if that makes any sense, work smarter not harder my grumpy old man used to say.

So, I have been restoring an old 1976 CB750 Honda up in the barn, not to a show standard, just to be a nice clean daily rider, but sometimes things comes to a halt when I need to repaint the bodywork, but this time the formula works great and now have a superb Painter thn not only does a fantastic job, actually listens to what I want, then takes time to test colors and repaint if need be, until the job is how I want it to be.

Usually my artistic flair gets the better of me and I go into a winding road of turns, trying to get a super cool design that will wow many onlookers, but as this is for a bike that I really want to be head turning but in its stock factory livery, something that is super hard to do these days, but I am almost there with the bodywork for this Honda Four.

Now, I had a fella in Santa Ana that I have used many times in the past, and gave him my gas tank and covers, plus a few hundred bucks to help him with things and that was 6 months ago, he has buggered off and never responds to my plea, so Mister Police Officer will be collaring him soon with any luck.

I had to go on Ebay and pay an extortionate price for a fairly straight set of side covers and petrol tank off a K5/K6, it was labelled K5 but the Petcock was on the left side, making this a k6 model. Honda decided it was much safer to move the petcock to the left hand side of the motorcycle because that way if you run onto reserve whilst riding on the freeway etc, you do not have to take your hand off the throttle to turn the petcock onto the reserve position, thus being safer on the road and not slowing the bike down at all in that transition.

So, I asked my Painter if he could replicate the colors of Candy Antares Red, he said of course, then I enquired would it be necessary to purchase some reproduction decals, so he could add them then clear coat over the whole tank.  Of which he replied to me. “No, , as i can mask it and make the colors up in paint.  I was a little skeptical when he informed me that it wasn’t really a problem to attain the same effect with paint rather than a decal and he also said that the new decals will fade in time but the paint will hold true. So, I said I would trust him with that and said that as soon as the gas tank turns up from Ebay, I shall bring it over to him and see what he thinks about it.

My Painter has been spraying Motorcycles for many years and has high class clients, his time is not cheap but, he does amazing work and sometimes you just need to bite the proverbial bullet and go for it.

So, as you can see by the photo below, this was the fuel tank that I purchased off of Ebay, it does have a K5 note on it but it’s a K6 as you can tell by the petcock bung is on the left hand side, but i needed a tank that still had the old decals on the side so my Painter could measure them and reproduce them in paint, a tough task for many but not my guy.

It wasn’t perfect but it was a good candidate to the many I had seen on the net for sale, so this is what we started with,as you can see it is candy antares Red but it needs stripping completely so we can address any dings or scratches and then begin the preparation of this set up for my Big 4 Honda SOHC.

As you can see in the photo here, we have blocked the tank and made sure all is smooth and even, then Black base coat is added and it looks really good right now, the next job is to match the Gold for the design on the original decal, so this takes a little time to get right but with a lot of color test sprays we go it.

Aztec Gold is painted on the tank and this will really look nice when the clear is added later on in the process, but I am super happy with the progress and how clean everything is.

Here are the side covers, they were not in the best shape cosmetically but now bloc sanded and base coat added, these are almost ready to spray Gold, but they did need to be sanded quite a bit, and now looking good.

I am super glad the way that these came out and its all blended nicely, and when the Red is laid over these, they will give a fantastic Antares Red glow, something that I am looking forward too, this paint is top quality and will not fade in out Californian sunlight compared to many other brands I have tried over the 25 years.

I know that you will be thinking to yourself, this is too purple, but, this is not done yet and you will be super stoked at the look of this gas tank when its completed.

Just look at that, this is all paint and not decals, a lovely looking fuel tank for my K6 Honda CB750K model, this will be the Jewel on the crown when it’s all done and fitted.

The side covers came out really well and shall be fitting New Emblems to them later on in th week, but this is all worth the wait for me and super happy I went this route on the bodywork.

This still needs a buff but it looks fantastic in these new colors once more and once badges and lower tank trim are fitted it will look factory, I have always loved the K5 and K6 Antares Red.

So, there she is, stunning is all I can say, I have New Chrome Gas Cap and lock for it too, so this will be already to fit to my machine soon, and quite excited to get this on the bike, its the best parts when it all comes together as a cohesive piece.

All three sitting in the California Sun and I am taking it to my workshop where I shall put in the cupboard as I need to polish the valve cover this week, but then I can put this all on after.

This was a lot of work but completed in a timely manner, something that loads of painters I have used have always struggled with time management, but as he paints all the time for many Motorcycle and Custom cars, this was a fun job for him.

 

How much for a professional paint job like this?  Well, save your pennies as its $3500 but you can get a cheaper job and it wont last like this and I am more than happy with it, no runs, no curtains, no orange peel and, no decals to peel off.