Ok, so Bonnie/Thruxton builds are more common than Marquez victories, but there's no denying that when they're done right they look superb. 'Mighty Blue' by Maria Riding Co. is one such Thruxton. The guys chose the Thruxton as a donor simply because of it's higher engine specs and bhp compared to the Bonneville. If you're gonna make something look a bit special, may as well make sure she goes a bit better too. At first glance, Mighty Blue doesn't look radically different from a standard bike, but on second glance it becomes blatantly obvious that she is indeed pretty special. The starting point for this build was the off road tyres. It dictated the dirt bike/flat track direction of the rest of the bike. All the original controls, mirrors and instruments were ditched to de-clutter and simplify, echoing the 'no frills' front end of a dirt bike. The handlebar is a wider, white painted 81cm unit that looks amazing. And the small custom speedo and headlight are perfectly to scale. The rear sub frame was shortened (obviously) to give a more aggressive look, it's been finished off nicely with a smaller black mudguard and backlight. Talking of black, all chrome has been banished with the exception of the shocks (personally, I'd have gone for black shocks too) The exhaust headers have been wrapped in dark grey, and the new Predator silencers covered with layers of thermo resistant matte black paint. All this darkness contrasts nicely with the gorgeous paint job on the petrol tank, which took it's inspiration from old skool Nascar racecars. The original idea was to paint race numbers on the side panels, but when it came to it, the raw metal texture achieved from cutting plain stainless steel looked the bomb, so it would have been criminal to paint over them. The seat was custom made from scratch to give it a slimmer look than the original, and biege leather was chosen specifically to give it a dirty, old school desert racer vibe. Apart from a fuel injection tune to make up for the removal of filters, the engine remains standard. Pokey enough, yet 100% reliable. So if you find yourself as the new owner of Mighty Blue, they'll be no excuses for not heading off down that remote, dusty, country track to nowhere. And if you are the new owner, can we have a go? Thanks for sharing guys. We love it.