TRIUMPH CAFÉ RACER
John Nutting starts his new CRK kit project.
What’s it like building one of CRK’S custom conversions? Nutters is about to tear apart a perfectly good Triumph tourer to find out. Ouch!
If you’re a fan of big Triumph tourers made at the Hinckley factory from the mid-1990s, look away now. This story is likely to upset you.
Almost two years ago I tried out a special based on the 1200 Trophy that had been built by Ian Saxcoburg, and I was smitten. The machine had been converted using a ready-to-fit kit of parts produced by Ian’s company, Café Racer Kits (CRK), and it was a gorgeous hunk. However, whilst the lusty 1180cc four-cylinder engine dominated the bike with mountains of silky-smooth throttle response, the roadster handlebar provided a relaxed riding position and nimble handling down the sinuous byways in the Isle of Wight where Ian is based.
The CRK Roadster 1200 was just the sort machine I’d been looking for – a conventionally-styled bike with an impressive presence and contemporary custom styling. Think of a British-made version of the Yamaha XJR1300 or Suzuki GSX1400 muscle bikes and you’d be in the right ballpark.
Design engineer Ian started offering his CRK kits in 2012, beginning with the unlikely Honda CX500 for which there were plenty of cheap donor machines available. Owners could strip down and rebuild the shaft-drive V-twin using a range of components including seats, instruments, exhaust systems and wheels, guided by a detailed instruction manual. Everything could be bolted on with basic spannering skills. Three years later and noticing that early Hinckley Triumphs could be picked up for a lot less than a grand, Ian turned his attention to the T300-series triples, and built a prototype based on a Daytona 900, but the Sprint Executive tourer would have been just as suitable a starting point. I
tried the results and was highly impressed, and more so by the following four-cylinder version. I wanted to build one.
Ian was happy to provide the kit, but I couldn’t locate a donor bike. I wondered whether the market had dried up as the T345-series fours were being earmarked for specials. Unlikely, because prices were still rock bottom. I even found a very early, one owner 1990 model, a Trophy 1200 in pristine condition going for £2500. It was too much, and it would have been ridiculous to break it anyway. My expectation was to build a smart custom for around £4500 in total.
Then James Butler, a mate who runs a bike shop nearby, called up last autumn to say he’d taken in a 1200 Trophy as part exchange. Finished in metallic blue, the 1996 machine was an example of the re-designed second version of the Trophy, and appeared with its original touring cases to be in almost mint condition. It had been well looked after in its almost 36,000 miles, started and ran sweetly, so I was interested, although the price was still a bit high for my budget.
I waited so see if anyone else was keen to buy it. Here, after all, was a Britishmade, heavily equipped touring machine capable of hauling a rider, passenger and their luggage for thousands of miles. ‘The bulk is well controlled… when the road turns twisty, the Triumph Trophy 1200 can maintain the pace and give a fun and sporty ride… capable (if slightly big and heavy), classy and, compared to BMW at least, cheap tourer’, stated MCN at the time, so what wasn’t there to like?
Everything, so it seemed. And with James needing the space, he succumbed. “Give me a grand and it’s yours,” he said. Err, yes, I said, wondering if my good wife would go along with it. Strange though this sounds, we discuss everything financial, even what happens in the garage, and even where I’d be able to store the beast. It would mean having to re-house a couple of my other bikes, but a chance chat in the pub revealed that a nearby friend would be clearing his garage for a few
months and would be happy to help. That sorted the space problem, then.
If there are any fans of the late 1200 Trophy out there, I repeat, this is where you turn to another page of CMM. What I wanted wasn’t a complete 1200 Trophy, but its chassis and engine. The bodywork and a few other items would be redundant. This was a subject that Ian Saxcoburg had mentioned, and I confess to having glossed over when writing the story about the CRK 1200 Roadster project.
I totted up what I wouldn’t need, and the list was lengthy. Taking a positive slant, however, the bits weighed a lot too, which I discovered when I was manhandling the bike and nearly got crushed when it caught me unawares. Then I had to decide how to rid myself of all the touring kit. It was too good to scrap, and the idea of trying to sell it on ebay, what with all the faff of advertising
and packaging it, was much more of an effort than I had time for.
It just so happened that James’s mechanic Richard Pedleham is a whizz at this, having set up a side business in breaking bikes and selling the parts. I asked if he would be prepared to sell them, and in return for the proceeds strip the bike to its basics. He agreed, and in just a couple of days, the gleaming blue whale was reduced to its bones, exposing the hefty engine. Gone were the fairing panels, screen, fuel tank, air-box and filter, side-panels, headlamps, seat, silencers, footrests and their supports, and a number of ancillary items.
Triumph’s well-documented design philosophy was exposed in all its glory. The T300 series is based on a frame with a large diameter, curved steel spine to which the front of the engine is attached by a tubular structure below the steering head
and by a box section at the rear. This makes it easier to convert to classic styling with the fitting of CRK’S aluminium alloy and resin fuel tank, sub-frame and seat.
The engine is liquid-cooled with the 16 valves opened by inverted-bucket followers from the double overhead camshafts driven by a chain on the right-hand side. The four cylinders are wet-lined and mounted in the top of the crankcases. By using 76mm cylinders, two stroke lengths (55 and 65mm) and three or four cylinders, capacities of 748cc, 885cc, 998cc and 1180cc are used for the various models. On the Trophy the drive is taken by a gear between the third and fourth cylinders on the right to the wet clutch and six-speed gearbox, which was common to all models. Keeping the width to a minimum, the alternator is mounted above the gearbox.
A novel feature of the four is the use of
two balance shafts driven at double engine speed below the left-hand side of the crankshaft. This design precedes Suzuki’s adoption of the feature and is the reason why the engine is so smooth in operation. For its touring guise, the Trophy’s peak power is reduced from the Daytona 1200’s 147bhp to 108bhp, with a broader spread of torque that will be more suitable for the sit-up riding I want to enjoy.
Once the Trophy was back in the garage I assessed the remnants. The instrument console was retained because I needed the internals of the speedo and rev-meter, but I didn’t need much of the loom attached for the time being. Most of it would be replaced by a more simplified C-box electrical system using solid-state switching and touch buttons.
Off came the cast-alloy handlebars with their heated grips and all the hydraulics to the brakes and clutch. The first indication of how the machine might look was provided by the fitting of an aftermarket Renthal handlebar-mounting kit (provided by friend Gerry, who’d intended it for his Sprint Sport 900), which goes straight on to the mounting points on the top yoke. It looked perfect, and took the original hand levers and master cylinders.
The cooling pipework was drained and taken off. The oil cooler below the radiator was reckoned to be unnecessary without the fairing, so after draining the sump the cooler’s subframe and pipework beneath the engine was unbolted.
CRK provided the bypass connection that bolts straight on. Without the radiator, the wiring loom could be more easily lifted away after the various connector boxes were separated along with the battery, its box, ignition pack and the starter relay. This also meant the set of four Mikuni 36mm flat-slide CV carburettors could be pulled off their stubs, along with the coils and HT leads.
Now that the exhaust system’s four pipes were exposed I could see they’d need some refurbishment, or replacement. They’re well fitted with the usual bolt-on clamps on the cylinder head and a single fitting to the crossover tube under the rear of the gearbox. Access to this is tricky because it is obscured by the centre-stand and rear suspension’s single shock linkage.the linkage is a massively designed arrangement with needle roller bearings and grease points, so is unlikely to need attention, apart from the fitting of an aftermarket YSS shock from Wemoto, that enables the ride height to be lowered.
I’ll also need to find a new headlamp that suits the style I’m looking for. I’d like a large 8-inch Bosch of the type that Laverda used for its 3C triples, but prices
are horrendously high, so something like those fitted to Yamaha’s SR500, XJ650 or XV1000 will also fit the bill.
Next step is the fitting of CRK’S new sub-frame, which is shorter, and its associated battery box and fittings. That means the rear sub-frame has to be cut off!
Remember, I did warn you that this might become dramatic and gory. Next time: wielding the angle grinder and the results! cmm