CUSTOMS
This month it’s a triumvirate of custom success from the Triumph ’tracker that’s putting in big miles all year round to a genuinely usable Harley via an XS650…
Most projects aren’t for riding, but these three cope with daily commutes.
MIKE BILTCLIFFE LIVES in the Worcester village of Badsey and has a dream job as a wholesale wine merchant. Only thing is, his Reading HQ is 70 miles away but as a committed biker he chooses to commute there most days and until a couple of years ago did this on a 1992 Triumph Trophy, complete with full fairing and panniers. But being a fan of the burgeoning custom scene, he contacted his neighbour, Ben Hall at Valespeed Motorcycles with the idea of re-purposing his Trophy café racer-style. ‘Trouble is,’ recalls Ben, ‘the Trophy’s headstock is tall, which isn’t ideal for a café-racer which also mightn’t be comfortable for a 140-mile commute, so I persuaded Mike to go for the more ergonomically suitable ’tracker look.’ ‘Suitable’ also meant tractable, so after a full strip and re-build the torquey triple was left stock apart from mesh filters and reverse cone silencers which Ben adapted for the soda-blasted exhaust system. And being an early engine it has the removable cover to get at the starter motor clutch – a relatively fragile item which requires a crankcase split on later models if it needs replacement. After the rebuild it made 86bhp on the dyno: ‘I always dyno our builds to sort out any weaknesses before they cause problems on the road,’ explains Ben. Ben, who also welds-up space-frame chassis for classic Jaguars, cut off the rear subframe and replaced it with a more minimal one in 5/8th high-tensile tubing reinforced underneath with 17 gauge sheeting. This is topped by a seat crafted in automotive quality leather, i.e. water- and fire-proof, which hides re-worked electrics and a lithium battery – unusual for such a large engine, ‘but it does the job,’ assures Ben. Q/D side-panels were fabricated around the air-filters and the tank was filched from a 125cc Gilera Cougar, cut and re-channeled. The wheels, though stock, were stripped, sprayed metalflake silver then treated to orange lacquer, which offsets nicely the Rover metallic British Racing Green that Valespeed applied in-house.