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Billionaire. Has a nice ring to it, usually. That is until images of gambling fat cats in pinstripe suits spring to mind. Each to their own and all that but we prefer human stories of endeavour, and shed based ones all the better. At Bike Shed London we met a bunch of awesome people, one being John Bloor. A chap who started his working life as a plasterer and in 1983 scraped together £150,000 to buy Triumph Motorcycles from the receivers. Let us all rejoice that the man must have infinite vision, unwavering determination and balls the size of planets. Last year one in every five new motorcycles bought in the U.K. was a Triumph and globally nearly 55,000 units were built and sold.
O.K. so this is starting to sound like some poorly prepared investor presentation but we have a lot to thank John and his team for. Without this modern base for customisers, builders and shed fettlers to work on a large void would exist in the current custom scene. The Bonneville and Scrambler are so frequent on our pages for very good reason, they’re a great bike, period.
Two other guys we met were Jose and Tito from Macco Motors in Cadiz, Spain. What they lack in comparative zeros on the bank balance they more than make up for in charisma and craftsmanship. They don’t just build Triumphs but when they do, the formula works and customers keep ordering more. The Foxy Lady was supposed to be a build for the guys to enjoy for themselves, but customers pay the bills so the spec changed to suit.
The donor in question is a 2010 Bonnie T100 EFi, that was offered in very good original condition. Jose and Tito don’t hold stock but prefer to find the right donor to match the owner’s budget and expectations. It’s now commonplace for a prospective customer to source a bike from their home market, ship to the builder of choice for the work to be carried out, and then ship it back, reducing the time and admin of re-registering the bike. Although here in the U.K. the DVLA are pretty well set up for importing and the process is electronic and simple. This Foxy Lady is bound for home shores but a sister bike will soon be sent across the pond to Miami.
One component that is subject to the budget constraints of mass manufacturing in a competitive global market is the forks. Gold anodised Scando-suspenders suggest quality to the masses but the associated costs of fitting such exotic parts wouldn’t yield the aforementioned sales figures, so the Bonneville leaves Hinkley rolling on a perfectly good set of conventional forks, fit for the majority of real world situations. Custom customers are a bit more demanding so a pair of upsidedowners were liberated from a Ducati Monster 1100 EVO, complete with Brembo radials, Free Spirits triple trees enable simple fitment, and look the business black anodised matching the painted fork legs. They might not be gold either but the rear shocks are by Öhlins and fully adjustable.
To give that second Brembo disc a home a Thunderbird hub was laced to a 19″ rim and the spindle re-machined, this thing should stop on a Peseta. Metzeler Tourance dual sport rubber grip well in all conditions and come with just the slightest whiff of off-road without screaming faux-scrambler. The tall front wheel, squat forks and de-cluttered cockpit give a hunkered-down, beefy look. We like that. Biltwell bars with LSL clubman grips, a single mini speedo, race levers and a Bates headlight sit well alongside the stock switchgear.
The Triumph subframe is an easy one to plug the ends and leave as is, but it always looks infinitely neater to run a loop to keep the job tidy, a kick up helps visually and allows the rear fender to nestle higher up for a bit more clearance. The guys opted for real farmyard leather for the saddle, rather than the futuristic alternative, which should become supple and marked with age. You can’t put a price on real patina.
The fuel tank was stripped bare and re-coated in matt black, with the side sections receiving just a few layers of lacquer and a gold pin stripe. Subtle and classy for one, but also the raw scallops of steel help to shrink the sometimes bulbous Bonnie tank.
The sweeping yet sectional stainless exhausts were designed and fabricated by Roberto from GR Exhausts. In a bid to steer clear of the more obvious and classic reverse megaphones Roberto has integrated oval versions of their GP end cans. The raw finish of the super neat welds help add that all important new but used look to the finished bike. Not only that, it’ll sound fantastic with the baffles pulled.
The Foxy Lady is now loose on U.K. roads, ready for the British Summer, which I think was here between 10:37 this morning and 13:19 this afternoon, I do hope the new owner enjoyed himself. It might sound a touch pretentious laying thanks at the feet of a shrewd business man for the steady stream of fantastic custom Triumphs we’ve seen over the last few years, but seriously, look at the pictures above. Spreadsheets, bank managers, bore-mongers from Brussels and the press probably would have seen a radiator fitted to this icon some time ago. We are very, very glad John didn’t listen.
Jose and Tito will take on builds of other marques but as demonstrated here, completely nail the Bonnie and Scrambler. To reach the guys head to the Macco Motors website, follow the progress of other builds on the Facebook page or wistfully daydream on Instagram.
As usual, fantastic photos by Sergio Ibarra from Semimate agency.
via the bike shed
