Many years ago, it would be at the very first Throttle Roll event that Tom would find the motivation he needed to finally start a Bobber build of his own after what seemed like an age of wanting to get this project off the ground.
A week after the event, once his hangover had subsided, Tom went for a visit to Trojan Classic Motorcycle Parts to get started on his build. Trojan are no strangers to classic bobbers, and have had a hand in many high quality builds over the years. After purchasing a Factory Metal Works frame, along with a ton of other parts, the build had officially started.
“I love bobbers. The simplicity of them is great, there’s really nothing to them as it’s about taking away from a stock bike instead of adding additional parts.” Having built Hot Rods and Muscle Cars before, this would be Tom’s first motorcycle build. The approach was much in the same way as these previous machine builds, only with 2 less wheels. How hard could it be? “I fortunately also got a lot of help from Pete at Trojan’s – I don’t think I could have built the bike without his help and advice!”
Once Tom had worked on the initial design of how he wanted the bike to look, the pile of parts were sent off to Ken over at Cobra Craft to get all the fabrication work completed along with welding. The 1953 650cc Triumph Engine was given to the capable hand of Pete from Trojan for a complete rebuild. Meanwhile, Harley from RB Racing was getting to work on the paint scheme, which would be a subdued grey, with a rich red for the wheels and tank motif. Kyle of Smith Concepts would delicately paint the graphics on the tank and lettering by hand.
It would be an amalgamation of skilled and creative people that would help Tom achieve his dream concept for this machine, with heavy 1950’s inspiration being the driving force. Once their designated professional completed all the pieces, it would be time to put it all together. “I put the whole bike together in my kitchen an hour before Throttle Roll 2016, just in time for it to be part of the custom bike display. The build went fairly smoothly, with hardly any hiccups along the way. Thankfully due to having a reliable team at work, and taking my time in making sure everything was done right. I love the red wheels; the bike has this ‘50’s classic Hot Rod feel to it. The end product is what I had pictured in the very beginning, so I’m definitely happy with the final result!”