The Triumph Hoxton? Dutch's Thruxton Catalogue Custom

Here at the Bike Shed, we love a custom cafe racer, but most people don't turn up at the shed on an expensive custom motorcycle, they're going to turn up on something like this. This is the Triumph Thruxton, it's the non-R version, and the journalists love these bikes, we love them, and by all accounts, the public love them too, because they are selling like proverbial hotcakes. And you can see why, it's a fantastic looking machine, straight out of the box. But what we wanted to know was, how much can you do if you throw the catalogue at one of these bikes? So we created something. This is our Triumph Hoxton, which is basically a standard Triumph Thruxton with the best bits of the catalogue thrown at it. And let's start with the most obvious bit, this really beautiful fairing. This is based on that kind of standard cafe racer, old school, kind of 1970s Ducati, what they'd call a dolphin nose fairing, and they've done a really good job of integrating this into the bike. It looks like it was always meant to be there, even though it's a bolt-on part, and even though we've attached a black one onto the bike with a silver tank, it looks absolutely superb. It's really rigid, it's really solid, it's really, really well made, and it does actually protect you from a lot of wind blast when you ride this at speed. Other small parts, which all add up to the overall look, these adjustable levers, these barrel-shaped grips, which are actually really nice to hold on to, they're not just a fashion accessory, and we've fitted aftermarket LED indicators, which I think are actually supposed to go on the Triumph Explorer. Obviously, very important on any bike is making the right noise, and this bike has the official Vance & Heinz aftermarket pipes for it in this stainless steel. They look superb, they sound fantastic, although I'd like them to be a little bit louder. Also, just added onto the bike are small touches, badges and pretend inspection covers and various parts that actually I've hijacked from the Triumph Bobber, but I think look really good on here. And there is one place where we've cheated a little bit. Obviously, we've decided to call this bike the Hoxton, we wanted to write that on the side panel, but also to try and reduce the bulbous bulk of this piece here, we've actually drilled it and added a whole lot of pretend ventilation holes, and that really is just for the look, and that's not something you can buy in the catalogue, but it's certainly something you could do at home with a Dremel. Further back along the bike, we've fitted Triumph Ohlins Blackline shocks, and these are pretty much the same shocks as you get on the Triumph Thruxton R, but this is part of Ohlins new Blackline, and really what they're trying to say is you can have high quality suspension and it doesn't have to have a bright yellow spring on it or be anodised gold. Next up, this seat, this is actually the comfort seat, and I have to say, when it comes to design, I think Triumph have built one of the most beautiful back ends on any standard factory bike that I've ever seen. It's a superb looking rear, and it really has that look of a proper sort of cafe racer seat, it really looks aftermarket, but actually this is pretty much the same as the seat that comes with the standard bike. But to really show the rear end of the bike at its best, I've also fitted this tail tidy. Now this isn't made by Triumph, this is actually made by a company in America called New Rage Cycles, and the best thing about this is it emulates the Tron bike, which was actually a Ducati Sport Classic 1000 in the remake of the Tron film, with an LED strip with the indicators built into that, and I have to show you what that looks like. Whether it's to your taste or not, I don't know, but I think this is absolutely fantastic, and it really shows off the back end of the bike to the best effect. Now this is the mod which I'm most proud of, and also the cheapest, and nothing to do with Triumph. This rubber strip is exactly the kind of rubber strip you probably put on an old school 1970s Ford Escort, so that when you open the door it doesn't scratch your neighbour's car. And it is just basically a U-shaped rubber strip, and what I've done is I've just covered up the seam of the tank, just to sort of make it go away. Some custom builders will properly de-seam a tank on a bike, and what they do is they cut the seam off, they weld up any holes, and they smooth it all down. And it's a process that's expensive, takes time, and quite often doesn't work, and you can end up with a leaky petrol tank. What I opted to do instead was make the whole thing disappear just by covering it up in black rubber. After that, it's really about the look in terms of colourways. I've gone for black wheels on this bike. For no particular reason, we fitted a gold chain. I think maybe that shows my age, that gold chains were best when I was a kid. But also, this paint job actually isn't an official Triumph colour, this is actually from the Triumph Tiger, but it's not something you'd normally find on a Bonneville. And then the final crowning piece is this Monza cap. So what you're looking at is a bike that you could actually go to a dealer and order, almost exactly as it is now, apart from perhaps the tail tidy, and this could be delivered to your door. It's a bike that you can get serviced at a dealer, it's a bike where every part is homologated, and it's a bike that you can't get into any trouble for having any of these parts. But all of them are going to be covered under warranty, and it's a fantastic looking thing that really shows that there's an awful lot you can do just by dipping into the catalogue and taking advantage of what's already out there. So here's a reminder of where we started. This is the before, and this is the after.