I can’t say I’ve ever seen that on a Harley or any other bike I’ve ever seen and the closest we ever get to it is maybe wearing a T-shirt of another brand of bike we own, but there’s no passive/aggressive bragging going on. Motorcycle people just love motorcycles and a lot of Harley riders also own other brands besides the big H-D. We just don’t make a big deal about it like Mr. Escalade and Mr. Porsche. We just own what we like and ride the hell out of them. The day I see a Harley-Davidson with “My other bike is a BMW” on the back, I’ll know the motorcycling world has gone to hell.

   Now, to make sure you got me right, I don’t have any problem with anybody riding whatever fits their fancy and the damn cute Triumph bobber you’re looking at is owned by a true Harley Freak by the name of Jay Marshall. When he’s not out riding his radical big wheel bagger which he really does, including hauling the wife as his passenger, he’s got something else at home to screw around on when he’s feeling like a nut. That it would be as completely different from his bagger as possible is not a surprise as he obviously was looking for something entirely different. One quick look at this Triumph bobber and you realize he’s done exactly that. That thing looks like a blast to squirt around town on where his rad Harley Street Glide just might be more of a handful.

    The two rides couldn’t be more diametrically opposed. The Triumph weighs well less than half of what Jay’s bagger does and there’s not a doo-dad on there other than an engine, frame and two wheels so to speak. Jay’s Harley has everything but the proverbial kitchen sink on it and that’s expected in a custom bagger. But what’s a boy to do when you just want to jam around town and make some noise like your inner hooligan desires? In Jay’s case, it was build a Triumph bobber that you could never miss and weren’t likely to diss. And, as you can see, this is no ratty old Triumph on its last legs, but a ground-up build more than worthy of being featured in Barnett’s Magazine Online.

    If you’re building a Triumph chopper, one of the must-go places for advice and custom parts is Lucas Joyner’s The Factory Metal Works in Salisbury, North Carolina. Lucas’ bikes have been regularly featured on Barnett’s over the years, here’s a couple of them, The Nine O’Clock Gun and Four Lines On Two Wheels, to check out. As you can see, Lucas has got this Triumph bobber thing down to a science so it was only fitting Jay approached them when he wanted a hardtail frame for his bike. TFMW does great hardtail jobs besides building complete frames too so if your Triumph needs serious framework, they’re worth hooking up with.

   The frame on Jay’s bike is not a converted hardtail, but a full-on ground up build with just a little stretch and a basically stock rake for sprightly handling around town. Nothing fancy, no billet plates and a minimum of tubing was involved. It’s about as whipishly clean and lean as a good chopper deserves. Same goes for the TFMW springer fork made especially for this application. It too is clean, simple and purposeful like all the other TFMW products I’ve seen.

   Same goes for the wheels which are nothing too billet blingy, but they are heavily chromed laced wheels. A 16-inch back wheel sports an Avon Safety Mileage MkII 5.00 -16 and looks suspiciously like a vintage Firestone Deluxe Champion. Up front, a classic unto itself, the Avon Speedmaster MkII ribbed front tire has been gracing front ends of 21-inch wheel chops since, like, forever. Either Jay lives where there’s not much traffic or he’s just got big ones as the only brake on board is the original Triumph rear drum brake which was never known as a great stopper, but it is here. When you’ve only got one brake, you have to believe it’s a good one.

    As far as the fabled 1969 650cc unit construction Brit twin goes, it’s one of the last and best. After a thorough rebuild, Jay spent some time bringing all the other stuff up to snuff. The raw aluminum block has been polished to show quality as well as the other stock engine covers except one. The Triumph’s primary cover got a dose of color straight from the rest of the bike. With everything else on the engine polished to a blingtastic fare-thee-well, other than the black cylinders, I’m not sure how the primary ended up painted, but it did. Artistic license by the owner I guess.

    A single Mikuni carb keeps things simple instead of having to dick with Amal carbs and the “loss” of power compared to dual carbs will never be missed in casual riding. It should help this kick-only bike to start easier so that’s an immediate benefit every time it’s fired up. Toss in an electronic ignition and this should be a consistent one-kicker. And, there’s no way I’m not mentioning those right-exit header pipes or the one-off mid foot controls that are anchored far to the rear compared to their eventual location. I like that as it makes the foot peg area look like it’s got dual foot levers on each side.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Jay once again turned to TFMW for his Wassell-style fuel tank with dos filler caps. The Factory Metal Works has a lot of different, yet somewhat similar Wasell-type fuel tanks in stock. No sense spending a lot of time looking around for the same thing when you’ve got it right there. Same goes for the simple cylindrical oil tank hanging under the sprung white saddle, probably has TFMW on it too. Either way, they both look classically awesome on this build. And, we can’t overlook the raised center rib rear fender that says “Brit bike” more than any other. Some nice fender stay work too, Jay.

    So does the color of this bike somehow seem very familiar to you? If you like late model Corvettes it would be no surprise as I think of that as a Corvette color. It’s what GM calls Atomic Orange and for once, the paint name is right on par. The Atomic Orange was craftfully laid on by a young painter worth keeping an eye on. Brandon Helms, owner of The Paint Shop in Midland, North Carolina, not only shot this but made sure there was enough clear coat to fall into. It’s what I’d consider a “loud” color, but since this is a loud bobber, I’d say it fits right in.

  So right now, Jay Marshall has the hard choice of which bike to ride, the Harley bagger or the Triumph bobber. Like the song of the 1970’s Almond Joy/Mounds commercial said, “Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t.” Now all Jay has to do is decide whether he feels like a nut or not and chose the appropriate bike. It should be an easy decision with no losers.