Well enough of all that personal crap and it’s time to get on with the feature bike at hand. Man of few words, Mr. Blaufeder quickly describes TT’s build as “a ’66 Bonneville bobber, blue with white stripes, white solo seat, blah, blah, blah . . .” I think that’s a little too short and sweet of a description so I push Steve for a bit more words. “We built the bike here at TT Cycles’ World Headquarters in the (toxic) glowing state of New Jersey. When out-of-towners show up here at night and are amazed they can see the Aurora Borealis. We have to tell them that’s just the Exxon refinery burning off fumes.” Well we were still a wee bit off topic about the bike, so I quizzed him further and this time he delivered as only Steve can deliver. “We built the bike for a customer known as Gary M. who lives in Melbourne, Australia and he told me the bike is going to be used as a rider in the city with some jaunts into the hills.

It took us about three months to build the bike and Gary M. had some ideas that we incorporated into the bike,” said Steve. “He wanted fender struts so we opted to do aluminum instead of our default stainless steel. He also wanted some engine performance mods so we figured aluminum would weigh less than stainless. As for the aforementioned performance mods, aside from the obligatory 750cc big-bore kit, there are lots of Old School race mods in the motor like shaved timing gears, lightened rocker arms, solid rocker arm spacers, a few secret things that I can’t talk about even to Dennis, and my all-time favorite, a hollowed out transmission layshaft.” All of that stuff along with the usual comprehensive TT rebuild.

Now that I finally got him going, he had plenty to say adding, “Other features on the bike are the nice freshly-laced wheels, the leather solo seat in white, 2″-under forks, a 6″-extended bolt-on hardtail, UK- issue BSA handlebars, stretched 5.75″ headlight, and a vintage-style drilled tail light. The flat rear fender has had a nice radius cut applied to the end which is a very pleasing contrast to the squared-off look of the vintage-style Shinko tire. Of course all the modern electrical upgrades have been made, Boyer ignition, electronic regulator, etc. . . . The bike went together pretty smoothly. We just had to deal with a pesky little air leak on one of the intake manifolds. Swapping the left intake manifold out took care of it. As always, our main parts supplier, British Cycle Supply, easily and quickly filled all of our parts orders ensuring an easy build.”

“For me, my favorite part of the bike is the paint. We knew the customer was interested in some kind of blue. As luck would have it, I drove my 1972 Chevelle SS to work that day. Dennis looked at the car and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we paint it to match your car?’ So there you have it, Mulsanne Blue with a white SS stripe. Happy coincedence, the SS stripe is very similar to the stock stripe of the original Triumph paint job used on the gas tank in 1966!” said Steve. “I wish I had taken a picture of it with my car. Dennis killed it on this one. The white stripes are laser straight and the metallic in the blue is flawless. Our favorite pinstriper, Greg Ross, did some nice silver pinstriping on the white stripes. Oh, the hollow transmission layshaft. I love that too!”

So there you have it Triumph freaks and fanatics, straight from the horse’s mouth or in this case, Steve Blaufeder’s cake hole. For more information on getting your own surprisingly affordable and even more surprisingly reliable, but not surprisingly wicked fun to ride and own Triumph, please visit www.ttcycles.net.