Tamarit Jade is a highly customized 2008 Triumph Thruxton that was built by the Spanish team at Tamarit Motorcycles as their 100th custom. The build required over 640 hours of labour and a slew of parts that were developed specifically for this bike.
The world of custom motorcycles is a broad spectrum, from casual homebuilt creations using bolt-on parts from a catalogue, to the far more ambitious builds from the likes of Walt Siegl, Max Hazan, and Revival Cycles. The Thruxton you see here belongs firmly in that latter category.
Fast Facts – Tamarit Jade: A Custom Thruxton
- When Tamarit Motorcycles were approaching their 100th custom motorcycle build they realized they wanted to do something special. Rather than wait for a client order, they decided to build an entirely unique motorcycle, and then offer it for sale with Artcurial at Retromobile in Paris.
- This custom build started with a 2008 Triumph Thruxton, the last of the carburetor models before the switch to electronic fuel injection to meet emissions regulations. In stock form the Thruxton produces 68 bhp and 53 lb ft of torque, with a dry weight of 451 lbs (205 kgs).
- Tamarit Motorcycles stripped the donor bike and began a rebuild that would take over 640 hours. A new monoshock rear end was added, the engine was rebuilt with upgrades to the valves and crankshaft, and new custom bodywork was designed and fabricated.
- The completed bike is now due to roll across the auction block with Artcurial on the 18th of March at the Retromobile auction in Paris with a price guide of $56,500 – $79,100 USD.
The Triumph Thruxton 900
When the Triumph Thruxton 900 was introduced in 2004 as a high performance version of the Triumph Bonneville it proved immediately popular. It was named after the original Triumph Thruxton Bonneville from 1965, a rare production-class racer built in 1965 by the Triumph factory race department.
This is the original Triumph Thruxton from 2004, it’s essentially a modified version of the Bonneville designed to go a little faster and evoke cafe racer styling from the 1960s. Image courtesy of Triumph.
This first Thruxton was named after the Thruxton Circuit in England, where Triumph had won the top three places in the hotly contested Thruxton 500 mile endurance race.
A New Thruxton For A New Millennium
The modern Thruxton released in 2004 drew much of its styling inspiration from its predecessor. It was based on the popular Bonneville T120 platform that had been introduced in the year 2000 with a parallel twin engine, an integrated gearbox, and a duplex cradle frame.
The Thruxton was developed as a higher performance motorcycle than the Bonneville, which was aimed more at casual riders, commuters, and cruisers. The engine was enlarged from 790cc to 865cc, power increased from 62 bhp and 44 ft lbs of torque to 68 bhp at 7,250 rpm with 53 lb ft of torque at 5,750 rpm.
Though certainly not a superbike by modern standards the Triumph Thruxton offered vintage-style thrills and good looks with modern reliability. It was one of the leading lights of the “Modern Classic” motorcycle genre and it helped inspire countless other manufacturers to release their own retro models.
This is the reworked Triumph Thruxton by Tamarit Motorcycles, every part of the original bike has been either replaced or modified.
Tamarit Jade – The 100th Tamarit Motorcycle
When it came time for the team at Tamarit Motorcycles to build their 100th custom they knew they wanted to do something special.
Tamarit was founded by Quique and Matías in the Elche municipality of Spain in 2015. In the years since they’ve grown to become one of the largest and best known custom motorcycle and motorcycle part companies in the world – a remarkable feat given that it’s been only 7 years.
Once they had stripped the donor bike back to the bare essentials they pulled the motor apart and refreshed it, including the fitment of upgraded valves and a new crankshaft. A new swing arm was designed and the original rear subframe was removed to make way for a custom monoshock rear end.
The leather seat now floats above the monoshock, and the seat frame has discrete LED brake/blinkers integrated at the rear. The original fuel tank was kept, it was repainted to match the bike of course and it now has leather knee pads on either side to match the seat and grips.
The new monoshock rear end makes use of a chromed Hagon shock absorber mounted in such a way that it provides a direct link between the headstock and the upper shock mounting location.
Interestingly the original oil cooler was removed and replaced with an oil cooing system that sees the oil fed into the front two frame down tubes, these down tubes have had heat sink fins added and they now take care of oil cooling duties while giving the bike a unique look.
A pair of K&N pod filters replace the restrictive factory airbox and a new 2-into-1 exhaust was fitted, after which the twin carburetors were tuned to match.
The next task was perhaps the most important, the team at Tamarit set about designing entirely new upper and lower fairings for the build. They started with a clay model which was turned into a fiberglass mould, and from this the fiberglass parts were created.
The completed bike is a testament to the work they do over at Tamarit and the good news is that you can now buy it, if you have somewhere in the region of $57,000 – $80,000 USD to spare and you can get to Paris for Retromobile on the 18th of March.
If you’d like to read more about this bike or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.
Images: Tamarit Motorcycles via Artcurial
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
