Building a custom motorcycle isn’t exactly a walk in the park. But turning customization into a viable full-time business is even harder. So it’s uplifting to see custom shops enjoying big measures of success.
Spain’s Tamarit Motorcycles are in a good space right now. They opened four years ago as a two-man operation, and built just five custom motorcycles and created five bolt-on Triumph parts in their first year. Now the team is 14-strong, there are 179 parts in their catalog, and over 50 bikes in their portfolio—25 of which were built this year alone. That’s some smart business acumen.
This fantastic cafe-stroke-bobber is the 50th motorcycle to roll out of the workshop just outside Alicante. Called ‘Stalker,’ this semicentennial celebration is based on a 2006 carb-model Triumph Thruxton 900. It was built for a client in Mallorca who had recently spent time in Thailand, and discovered its blossoming cafe racer scene.
A visit to Zeus Customs helped him make up his mind, and he soon dialed Tamarit’s number to put in an order.
Being new to the ‘alt.moto’ world, Tamarit’s client wasn’t a hundred percent sure what he wanted. But after some thoughtful renders, and referencing another project on the Tamarit bench, the final design started to materialize.
Tamarit exclusively works on Triumphs, so they picked the older Thruxton 900 as a donor—for its old school carbureted feel.
With all their parts being Triumph-specific too, there’s the temptation to just slap on a bunch of bits and call it a day. But Tamarit strive to make each bike unique, so they’ve blended in a number of one-off touches.
“We want to build better motorcycles than when we began, when we simply used to install certain parts,” the guys tell us. “There are parts here that we don’t offer in our open catalog. We want to keep a distinction between customers who buy parts from us and those who commission a whole bike.”
Part of the mission here was to perfect the stance of the Thruxton—so they slammed it as much as they could without making it uncomfortable for their tall client. They shaved an inch and a half off the forks, and fitted a shorter set of Hagon Nitro shocks out back.
Then they fitted chunky Victory Classic tires, capturing some of that fat wheel style spotted at Zeus. (And since the roads are well-made and it hardly rains in Mallorca aside from winter, the sawtooth-tread rubber will do just fine.)
The frame’s rear end was cut and shut, with a neat, up-kicked loop to round it off. It holds a bobbed rear fender, and has a skinny LED taillight integrated into it. The new custom-made saddle is especially nice; it takes style cues from both bobbers and cafe racers, and has just enough space to accommodate two… at a squeeze.
This reworking left the Thruxton’s license plate homeless, though. So Tamarit built a one-off bracket to hold it further down, behind the rear wheel. It also houses a pair of Motogadget turn signals.
Up in the cockpit, the crew machined a custom triple clamp to hold a Motogadget speedo and a row of warning LEDs. They also installed clip-ons, Biltwell Inc. grips, KustomTech levers, and Motogadget switches, bar-end mirrors and turn signals.
The LED headlight is from their catalog, as are the spring-like covers on the upper fork legs.
Other catalog bolt-ons include the stubby front fender and bracket, sump guard, foot controls and an ignition relocation kit (it’s on the right side of the bike now).
The Thruxton has been rewired around a Motogadget m.Unit control box too, and the cutaway side panels are Tamarit items—designed to show off the K&N air filters. A set of the shop’s own ‘Speedster’ exhausts rounds out the spec sheet perfectly.
For color, Tamarit have opted for a classy crimson red, with a luxurious satin metal finish on the engine parts.
It’s a stylish and timeless build, and looks right at home on the hilly roads of the largest Balearic island. It’s also a reminder that perseverance pays off—so here’s to the next 50 machines to roll out of the Tamarit workshop. ¡Felicidades, chicos!
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