The modern day Triumph Bonneville no doubt owes its popularity to its looks. It’s a handsome machine out the box, with a lot of room to tweak it further and make it look even better. But what separates a lightly modded Bonnie from a professional custom job?
This 2011 Triumph Bonneville T100 holds the answer. Built by Marcelo Obarrio and Germán Karp at STG Tracker in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it’s a great example of how experience, good taste and a sharp eye can create a custom bike that just looks ‘right.’
The brief for this project was fairly straightforward. STG’s client asked for a lowered, chunky retro standard, pared back to the minimum. The Bonneville T100 donor was supplied in stock condition, save for a pair of shorter rear shocks of undetermined origin.
STG pulled it off by adjusting the bike’s stance, modifying some of its OEM parts, and adding a couple of custom-made items. A carefully selected set of bolt-on goodies—some from STG’s own stash—finish the build off.
With the aftermarket shocks already lowering the bike to the client’s satisfaction, STG turned their attention to the wheels. The original 19F/17R rims were ditched, and the hubs relaced to 18” rims with 4.5-inch-wide sawtooth tires.
Higher up, the guys trimmed back the Triumph’s subframe and welded in a kicked-up rear loop. A custom-trimmed seat sits up top, covered in solid and perforated leather. A modified Royal Enfield fender finishes off the tail.
STG kept the original Triumph fuel tank, but swapped out the front fender for a shorter custom unit. Then they modified the stock side covers with deep cutouts, to show off the K&N filters that replace the airbox. It wasn’t a simple hack job though; take a closer look, and you’ll notice that the crew finished each cutout off with a lip, to minimize the gap between it and the air filter.
Up front, STG installed a grilled headlight, mounted on shorter brackets. Sitting just above it is a tiny round speedo from Motogadget, attached to a handmade mounting plate. Marcelo and Germán cleaned the font up even more, by relocating the Triumph’s unsightly rectifier to the frame’s down tubes.
A pair of LED turn signals are discreetly bolted to the headlight brackets. The lighting at the rear is even more subtle—STG integrated the rear turn signals with the shock housings, and tucked a pair of LED taillights between the fender and frame rails.
The wide tracker handlebars come from STG’s own online shop. They wear new grips and vintage-style micro-switches, with the wiring routed to inside the bars. One of the client’s requests was to swap the foot controls for the rear-sets from a Triumph Thruxton, so that was done too.
There’s more work hiding under the hood. The guys rewired the bike, installed a Lithium-ion battery, and tucked everything into a hidden electronics tray. While they were at it, they ditched some of the pesky emissions controls, and added a Power Commander chip to squeeze a little more pep out of the Bonneville’s parallel twin motor.
The swooping exhaust system is custom too, with a brushed chrome finish that we don’t see enough of on builds. A CNC-machined sprocket cover adds a final touch. Like many of the parts on this bike, it’s been finished in black—which makes the Bonneville’s distinctive polished engine covers pop even more.
When it came time to paint the bike, the client asked for British Green. But STG felt that would be a little too predictable—so they asked for some leeway. Working with their usual painter, they wrapped the bike in a dark turquoise hue with a subtle flake effect, offset by white accents.
Perfectly proportioned and neatly finished, STG’s Bonneville is as tidy as they come. If you’re planning to customize your own Bonneville, we won’t blame you for sticking this one on your wall as inspiration.
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