Custom Bike of the Day
It’s not often you find a Triumph Trident-Engined Custom
by Harry Fisher, onThe best custom bikes are just a little bit unusual, if still beautifully executed and completely gorgeous. This Triumph Trident-engined creation is the work of Japanese master builder Kengo Kimura.
Three Arrows by Kengo Kimura
While Triumph-engined custom bikes are pretty common, builds using the three-cylinder Trident engine from the early 1970s are few and far between. Looking at this bike, which was first seen on www.bikeexif.com it’s hard to understand why.
It could be down to the relative paucity of Tridents to choose from - just 28,000 were built between its introduction in 1968 and its demise in 1976, by which time the original T150 model had been uprated to the T160, with forward-sloping cylinders, like the similar BSA Rocket 3.
Kengo Kimura of Heiwa in Hiroshima sourced the engine in America and treated it to a complete rebuild, keeping it pretty much stock, apart from the adoption of Boyer Bransden electronic ignition. Triple exhaust headers run down to the right of the bike, ending just underneath the kick start without mufflers.
The frame and swing arm are completely custom and hand made, while the front forks and rear shocks are Showa units. The front brake is a minute drum of unidentified origin while the rear drum is from a Kawasaki.
Virtually everything has been hand fabricated by Kimura-San, from the triple clamps to the handlebars and the gas tank and seat/oil tank unit. Paint colour is a dark navy blue candy, while the frame is finished in black. Paintwork was done by another Hiroshima company, N2Auto.
It is one of the best and most unusual builds we have seen for a long time. It is four years since Kimura-san’s last build but if this is the quality of work he is turning out, it was definitely worth the wait.
Images by Kazuo Matsumoto
