Think the café racer scene is running out of thrust? Think again, because as long as we have brainiacs like Wenley Andrews, we’ll have all the power we need
The morbidly obese and slightly long-in-the-tooth Triumph Rocket III has been a favourite of the morbidly obese, slightly long-in-the-tooth riding sect for the past 13 years. As it’s a cruiser, many owners don’t bother going down the custom route for their rides. Modified examples of the 2300cc beast usually just feature a pallet’s worth of matte black paint and around four hundred yards of exhaust wrap. But now Sydney-based builder Wenley Andrews has worked his café racer magic on a 2006 Rocket III and given it the looks to match the gigantic, torquey engine underneath.
Now, I said the Rocket is morbidly obese. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but in stock trim the bike weighs 350kg wringing wet. Yet all that heft and road-going presence was part of the appeal for head workshop provocateur, Wenley. He’d had his eye out for one for a while.
“I’ve always wanted to build a Rocket III,” he says. “I knew it’d have loads of power and it’d be really beefy. Little did I know the power would be outright ridiculous.”
Having ridden one, I can confirm he’s right. Despite being the absolute antithesis of what I find appealing in most motorcycles, there is something charming about that fat triple powerplant. Charming in a medieval, roaring, arm-ripping kind of way. But there’s no getting around the size and weight of the thing. So the first thing that Wenley looked to do was to shave some of that excess physical and visual weight off the bike.
What’s it based on?
Long considered to be the bike at the very top of Badass Mountain, Triumph’s Rocket III was originally designed in 1998 to take on a US market that was loving big cruisers. Seeing their competition as Harley’s Ultra Glide and Honda’s Goldwing the design team, led by John Mockett, initially thought the answer was to be a 1600cc performance cruiser.
By the time they had settling on a longitudinally mounted triple, Yamaha had launched its 1670cc Road Star Warrior and Honda had revealed its VTX1800. Never ones to take a capacity challenge lying down, Hinckley settled on a rather ludicrous 2294cc lump to see off the competition.
Initially struggling to find a niche, Triumph refocused its efforts by marketing the Rocket as more of a musclebike or streetfighter in a similar way to Yamaha’s V-Max. It’s also been accessorised into various sub-genres, including Roadster, Classic and Tourer models.
What’s it got?
In standard trim the Triumph Rocket III is a porky, rounded middle-aged cruiser with pretty uninspiring looks. But Wenley’s café take on the English staple has its gut tucked firmly into its pants and chest puffed out into a heavyweight brawler of a custom that does that monstrous engine justice.
When one massive air intake just isn’t enough
The main culprit for bike’s visual weight sat right on top of the frame – the bike’s factory tank. It was ditched, but before Wenley’s bespoke tank was sent off for paint a new air intake had to be fabbed up to get the airbox sitting neatly alongside it. The team wanted to get the fit nice and tight. A twin intake was made in house, sucking air through two K&N pods. Then off went the tank to be painted and all eyes turned to the bike’s fat rear end.
Wenley decided to use a spare seat from a Triumph Thruxton on the rear, but fitting it proved to be a little bit tricky, so he and the team threw the baby out with the bathwater and made up a whole new subframe to fit. The seat itself was re-covered by Andrew from Beyond Trims with some threaded red highlights.
The huge 2294cc engine. Yes, you should be afraid
What was tricky?
“The main obstacle was the original tank,” Wenley says. “It is just so huge and to my eyes it didn’t look right, so my custom tank was made to fit the purpose. It’s a full metal unit with the stock fuel pump fitted underneath.” As you can see, that one part goes a long way to reducing the lines of the bulbous standard bike.
With such a slab-sided hulking mass of an engine, clearly a kickass exhaust was needed. “I gave the job to my mate Billy who welded the exhaust for me,” Wenley says. “Then it was sent for a black ceramic coating.” And here’s where things went wrong. With the bike already having more black on it than a heavy metal concert, the exhaust didn’t stand out enough. “As soon as I looked at the bike I knew it was too much black. So it went back to be finished in silver.” Good call, we say.
Not exactly lacking when it comes to road presence, then
What’s next?
Not having satiated his thirst for gargantuan British cruisers, Wenley’s next build is a Triumph America bobber that’s being done in a more traditional style. “For many years now, people have been asking me to build a bobbed Bonneville. I wasn’t really inspired enough to try it out, but then one day while I was buying a Bonneville, I came across a Triumph America. I immediately removed the tank and guards with my imagination and saw a beautiful brat-style bobber. I was sold, and so was the bike.” Note to self: when one of Australia’s top builders says something’s ‘beautiful’, you better sit up and listen.
WORDS MARLON SLACK
PHOTOS PETE CAGNACCI