Ted's chopped and bobbed trophy 550

Meet Ted. I just did in the Canadian Tire parking lot where he showed me his home-made chopped and bobbed trophy 550 that's he's out together over the past while.

Encouraging me to to sit on it, it's amazing how light it was. It's possible this was due to the center of mass being so low, but either way Ted told me it handles like a dream.

The bike is based on a 71 trophy 550 parallel-twin but unlike most of the era, there was bonding of oil underneath. The only other surviving part is the frame top spar. Forks are from a Yamaha dirt bike, wheels and brakes from a GSX600.

The trickest part for me were the bars. A normal master cylinder would hit the tank so Ted hid it in the bars themselves. The black box is munitions box used for storage.

That little loop you can see is the sight level. It looks cool, Ted said it took months to get right.

As you can see, it's a wisp of a machine and is certainly a one-off. His original plan was to sell it to fund a Street Triple. Now he's built it though, it's a keeper.