There is a certain kind of satisfaction in watching an organised, pre-planned set of steps unfold; everything works smoothly – like a well-oiled machine. On the other hand, witnessing the beginnings of an idea germinate into something beautiful in the most unplanned fashion is a different kind of spectacular. This is the story of how a Triumph 3HW from the early 1940s continues to live on as a gorgeous resto-modded build thanks to Garage Built Motorcycles, run by Kyle Pereira and Suraj Thapa.
This truly fascinating story started all the way back in 2008 when Kyle purchased an aluminium, high-dome piston from the faster Triumph T80 to fit a 3HW he already owned – and then, he forgot about it. For those of you who don’t know, both bikes used a single-cylinder 350cc engine, but the 3HW was a machine based on the T80, and it was made for the war. It had a more rugged, lower-compression engine.
It was only after the pandemic that he got his hands on a second 3HW – badly damaged in a fire and destined for the scrapyard – and this project truly kicked off. That bike’s engine and frame had seen major damage, but Kyle, being the hardcore vintage bike rescuer that he is, was able to salvage both with some very out-of-the-box approaches.
Since parts of the frame were badly damaged, he had to fabricate the missing bits and used his own 3HW for reference. The original girder fork was too disfigured, which led him down the resto-modding route of adding some semblance of modernity to the riding experience. The result was adding an entire front end straight off a Yamaha FZ-16. While the 18-inch rear wheel may look period-correct, it’s actually sourced from a RE Classic and is smaller than the 3HW’s stock 19in rear rim.
However, the most fascinating part of this entire build has to be the engine. Now, the donor bike’s block was beyond repair, but the rest was still salvageable. So Kyle resorted to a truly ‘bike-builder’ approach. Once again, using his 3HW for reference, he sandcast a new engine block mimicking the cast iron original, but in lighter aluminium – the weight loss from the block alone is roughly 2kg.
Kyle also wanted the bike to feel a little sprightlier than it was when new, so he bumped up the compression ratio to 9.0:1 and plonked the aforementioned high-compression piston into this new block. While the head is original, the motor also has a new, lighter crankshaft and a new engine mount, faithful to the original.
As you can see, that megaphone exhaust is certainly not stock and has a funny story behind it. The header pipe was fabricated in-house and stays true to the original’s spec, but the muffler actually came off a humble Honda Unicorn. Why? Because it fit the look and sound profile they were after and avoided the tinny sound that came with the other free-flow systems they were experimenting with. A happy side effect was keeping decibel levels below the obnoxious threshold.
The next step was making sure the visuals matched the souped-up mechanicals. While Kyle didn’t have a specific style in mind, he wanted the bike to be light and minimalist.
With that in mind, he went out and bought some sheets of galvanized steel to fabricate the bodywork. After a long and arduous process of fabricating just part of the tank on his own, his welder informed him that he was encountering such difficulty because he should have actually used regular stainless steel, not the stronger galvanized option. This probably was not funny at the time, but we had a good laugh when he narrated this to us.
The split-tank setup has another cool story behind it and was deliberately made as slim as possible to allow the engine to grab eyeballs. The left half holds about 4 litres of petrol, but the right half actually holds a similar amount of engine oil. Kyle has figured out a unique way to pump oil to the engine from this tank, and since the motor has been souped up a fair bit, even the oil capacity has seen an increase, primarily helping with better cooling. There’s even a circular transparent panel through which you can see the oil cycling through the tank, which is a very special touch.
Fun fact, since this bike originally had a very restricted turning radius, Kyle literally hammered the tank’s edges with a pipe to liberate some steering lock for our shoot. A DIY solution that is similar in principle – not execution – to the new Bajaj-built Triumph 400s’ tanks, and the crude finish this process left behind actually adds charm once you learn the story behind it.
With the tank and side panels having painstakingly been beaten into place, the next conundrum was what to do about the face. This was perhaps our favourite story behind this build because after much rumination, a Eureka moment arrived in the form of repurposing the shell from an old Vega open-face helmet he had lying around in the shop for the bike’s front cowl! You’d never realise it unless someone told you, and once you do, you can’t help but smile at it! Once the bodywork was fully in place, the bike was draped in British racing green with some yellow highlights to make the colours pop.
Naming a bike is a special thing, especially so when you’re this deeply invested in the restoration process. Kyle gave this bike a fittingly unique name to match its intent – Fast Forward. And that goes with the fact that it wasn’t just built to be a garage queen and that it will be unleashed someday when the opportunity arises.
The vision all along was to introduce some modernity into an otherwise thoroughly old-school British riding experience, and Fast Forward achieves just that. By all means, Garage Built Motorcycles should be celebrated for the herculean feat they have pulled off here. But for someone like me – a lover of all things old, especially motorcycles – I want to praise this shop for painstakingly resurrecting an old bike that most people would have written off and termed ‘too far gone’. This 3HW hasn’t just got a new lease of life, it’s become a whole new thing.
Built To Run: Rishaad rides the Fast Forward
Kyle’s intention for this restomod is for it to be run on a drag strip someday, and he even let us take it for a short spin. The revelation was that it was quite ‘normal’ to ride, and all you have to remember is that the shifter is on the right – it even has a familiar 1-down-3-up shift pattern. The modern front end means you have brakes that can be relied on. Meanwhile, the rigid rear end resulted in a bike that felt beautifully taut and responsive. Of course, the only suspension at the rear is in the seat padding and the jelly within your spinal discs.
The bike felt delightfully light, and Kyle estimates that with its long 3rd and 4th gears, it should be able to hit a top speed of about 120kph, which is mighty impressive. Our little ride was super memorable, and we can’t wait to see it fully unleashed someday to properly celebrate its new identity!