TTRNO Swamp Bike
By James McCombe - 09 Jan 15

We've featured bikes designed for all sorts of terrain over the years; road, track, dirt, dust and gravel. But I can't recall a swamp dweller before. There's not much call for one in London quite frankly, but in the depths of Louisiana, taking the wrong road will quickly lead to soggy trousers. So something with super-chunky rubber would be nice when the mud gets sticky and you're trying to quickstep around a Copperhead.
Exquisitely named, The Transport Revolution of New Orleans have been supplying European bikes in the area for more than a decade now. Throughout that time, customising the bikes that roll out of shipping crates has been part and parcel of what they do. From Thruxton Cup racers to sleek street Bonnevilles TTRNO are intimately experienced in the nuances of the Triumph twins. The Swamp bike is their latest creation, built by Aftersales General Manager, Maxwell, squeezed in-between the requirements of his regular day job.
Beginning life as a bone stock Bonneville SE, it was soon up on the bench and torn down. Max hooked up with Benjie of the appropriately named Benjie's Cafe Racers to help fabricate some of the metal work. I'm sure that vintage style headlight bucket has got the attention of a few BMW R-series owners. Benjie also whisked up those high level pipes, swooping out and back behind the subframe, perforated heatshields protect the rider as the gases fire out through the twin megaphones.
With a fully equipped Dyno on hand, getting the Hinckley twin running sweetly on a pair of K&N pods was all in a days work. It's here that the guy's years of building Thruxton cup bikes came into use, ensuring that none of the factory-crisp throttle response was lost in the intake transformation. The black crackle finish of the SE engine is perfectly suited to the Swamp tracker look of the bike and needed for nothing. Complimented by bare aluminum, black powdercoat and that light silver-paint, the monotone palette gives purposeful class, though it's likely everything will soon be a shade of brown.



