Modified Triumph Street Triple Does Away With the Twin-Headlight Design

Just as John was finishing up his Yamaha, Bob was given a 1979 Kawasaki KZ650 from a friend who’d recently passed away. In the end, he decided to try his hand at customization on the vintage Kawi afterhours, whenever his tight work schedule as a creative director would permit. This led to him establishing Redeemed Cycles as a side gig later on, and many incredible projects have followed thereafter.

We had a look at his budget-minded Honda CB650 build some time ago and were left stunned by what he could pull off with just $1,250. The machine shown above is just as intriguing for different reasons, one of them being the actual donor bike itself. Bob picked a Triumph Street Triple from the model-year 2008 to act as the basis for this transformation, which was being carried out for his son-in-law.

The Street Triple 675 was a very solid proposition from a mechanical standpoint, with excellent running gear and just north of 100 hp at its disposal. Top this off with a dry weight of just 166 kg (366 lbs), and you’ve got yourself a pretty neat basis for customization. Unsurprisingly, the mastermind at Redeemed Cycles decided to leave items like the brakes and suspension as they were.

Seeing no real need for any performance upgrades, he focused mainly on the cosmetic side of things and started by ditching some of the Triumph’s factory plastics. The custom work began in earnest at the back, where the primary goal was to keep proportions nice and tight while exposing a surprisingly good-looking OEM subframe. His bespoke handiwork is in full bloom up top.

Instead of the stock two-up seat, we find a tailor-made solo unit upholstered in black leather and stitched together with contrasting white thread. The seat upholstery was taken care of by a friend of Bob’s, but the angular tail section placed right behind it was fabricated in-house. You’ll spot an aftermarket LED taillight mounted underneath, close to a minimalistic license plate bracket with integrated turn signals.

Our protagonist also had to remove the original coolant overflow reservoir when tidying up the rear end, so he installed a cylindrical off-the-shelf replacement on the left side of the engine. One thing about the Street Triple that’s always been polarizing is its twin-headlight arrangement, and Bob was never a huge fan of it to begin with.

It should therefore come as no surprise to see the setup deleted on his build, making way for something a lot more conventional. A bright LED headlamp was sourced from Motodemic and then secured in place via custom mounting hardware. The motorcycle’s instrumentation got repositioned to keep things looking as they should in that area, but just about everything else in the cockpit remains unchanged.

One notable difference is the lack of tall, unsightly mirrors, with a single aftermarket part taking their place on the left. We’re greeted by custom radiator shrouds lower down on the flanks, and they feature cut-outs that echo the design of the heel guards. As for the bike’s 675cc inline-three mill, the only associated mod had to do with the exhaust system. The factory headers have been retained, but everything downstream was promptly eliminated.

The three-into-one plumbing now runs into a Competition Werkes connector pipe capped off with a race-style muffler. Not only does the new pipework look a lot better than the chunky stock hardware, but it is also said to offer a thrilling soundtrack. Moving on to the creature’s livery, the chosen color scheme is all about the monochromatic hues and subdued elegance.

It combines black and silver in seamless fashion, being particularly effective at concealing the massive size of the Street Triple’s fuel tank. Pinches of gold make an appearance here and there, adorning items like the fork tubes, brake calipers, and front rotor flanges. The Redeemed Cycles treatment was done once the paintwork had been applied, and the modded Triumph was ready to be handed over to its owner.

A surprising amount of OEM equipment is still present on this specimen, but the whole affair looks a lot better than its previous incarnation. Bob didn’t want to change what already worked here, instead being more concerned with refining various aspects and removing visual clutter. The outcome is living proof that a custom bike can be fantastic without the addition of overly complex mods, and we totally dig it!