In the UK, it’s known as Motorsport Valley, a small area home to Silverstone Circuit and the likes of Formula 1 powerhouses Red Bull Racing and Mercedes. Now you can add another name, TH Works, the new enterprise of a familiar face, Thorton Hundred Motorcycles. For the past eight years, Jody Millhouse and his team have been building some of the world’s coolest customs and made a name for themselves with their wild wide-tyred Triumph Bobber builds. But under the new banner of TH Works, they’ve become the latest British motorcycle manufacturer, and they’ve come out swinging with their first-ever production bike, the EVO BOBBER. Only 25 of the ‘First Edition’ models will be built, and weighing just 170kg wet and with 120ps on tap, this beautiful Bobber is bad to the bone.
Over the past eight years, Jody has built one hell of a brand in Thornton Hundred, with his custom Triumphs seen everywhere from the front page of magazines, to screaming up the hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He’s managed to put together an incredible resume of builds and a catalogue of parts that allows you to truly transform your tame Triumph into one of the most wicked things on two wheels. The company has built a very loyal customer base, which includes some well-known names, they’ve added superchargers and big shots of nitrous, but eventually, you hit the ceiling.
“Reaching the limits of existing Bobbers, it was time to elevate the mould and redefine perceptions. The design philosophy focuses on precision geometry paired with timeless looks,” Jody tells us. And the only way he was going to achieve his goal of building the best Bobber ever created, was to simply start from scratch. All of the development has been done in-house and combines the tight-knit team’s years of experience with “world-renowned MotoGP frame design guest engineers, along with expert software calibration specialists and world leaders in suspension and braking technology.” This is not the kind of Bobber built with an angle grinder and some spare parts, it’s simply as good as it gets.
And that stunning frame is a huge part of making it happen, you can’t build Shangri-La, without first laying the perfect foundation. Shown in this first example in raw metal, you can see the incredible amount of work that has gone into getting things absolutely perfect. From the CAD drawings, the input of the world’s best engineers, and right down to the final machining and flawless welds, no stone has been left unturned. The tube and lug design ensures spectacular feedback to the rider, has been designed with the sort of geometry to allow for maximum fun and it all looks bang on too.
And the same can be said for the tubular swingarm with machined axle blocks, it truly is a thing of beauty, giving the hard tail look, while providing all of the advantages of a modern sprung rear. To provide the suspension for both ends, Jody wanted to keep things British, and who better to turn to than the team at K-Tech, a mainstay of the British Superbike and Isle of Man TT pit paddocks. The rear shock is fully adjustable and works with the swingarm geometry to provide the ultimate feedback to the rider. The front end does exactly the same, with Jody opting for K-Tech’s USD-style forks in a completely black colour scheme.
These are held in place by a massive set of machined triple clamps, the type of part that Thornton Hundred has developed to perfection over the years, and their machining work is second to none. Given the performance of this machine, you need a serious set of brakes, and another great British company in HEL, have crafted billet radial calipers for the front end, to clamp the giant wave-style floating discs. There are a host of other billet components, like the foot controls and pegs, levers and the seat post, which has been designed in two sizes to allow for riders of all dimensions to feel right at home.
All of these parts are not only of the highest quality, but help to save a lot of weight, but nothing does that better than carbon fibre. That’s why the First Edition Bobbers sport a full carbon fibre fuel tank, which has been shaped in a timeless style. More carbon is used with the stunning Rotobox Bullet wheels, massively reducing unsprung weight, improving performance and providing plenty of grip wrapped in Michelin Power GP2 Tyres. Cutting-edge technology is everywhere with 3D scanning, CAD design, 3D printing in plastic and alloys and FEA stress analysis all allowing for the creation of perfect parts like the air boxes, fenders, and the ECUmaster digital display housing. And then adding in the old school with the flawlessly stitched and hand-upholstered seat and beautifully applied graphics package.
The engine gets a Thornton tickle too, with a full Arrows exhaust system, K&N filters and plenty of tuning to pump out that heart-pounding 120ps of unbridled power. The electronics are is all clever stuff too, keyless, fully digital and features like engine braking, launch, throttle and wheelie control, as well as multiple riding modes, for a truly tailored experience. And what an experience it is, with a MotoGP engineered frame, the best bolt-ons, all that power and in a package that weighs 80kg less than the standard Triumph offering and a massive 126kg lighter than a Harley Fat Bob, which has less power! Tempted? We are, and to secure your Thornton Hundred EVO BOBBER ‘First Edition’, the price is £38,000. As a one-off custom, you couldn’t build it for that money. It truly is the best of Briitsh, equal parts brutal and beautiful.
[ TH Works ]