The Indian Army deserves songs of accolades for what they have done for our country. Since the time we got our Independence, the Army has been serving the nation with unmatched relentlessness. So what do you do when a captain of Indian Army approaches you to build a custom motorcycle to represent her unit? You put your heart and soul to it! And that’s what folks over at TNT motorcycles did with the ‘Sabre’!
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This café racer is thoroughly modified and only keen-eyed folks will be able to recognize that there’s a Bajaj Pulsar sitting underneath the beautiful custom job. The donor bike was reportedly abandoned for the last 6 years and going by the looks of it, this looks like the perfect resurrection!
List of modifications
The donor bike’s engine had to be worked upon a little because of the 6 years it spent in a barn. The builders resurrected the engine with a new cylinder piston kit and crankshaft. When the engine was retained in its stock form, the head was shaved with a performance air filter and a free flow exhaust to amplify the grunt of the motorcycle. The motorcycle is wrapped in a custom paint job and motifs splattered here and there.
The front fender, fuel tank, side panels and rear fender are all handcrafted sheet metal. And when you bring all these parts altogether, it looks rather distinctive and minimalistic.
The folks over at TNT motorcycles also fabricated a custom sub-frame and made a leather upholstered saddle to follow the café racer lines. What amplifies its café racer looks is the custom round headlight. Also seen are the bar-end mirrors. We think that installing clip-on handlebars would have gone a long way in making this a proper café-racer but then again, it all boils down to personal preferences and clip-on handlebars are infamous for being too aggressive. The minimalistic approach is carried over to the rear end as well which is highlighted by only one element, the tiny tail light.
Also read: Custom Royal Enfield ‘Vajra’ Has The Looks To Kill And Kill, It Does!
The retro theme is carried further by the inclusion of an offset analogue speedometer. As there is no word regarding custom cycle parts, it is easy to notice that the stock suspension setup and the braking unit has been retained from the donor bike. Delhi-based TNT motorcycles is quite popular in our homegrown custom scene and you might remember them for ‘Neelkantha’, the humongous bagger-style custom Royal Enfield 650. Neelkantha took 3 months of hard labour to build! The builders have been featured by many publications and Royal Enfield too collaborated with them to make a video.