The mid-sized street bike market is one of the hottest on the planet, and the Triumph Street Triple is near the top of the list. It’s light, makes great power, sounds awesome, and seems generally great to live with. Heck, even the Street Triple’s most divisive feature—its distinctive dual headlight design—has grown on us over the years.
Not everyone is a fan of the styling though; you either love the Street Triple’s bug eyes, or you don’t. Junichi Nomura falls into the latter camp. After buying a stock standard 2010 Street Triple 675 from a friend, he spent a year giving the perky triple a facelift.
“I’m not a professional bike builder,” Nomura-san admits. “I’m just a Japanese guy who likes to modify bikes in my garage at home.”
“I really love the café racer style, but I didn’t want a classic design. I wanted a relatively new, futuristic café racer—so I chose the Street Triple 675.”
To kick things off, the twin headlight setup was discarded in favor of a single round LED and new brackets, courtesy of Amazon. The factory dashboard bracket also went, with a Motogadget Motoscope Mini used to simplify the cockpit area. The handlebars were replaced with Gilles Tooling clip-ons, after Junichi filled in the bar riser holes and repainted the top fork clamp for a factory look.
Matched to the new clip-ons are a radial Brembo RCS master cylinder, an Accosato clutch lever, and Domino grips. The micro switches are no-name-brand parts, but Junichi was still able to wire them in himself with full functionality. At the bottom of the forks, the factory Nissin calipers were exchanged for Brembo items to provide gobs of stopping power.
A new subframe was fabricated by Junichi’s favorite workshop, and is topped with a universal seat kit that he bought online. Reminiscent of a Ducati Imola-style seat and adorned with a black leather seat, it pairs perfectly with the modern lines on the fuel tank. A Highsider LED taillight was recessed into the back, keeping the rear end nice and clean, with Highsider turn signals fitted at both ends of the bike.
The battery was replaced with a lightweight Lithium unit and packed under the seat, and the coolant overflow system was redesigned to work with a small bottle (originally designed for a liquid-cooled gaming computer). A CNC-machined fuel cap sits on top of the stock fuel tank.
The custom Nitron rear shock was originally made for a Triumph Daytona 675, but it bolted straight onto the Street Triple. But first, Junichi sent away for a new spring (matched to his weight), and got Nitron to paint it black instead of their signature blue. BabyFace rear-set footpegs were added too, plus sticky Dunlop Sportmax tires to maintain maximum grip.
With assembly completed, Junichi finished off the engine (that already produces more than enough power) with a custom titanium exhaust. The Frankenstein system uses a pie-cut connector that was adapted to fit on sinuous three-into-one Arrow headers, plus an Akrapovič muffler from a Suzuki GSX-R750.
Deep navy blue paint was used to finish off the Triumph Street Triple 675, delicately decorated with stunning twin silver pinstripes that trace the lines of the bodywork. For someone who doesn’t consider themselves a professional bike builder, Nomura-san has done a fantastic job. The finished product is lithe and purposeful—perfect for zipping through the streets of Tokyo.
Images by Junichi Nomura
