Growing up in England, Phil Bunton was fascinated by powered two-wheelers. At 16, he got a moped and slowly moved his way up to larger machines. He rode constantly, which meant he was always stopping by his local motorcycle shop.
Recommended Videos
“I hung around there so much, I ended up working there,” the Calgarian says. “I always carried a tool kit on my bike, and I’d lend a hand whenever I could – that’s how I started, and I simply watched and learned.” Bunton went on to become a trained BMW technician and worked for the Essex police, maintaining and servicing their fleet of motorcycles.
It was the early Nineties when he came to Alberta and worked for the late Roger Reuben at Moto Spezial in Cochrane. The next year, he moved here permanently in 1992. He’s been involved in the local motorcycle scene ever since, and currently operates the Old Motorcycle Shop, or OMS as it’s known. His shop buys and sells “classic” motorcycles, breaking some for parts, while turning out some interesting custom machines.
“I’m interested in tinkering with stuff I grew up with,” he explains. “And I rode British bikes at home because they were what I could afford.” That meant motorcycles such as Triumph T120s and BSA A65s, mainly 650cc twins of the Sixties. He now maintains a small personal collection of British machines, including a Triumph he built as a tribute to Evel Knievel. “I’ve built so many custom Triumphs I wanted to do something I wouldn’t normally do,” he says of the 1971 Triumph TR6 loosely based on Evel Knievel’s Triumph Bonneville used in his attempt to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in late 1967. “Up until fairly recently,” Bunton says, “I’d have thought building something without lights that you couldn’t ride on the street was a waste of a motorcycle. But I just thought it would be fun to build.”
He started with an oil-in-frame Triumph TR6, a motorcycle he bought in Northern Alberta. Bunton’s not sure if the seller had been working on modifying the Triumph, or if a previous owner had started transforming the machine to make it look like an earlier model.
In 1971, Triumph introduced its new oil-in-frame 650cc motorcycles, including the TR6 Tiger and the T120 Bonneville. The redesigned machines came with new airboxes and side covers, new Ceriani-inspired forks, conical alloy hubs and different brakes. The new machines were not universally loved, as many Triumph enthusiasts did not see the changes as improvements.
“Someone had installed aftermarket side covers on this TR6 so it would have the appearance of a Triumph built in the Sixties,” Bunton explains. Those machines of the Sixties featured a remote oil tank on the right-hand side and a pressed steel cover on the left. Bunton’s Triumph had also been further modified with the aftermarket café-racer style seat and rear cowl.
“I tried to respect what someone else had started and worked with as much of it as I could,” he says. In the process, however, Bunton tore the engine apart to the sludge trap in the parallel-twin’s crankcase and rebuilt the powerplant. The frame was left relatively unmodified, but the forks were extended 2-inches over stock length.
All black components, including the wheel rims, frame and brackets were powder coated black by Calgary Powder Coatings. Chrome was left with Alberta Plating, while the cadmium plating on the fasteners was sent to B&H Metal Finishing in Edmonton. The red, white and blue Evel Knievel tribute paint was sprayed by Bryan Dix.
“I just give Bryan a rough idea of what I’m after, and he comes up with the rest,” Bunton says. “He really puts his heart and soul into it.”
Bunton has had the bike running but doesn’t ever intend to emulate Evel Knievel and jump it. “It’s a conversation piece, and in my mind, I just built it up to reflect what it might do as a stunt motorcycle,” he says.
Although Bunton won’t be displaying his Triumph here, if motorcycles are top of mind in the middle of winter, plan to attend the Calgary Motorcycle and Powersport Show. The event runs January 31 to February 2, 2025, at the BMO Centre at Stampede Park.
For any day of the show, a family of four pass is $46, adults 16 to 64 are $22, seniors 65-plus and students are $17, juniors five to 15 are $8 while kids under five are free.
Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]
Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on Instagram ,Facebook and X to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice.