2008
Triumph Bonneville T100 Café Racer Custom
Custom interpretation based on a Bonneville T100. This is not a factory café-racer specification.
Colours used
in this example.
Copper and Burnt sienna set the main colour direction. Softer background tones keep the motorcycle in focus.
Suggested pencil shades, not exact factory paint matches. Test colours on your paper before building richer layers.
Use curved layers and leave narrow warm highlights.
Keep the inset light and shade the saddle beneath its ribs.
Leave narrow paper-white highlights beside blue-grey shadows.
Use charcoal in the frame recesses and lighter grey on tyre shoulders.
Keep door grain visible with soft vertical strokes.
Look a little closer.
Explore the details from different angles.
2008 T100 donor
Source-labelled 2008 T100 donor with orange-and-white tank and pale front mudguard. Exact model-year paint specification and originality unverified.
Photo: TR001 · Source · CC BY 3.02008 T100 profile
A different source-labelled 2008 T100 donor with black-and-white tank. This is not another angle of the orange-and-white bike.
Photo: TR001 · Source · CC BY 3.0T100 donor-family reference
Black-and-white air-cooled T100 photographed in 2012. Photograph date does not prove model year.
Photo: JLPC · Source · CC BY-SA 3.02011 T100 comparison
2011 T100 comparison with black tank and pale side panels. Later-year donor-family reference.
Photo: Hogyn Lleol · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0T100 instruments
2009 T100 cockpit with black and pale tank areas. Later-year donor-family detail.
Photo: CheminduCret · Source · CC0Custom-bike colour choice
This café racer is a custom interpretation of a T100. It has no single factory colour scheme. Choose a finish for the custom tank and seat rather than treating donor-bike paint as a specification for the conversion.
The orange/white and black/white gallery motorcycles are different donors. Factory T100 options do not prescribe paint for the café-racer conversion.
In the photographs
The gallery shows T100 donor motorcycles, not the illustrated café racer. One source-labelled 2008 bike is orange-and-white while the next is black-and-white; they are different machines. Later references show black-and-white finishes. Black-and-white appears in the 2008 colour archive but the orange example’s exact year, market and finish history need confirmation. These photographs do not define a factory colour for the custom.
- Orange
- Black
- White/cream panels
Visual colour guide only. These are not additional factory paint options.
In the coloured example
The copper bodywork, cream tank inset and brown saddle form an original custom palette. There is no factory café-racer paint specification to match for this illustrated conversion.
Make the details count.
Use copper consistently across the tank, cowl and side panel.
Shade the ribbed brown saddle with short strokes following each rib.
Keep the paired exhausts silver with thin blue-grey shadow bands.
Follow your curiosity.
Model history and further reading.