Modern Triumph Desert Sled: Stasis Scrambler 900

Triumph Custom Desert Sled
Photo: Michael Lichter Photography

At this year’s Handbuilt Show, we were lucky enough to discover the work of Cliff Fisher, the man behind Stasis Motorcycles.  He simply blew us away with his “Stasis Scrambler 900,” a modern incarnation of a custom Triumph desert sled. He described the bike as a…

“Long-legged, knobby, cattle-guard jumper for the rural Texas dirt roads.”

Lord, that is music to our wind-burned ears!   We’ll let Cliff himself give you the full story on this long-legged beauty.

Triumph Thruxton Scrambler:  In the Builder’s Words

Triumph Thruxton Desert Sled Scrambler

The objective with all Stasis Moto builds is to meld vintage with modern, and the vision here was to re-create a more capable 70’s desert sled. My description for the 2015 Handbuilt Show was a “long-legged, knobby, cattle-guard jumper for the rural Texas dirt roads.”

In this case, Triumph has provided such a classic mold with which to work, all I really changed was the stance, fenders and exhaust. This began as 2001 Thruxton with damaged forks and bent front wheel…which I replaced with a KTM Duke II front end running a KTM Adventure 950 dual-disc hub re-laced to a 19” Excel rim. The rear wheel was re-laced to a black rim suspended with 18-inch-long Ohlins piggyback shocks from a KTM 4-wheeler, rolling on TKC 80 knobbies…which resulted in a VERY tall bike.

Triumph Thruxton Scrambler
Cliff’s Viking friend Eli (6’1″, all leg). The bike has a 35″ seat height, with 10″ of ground clearance!

Exhaust is a barky pair of wrapped stainless high mounts from British Customs with a pair of cone-engineering shorty pipes, which assault anyone following you with just the right amount of aural rudeness.

The vintage alloy fenders came from a Honda SL350, which really compliment the brushed steel of the tank knee pads, alloy skid-plate and anchor this bike firmly in the era I wanted.

This is a bike that is as enjoyable to admire over a dusty beer as it is to ride!

Stasis 900 Scrambler

Modern Desert Sled
Builder Cliff Fisher

Photos from the Handbuilt Show

These are photos from last year’s Handbuilt Show, taken by Jun Song (@nostalgia_memoir).

Triumph Custom Desert Sled
Photo: Jun Song
Triumph Custom Scrambler
Photo: Jun Song
Triumph Custom Desert Sled
Photo: Jun Song
Desert Sled Triumph Thruxton
Photo: Jun Song

2 Comments

  1. Kurtis Moter

    WOW and Thank You. I have been looking at building one of these and just have not found the right look till now. Now all I need to do is get some money ahead get the starter bike and begin the build.

  2. Todd Luff

    Is there a 2001 Thruxton? I ask because I have a 2004 I want to do this to buy keep hearing that the peg position will be an issue. If this was a 2001 then it’s likely a bonneville not s thruxton and won’t have this issue.

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