Honda TLM
When a motorcycle is noted for its build quality in the first place, making it even better takes a bit of determination and a fair amount of dedication plus some skill. Often when casual observers look at a motorcycle on display at a show, they don’t see what has been done to improve it and it isn’t until a closer look is taken or perhaps someone with a bit more marque knowledge points out something which shows just how special a bike is. On the face of it, Honda’s TLM is a bit special anyway, never a high-volume production machine or a particularly long-lived one either – in 260cc form it was in the company’s range for five years – and adding to the model’s UK exclusivity it was never officially imported. So, just by being here it is special… but for some even this isn’t enough and Tony King makes a habit of subtly improving machines. We’ve had a bike or two of his in these pages before and queried why he goes to such lengths on an already superb machine, to which he offers the disarmingly simple answer of “because I can.” He enjoys doing it too, he adds.
This particular project wasn’t actually for Tony though, as former Honda competition manager Trevor
