Inside the Tamarit Emerald: Spain’s Elegant Custom Triumph

A deep, saturated green motorcycle that shifts between forest shadow and polished emerald under changing light has just claimed its place among the world’s most refined custom machines. The Tamarit Emerald—an all-hand-built, jewel-like custom motorcycle—sold for €28,750 at Bonhams’ Les Grandes Marques du Monde sale in Paris without reserve, its price reflecting the quiet confidence of an objet d’art that already knew its worth.

This is not a bike modified in the usual sense; it is a complete reconstruction. Tamarit Motorcycles, a Spanish workshop based in Elche, took a modern Triumph twin-cylinder platform and rebuilt it until nearly every surface, line, and material had been reconsidered by hand.

Emerald is the third in Tamarit’s ‘jewel motorcycle’ series, following Jade and Circe, and its name is deliberate: emeralds have long been linked to ideas of power, endurance, and lasting youth. Tamarit treats those associations seriously.

The green paint is not decoration layered on top of a chassis; it is the central visual idea from which everything else grows. Hand-shaped leather pads sit flush with the tank sides, their edges so carefully fitted that two surfaces become one continuous form.

The seat continues that line rearward, clean and low, with thin LED strips embedded at the rear of the seat base so that the brake light and turn signals become part of the structure rather than additions. Chrome is used with restraint, nearly every metal surface plated until it reflects like a mirror.

Brass-plated fasteners and a gold chain pick up warm tones against the cooler green and silver, creating a controlled brilliance best understood by the patient viewer. The complex handlebar curves frame the headlight from both above and below, acting as a kind of grille that gives the front of the motorcycle a composed, almost architectural face.

Short, low exhaust pipes wrap around the stator cover in a shape made only for this machine; they do not simply route spent gases away, they complete the engine’s visual mass. The cantilevered shock allows the seat and rear fender to sit lower and cleaner than a conventional twin-shock arrangement would permit, resulting in a silhouette that feels both classic and newly invented.

Even the mechanical heart has been treated as part of the aesthetic whole. The engine is a carbureted Triumph twin, restored and fitted with Keihin carburetors and filters that sit openly as sculptural objects.

Oversize pistons and internal engine work increase its presence in use, though the real statement lies in the sound and the visible hardware. In an age of fuel-injected powerplants and carefully regulated intake tracts, the open trumpets are a clarion call to return to something more tangible.

Eleven people worked on Emerald across more than 650 hours. Almost nothing remains of the donor machine except the basic engine and transmission.

The chassis was modified and then laboratory-tested to confirm its safety. The electronics were simplified to ensure the visual field stays uncluttered, with the battery enclosed in a purpose-built metal box.

Every decision serves the same goal: a motorcycle that holds together as a single, coherent object. When looking at machines of this quality, there is a temptation to separate the art from the engineering.

Resist it. Tamarit understands that a motorcycle is experienced in motion and at rest, under changing light, and from different distances.

Emerald is built for all of those conditions. In the auction room in Paris, it stood among more traditional classics and racing machines. Its presence was different. It did not rely on rarity of provenance or competition history.

It relied on the quality of its making and the clarity of its idea. A green stone has been cut and set into metal, leather, and light.

The result is a motorcycle that asks to be appreciated as one would assess a carefully finished sculpture—done slowly, from several angles, paying close attention to the meeting of the surfaces and how the color holds. That is the standard Tamarit has set for itself. Emerald meets it.