Nick “Apex” Brocha's Turbo Triumph produces huge horsepower in style | Nick “Apex” Brocha has a very telling 'biography' on his Facebook page. It reads simply, “Build. Destroy. Repeat.” If that doesn’t give you a little insight into the motivation and mentality of the guy, I don’t know what will. Let's just hope that the "destroy" part of that equation is in the distant future for Brocha's amazing turbo Triumph 675 triple.As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and the old adage fits Brocha’s bike-building style and expertise to a tee. “I've been a professional stunt rider for the last 10 years, and with the nature of the sport being very hard on motorcycles, my experience in constant repair and troubleshooting turned into a passion to improve on stock platforms,” Brocha reveals. The prolific filmmaker, stunter, and builder has crafted some of the coolest custom stunting sport-bikes around. 
Brocha and his Triumph 675 (right) in a drifting matchup | Brocha’s turbo-charged Triumph 675 held a magnetic attraction to attendees at the 2016 SEMA show in Las Vegas. “My inspiration for this specific bike was to be able to pound the tires into submission with heavy emphasis on simplicity and ground clearance,” Brocha says. While the Triumph is a serious looker, clearly Nick is not into building pure show-bikes. Although he fully appreciates the aesthetic beauty of motorcycles, appearance is certainly not the overriding goal of his builds.“Fast is fun; fast and beautiful wins. I'd like to be able to just sit and stare at the things I create, but when I ride them, they have to perform so strongly that I don't worry about putting them into the ground. You gotta be careful; if she's beauty over performance you'll never ride it hard enough in fear you'll put a scar on her,” says Brocha in true stunt-rider fashion. “I don't think I have all the answers by any means; however, I work from a performance first mentality and focus on taking that principle and working on the aesthetics of the builds in kind.” 
Brocha's Turbo Triumph keeps good company at the SEMA show | Brocha’s 675 turbo is tangible evidence of his performance first mentality. “The bike has a host of Dynojet electronics that keep the turbo system safe to run on the factory engine,” Brocha says. “I've been working with Dynojet on all my turbo projects to provide factory ride-ability and the needed fueling, timing, and on the fly adjustments needed for turbo motorcycles. The systems allow me to run a Garrett GT2552R Turbo at 7 psi, all through custom made components from my shop, Garage7.” Obviously, a bike with that kind of appetite for fuel needs to breathe freely and yet be protected from the ravages of airborne contaminants kicked up while stunting. “I choose K&N to protect all my motorcycles, and most importantly my turbo bikes,” Brocha says. “I hate that it sounds like a sales pitch, but I don't have another way to say it; best of luck to anyone who doesn't use high quality oil and air filtration, especially when it matters.” 
The Turbo Triumph and its soul brother spend a lot of time sideways | The end result of that intake magic is a 675cc engine that pumps out performance numbers in the super-exclusive 200 horsepower neighborhood. That's about double what the stock Triumph triple produces. At this point you should hear the echoes of Brocha’s vision for this bike. “Pound the tires into submission” indeed! We’d be remiss in totally ignoring the Triumph’s very cool styling. Like the perfect skirt length, the bodywork reveals just enough of the turbo to titillate. The stretched swingarm is carried out masterfully, and the forward-biased stance of the bike embodies speed. The camouflage paint-scheme on the tail section holds a bit of irony, as this bike is not hiding anywhere! As for his future plans, Brocha’s focus is set on even more performance. “I'm building a new set of engines for this turbo bike platform, and also enhancing the suspension,” Brocha says. “I’m going to try and build the ultimate 600 class turbo bike. Look for big power in 2017!” Oh, you bet we will, Nick. |
