Interesting Visitors - Triton
A Triton motorcycle swung by Wemoto last week - here's what it looked like...
John Newman
We had another interesting visitor come by on Tuesday this week - this very clean very shiny very beautiful 1959 Triton gleaming in the Spring sunshine.
The motorcycle's current owner has owned this lovely bike for three or four years now. he bought it running and it had been well put together, just a few tweaks, and a clean have made it much better - and it even has Wemoto mirrors fitted!
The owner carries around a little laminated specs sheet because so many people ask him about his bike, especially when he goes to shows - well you can understand why!
Here is what the sheet says about this bike:
* The bike is a 1959 Norton slimline frame (no more mots or tax since the new legislation - hooray!)
* It has a Norton Commando front end
* The gear box is BSA
* The engine is Triumph cases and inside...
* It has a Norton three piece crank, machined to fit
* A Norton Commando clutch
* An E3134 Cam
* Morgo 750cc pistons and barrels
* Morgo 750 kit and longer stroke Norton Crank giving 800cc
* It has head polished and ported 9 stud inlet valves taken out to 32mm
* Carburettors 2- 32mm Amal concentrics
The bike's owner uses his Triton regularly - he was just swinging by
Wemoto for some parts for his other bike - a Honda 250 on his way up to London - setting off to cruise all the way at a comfortable 55mph he said:
"55 saves wear and tear on the bike ...and the bones...!"
And if you are on the sunny south coast one summer weekend you may see him and his friends zooming past as he takes his motorcycle out at weekends for ride outs along the Sussex coast with the
Sussex British Motorcycle Owners Club
...famous for:
"Good company, cheap beer and plenty of bikes"
Triton this is your life...
Tritons have an interesting history: The Triton was originally made in the 1960s and 1970s and was a modified cafe racer - half Triumph half Norton - hence the name Tri-ton
The idea was that by combining the best elements of each bike the finished result would be a machine which was more than the sum of the parts and would be superior to both.
What normally happened was that a Triumph parallel twin engine was put into a Norton Featherbed frame - the Norton with a Featherbed frame was considered to be the best handling motorcycle out there at the time and the Triumph Bonneville engine the best performing engine - the Triumph Bonneville had twin carburettors and was a popular engine choice coupling reliability with great performance...it could be tuned easily with the addition of high profile camshafts, high compression pistons and twin carburettors or fuel injectors.
If the Triton had a pre unit Triumph motor, then the AMC gearbox used in post 1960 Nortons was better than the equivalent Triumph gearbox.
History doesn't relate who actually invented the Triton but Dave Degans was a Triton pioneer in the 1960s. He started out as a racer and then moved into building motorcycles in the 1960s for the cafe racer era and he is still thriving. He even won the Barcelona 24 hour race on a Triton in 1965 that's how good they were!
Stand by for our next interesting visitor - happily we seem to attract them at
Wemoto!
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