Triton Motorcycles Triton 650 1960
To produce an affordable but capable racer in the UK during the 1960s, the obvious solution was to fit a Triumph Bonneville engine into a Norton Featherbed frame to create a ‘Triton’, which is not only a contraction of ‘Triumph’ and ‘Norton’ but also has the cache of being the name of a mythical Greek God.
The production Featherbed frame was derived from the original developed for the racing Norton Manx and represented the state of the art at the time. And while Norton produced its own vertical twin engines, many enthusiasts preferred the Triumph engines because they were easier to tune for more power, they were considered stronger and more reliable, and they vibrated less.
Mounting a Triumph engine into a Featherbed frame required the use of mounting plates, which enabled the engine position to be varied to improve handling. Usually, the Norton suspension and brakes were retained and, in some cases when pre-unit Triumph engines were used, the gearbox as well. In accordance with the Featherbed’s racing heritage, many Tritons were styled along the lines of the Manx with a suitably shaped and painted tank, a solo seat, clip-on bars, rear set footrests and swept-back exhausts.
This example was built in 2013 by the staff of NZ Classic Motorcycles. It features a balanced, pre-unit Triumph 650cc engine with a single carburettor, a 9:1 compression ratio, billet connecting rods, Black Diamond valves and guides, a Morgo oil pump and self-generating electronic ignition. Power is transmitted via a modified AJS/Matchless primary case and a BSA gearbox with a five-speed Nova conversion.