triumph t 100

[marty 31]

If my  past experience of the abortions known as Tritons is anything to go by, the builder never thought anything about gear ratios but just assembled miscellaneous parts regardless.

Did your triton have a Triumph box or a Norton one? Was it a unit engine or pre unit?

Tritons were a 1960s fad which has been turned into a myth. Yet another example of amateurs thinking they could do better than the original manufacturers

Anyone remember the leftovers being turned into
Tribsa
norbsa?

Snide and shark used to sell engine plates to suit almost any mix of parts.

my triton had its faults, but abortion, it was certainly not it was a featherbed (like them all) unit Bonneville, with morgo 750 conversion and 5 speed quaife close ratio gear box (hence the concern in the first place) properly shortened commando forks with disc brake, alloy rims and commando clocks to name a few of the add ons, the builder had spent serious money on it in 1971, maybe not everybodys cup of tea, but to a 17 year old british bike nut just through his test in 1975 pretty much heaven, and all for £350 pounds, it could take punishment and didn't blow up at a cruising speed of 60-mph but was revving a lot faster than my mates brand new bonnie at the same speed, admittedly I would not touch one with a barge pole now, and the price they are asking now?

[Grunt]

PS My tomatoes are better than yours.

Wait till you see the size of my plums.

In Old Bike Mart a while back the editor responded to a letter asking where the cobbled together Tritons where and how he misses them. I’m waiting for a letter that explains how the riders died while riding them or if they had any sense scrapped them when they failed the MoT.

My other bike is a Rocket Three in a Featherbed. I bought it ready made in the early 80’s and always preferred the Bonnie, it was quicker and handled far better. Being of an impressionable age in the late 70’s and 80’s Tritons were the bike to have if you didn’t like Jap stuff and couldn’t afford Italian, you were a super hero if you had a Trident or Rocket Three. I had a few tritons in the days when I didn’t know any better, they were all chuffin ‘oribble. I remember one had a central oil tank held in with a big rubber band, it fell off while entering the works bike sheds, the oil tank locked the back wheel up and I skidded sideways into a ruddy great row of Honda 90’s knocking them all over like dominoes. My mate who was behind me on his 550 Suzuki reckoned I’d picked them all up and was pretending nothing had happened before he got his side stand down.

[john.k]

My favorite triton event was an el cheapo alloy front guard that broke away from the mounting screws and went round with the front wheel.....not right round....just far enough for a skid on the slippery alloy at 80mph.......fast forward,and I see tossers on ebay selling the same el cheapo guards...for 100 quid each...same rubbish ...

[TGR90B]

As a yoof in the 60s I had a Douglas with an ugly front mudguard. As image was everything at 17 (see photo posing) I got an alloy front guard. Being an apprentice plumber I made the stays out of 1/2" copper tube and bolted the ends to the hub.
 On the first ride one of the stays broke, the guard wrapped around the wheel and off we came. No real harm done, but very quickly retrieved the bits and off before anyone saw me.

[mini-me]

AS I said they were a 1960s fad, that doesn't mean all off them were badly assembled, in those days we were still apprentices with practical skills.

I have seen some nice ones now and again but mostly they are bodges put together by blokes with limited budgets from a pride and clarke catalogue, which is why, back then, for the most part, they all ended up looking more or less the same,which defeated the object of having something different.
What sticks in my mind was the amount of them that had TRITON in big Gothic letters on the fibre glass tank. what was that about.?

My own folies de jeunesse are too embarrassing to recount while sober.

I'm fond of a good plum Grunt, funnily enough all the tomatoes sold in my local Morrison are grown in Yorkshire, you can tell by the grit in them.

[Grunt]

you can tell by the grit in them.

That’s not grit, it’s a Yorkshiremans sweat.

[mini-me]

Never seen a yorkshire man sweat, none of them move fast enough

[Rex]

After the Cried and Snarke engine plates craze (Motorcycle Mechanics were forever giving away paper templates too, as I recall) came the chopper craze. Things like extended tele's by screwing on a 12" fork slug...who'd want to ride a bike with the forks extended by 3/4" of fine-threaded alloy? Then rear suspension struts to male the bike a rigid (sorry...hard tail) Maltese cross tail lights, daft ape-hangers and two silly little car spots for headlamps. What might have been seen as cool in Oakland or LA didn't translate to the mean streets of Heckmondwyke or somesuch, and especially not when the long-suffering bike was some poor old M20 etc.

[mini-me]

Bringing back memories Rex.  I'd forgotten those.

I do remember how stupid those old BSA choppers used to look with some grubby bloke thinking he was in San Francisco in the sun, instead of soaking wet in Lewisham.  The yanks had masses of cash to throw at theirs, our seemed to be done on  benefits cheques.

I think it all started when the 59 club showed the film "The Wild Ones" a week later the bike park was full of ape hangers.

Some blokes were in such a hurry they had just swiveled their clip-ons forwards.

folie de jeunesse indeed, that film is on you tube in full,  have a look I can't  believe how downright camp it is.  Marlon Brando hard? all he needed was  a handbag.

"what are you rebelling about?"  "waddya got?"

classic.

TGR90B, you old smoothie you, slip-ons too   winkle pickers and brothel creepers in my cupboard then.

[TGR90B]

Sorry about the shoes, I didn't reach puberty until I was 27.

[Grunt]

Never seen a yorkshire man sweat, none of them move fast enough

It’s nowt to do with movement, most sweating is wallet related.

No body’s mentioned highway pegs, I had a lump of steel pipe clamped to the frame with U bolts but still couldn’t get a girlfriend.

[Rex]

...And Dexion. Every back street hero's bike needed some Dexion on it somewhere.
As for Easy Riders when I tried to rewatch it some years back I couldn't believe how abysmal it was. They must be doing all of 20mph in the action shots, the dialogue is laughable and yet people still say that it's some sort of classic film.
Rather like all those Viet-Nam war films of that era where the troops had things like "Love"  or "F*ck" written on the helmet bands, or a couple of rounds tucked in 'em.
Cliche'd nonsense, the lot of it.

[mini-me]

Dexion!!!

jeez you are making me dredge the dark  recesses of my memory now Rex.

I think it was late 1950s or the 60s that one of the weekly bike mags ran a "specials" competition there was one bloke who built a frame entirely out of Dexion and fitted a VW flat four engine into it. Unbelievably they ran a feature on it. I think I might have it somewhere,I'll post it if I can find it.

What else?
59 club special sidecars, a coffin, an armchair, and a bathtub I recall fitted to chassis.


Marlon Brando for those that don't yet know, camper than a row of pink tents.  https://youtu.be/yCENBce_dls


https://youtu.be/_TtaSwqQAyI

https://youtu.be/_4NkkAQllfo

https://youtu.be/wwB_Mrnwr_8

[TGR90B]

Amazing how corny that is. Give me the Black Widows any day.

[john.k]

Not forgetting the lace paintwork craze........steal grannys lace curtains,and spray the tank with silverfrost thru the lace.....even seen cars done .