Bill’s Triton

Bill’s Triton

Frank Charriaut of the French blog theMotArt sent in this lovely story he received from a friend. I think it’s something many of us can relate to.

My name is Bill and I’m a café racer at heart. I live at the base of the Cascade Mountains, twenty miles north of the Oregon/California border.

I bought the Triton about a year ago as an unfinished project and as is often the case, it was a lot more unfinished than I first thought. Many times I stood alone in my garage scratching my head and saying out loud, “Why the Hell did they do that!” In the end though, I’m quite happy with the result. I wanted a period-correct British café racer, and I think there is nothing more iconic to the genre than a pre-unit Triton.

The bike is a ’64 Norton slimline featherbed, with a 650 built from ’58 Speed Twin cases, and the original AMC gearbox mounted with converter engine plates. I especially enjoy some of the small details that you don’t notice at first glance, like the NOS Wassel grips and the John Tickle headlight brackets.

I think people, including myself, get somewhat jaded by the internet. It’s easy to write off a bike like this as “just another café racer”, but to see and hear one, on the road, in person, then you’ll understand. I love this bike, and I think it would take a very large pile of cash for me to part with her.

[Merci, Frank! All photos © Back Alley Studio.]