Dan Talbot's Triton

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By Dan Talbot - Pictures by Graham Hay

Back in the days before fibreglass and plastic, the top choice in lightweight materials for racing and specialist manufacturers was aluminium and alloy.The Airstream was designed in the 1930s by Hawley Bowlus, an engineer, artisan and close associate of aviator Charles Lindenbergh. Bowlus saw a potential commercial use for left-over aluminium parts from the aviation industry, and the Airstream, a cross between an aircraft and a motorhome was born. Just as Bowlus recognised an opportunity to use all those left-over plane parts, giving birth to the Airstream, so some enterprising person could see value in those surplus Featherbed chassis. A big Triumph twin engine in one hand, a Norton chassis in the other, and the Triton was born. The Triton featured here came to me as an unfinished project with a 1956 T6 Triumph Thunderbird 650cc engine in a McIntosh replica Featherbed frame. I owned a ‘56 Thunderbird for many years and before that it belonged to my father. Back in the late 1970s Dad and I both rode 750 Bonnevilles. They were great days on great bikes but we moved on and our Triumphs were eventually consigned to memories, until 1997 when Dad spotted the T-Bird and decided we must have it! More HERE