Neil's Triton

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Rather than being a mixture of assembled parts, there is a real history behind this Triton. It's an authentic machine typical of those cafe racers built back in 60's England.

Freddie Copper built this particular Triton in 1960. Those who know Freddie will know that he was a famous rider during the John Surtess period. He often raced at Brands Hatch and he also raced in Sprint and Drag racing events. One of his notable achievements was beating the 200mph speed record, riding the Cyclotron with its double reversed engine.

The Cyclotron

The Tritons present owner Neil, was previously a DJ at the Ace cafe before leaving England to settle in the South of France.

The superb patina on this machine owes itself primarily to the authentic parts used. For example the small Lucas rear light, the Miller headlight, the John Tickle headlight brackets and triple trees and Manx clip ons. Dunstall mufflers and T120 9 stud cylinder head, rolling on Akront Alloy 18" wheel rims.

This fantastic Norton will be auctioned by Bixente Moto and Me Carayol on the 15th June during our Wheels and Waves weekend. Estimated value is between 7000 and 9000 euros.

Photgraphy by: Benoit Guerry

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The Mist green Sunbeam

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'Jacques' restored this motorcycle in 1979 and was well aware of the Sunbeams good and bad points, having already owned one when he was younger and living in Paris. He knew that this model had a tendancy to overheat, owing to the engines design (Erling Poppe and Gerry Bayliss). This particular fault is incurable and therefore the motor requires close scrutiny. To make things easier he fitted oil pressure and temperature gauges allowing for an average speed of 90/100km/H. This motorcycle has a shaft drive and the engine is of square design with an overhead cam providing a maximum speed of 130km/H.

The design has a 'heavy appearance largely inspired by THe BMW R75 from WW2 and with it's oversized tyres has an appeal and look that is today very much in vogue. Furthermore this motorcycle has a relatively luxurious finish when compared with other machines of the period. This Deluxe model is recognisable from its "Mist" Green finish compared to the standard model that was finished in black.

This particular machine was built in 1954 and is a mix of parts from both the S7 and S8 models. The frame is from the S8 whereas the engine and body panels are from the S7. Purists would have recognised the S8 sprung seat, the S7 seat is canter-levered and the springs are hidden from view.

Photos by Benoit Guerry (southsiders-mc)

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The Lowboy Racer

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This machine was bought in England, build in the 70s from recovered racing spares.

Chassis

the frame, tank and seat comes from a DOMIRACER “ Lowboy” designed on demand by Doug Hele to replace the old Manx Frame, much lower, leaner and lighter than the Manx featherbed (35 pounds less) for the 1961 Tourist Trophy.

The DOMIRACER episode ended in 1962 by the shutdown of the AMC factory in Birmingham and the switch of Doug Hele for Triumph.








“In January 1962, when Norton sold out at Bracebridge Street, Birmingham, Paul DUNSTALL bought most of the experimental Domiracer twin engines and development bits and pieces that had been developed for the factory race team. This included the actual machine raced by Australian Tom Phillips to a magnificent third place in the 1961 Senior TT.”

Soon after Paul Dunstall will build some Lowboy replica frames.

Mick Hemmings built a small serie in 85/90s.

The fork is a shortened Norton Roadholder
front brake is a SEELEY double side single cam
rear wheel hub is a Triumph model

Engine

is a Pre Unit T100/RS from 1957, developped by Edward Turner for the Daytona races, based on the all alloy T100, and fitted with the DELTA (Splayed cylinder head) tuned in 1957 on TRICOR demand.

132 T100/RS plus seven Daytona engines were build and individually tested by Triumph factory.
Inside we find the camshaft E3134 type and the Pushrods “R” types.
Initially fitted with two GP Amal carbs , the output was around 38 Bhp and a maximum
speed at 125mph with a final drive at 23X45

The Triumph DAYTONA project will let place in 1962 to a T100 unit Triumph Daytona model with the arrival of Doug Hele at the Triumph factory.

this brillant engine was also fitted on Formula 500 Cooper racers.

The gearbox is a five speed Triumph and the Magneto a Lucas racing complete the equipment of the extremely pleasant small motorcycle of only 135kg










Brilliant photography by Benoit Guerry for Guerry & Prat images

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the "Alan Special"

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I realized yesterday , that we never published these pics before, we would like to share them with you

Text by Chris Hunter
This remarkably elegant vintage motorcycle is actually a bit of a mongrel: it’s a Rudge ‘bitsa’ built by Jean-Claude Barrois, who also restored the Honda CB450 and Terrot racer we’ve featured before. This bike has had a chequered life, starting out as a 1928 Soyer—a French brand that produced motorcycles between 1920 and 1935. Like many French makes of the time, Soyer used a variety of engines for their motorcycles, including 
JAP, Sturmey Archer and Chaise. This particular Soyer 07S had a JAP engine but the frame was wrecked, so Barrois built his own frame—and eventually replaced the JAP motor with the 500cc Rudge unit you see here. All unnecessary parts have been removed to make it lighter—including the front brake—and a new quarter-gallon tank has been added, along with a “suicide knee” gearshift.

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