There are those for who 'the norm' just isn't good enough. They want that little bit extra, something that marks them out as different and says; "near enough isn't good enough." Keith Fryer meets such man.

At the back of his mind, Steve Courtney knew that he wanted something a little bit different. He’d owned many British and Japanese bikes over the years, but this time a standard machine just wouldn’t fit the bill, it had to have something that would catch his eye and hold some future potential. Where better to look for these qualities than amongst the Tritons?
Broadly speaking, you’d be right in saying that they all used the same two main components, the Triumph twin engine and the Norton Featherbed frame, so where’s the element of difference Steve was searching for? In the detail, as always. Start to think about the combinations of frame, forks, brakes, seat and tank units and handlebars, let alone the tuning and customising parts for the engines and you’ll have ample opportunity to find that difference.
Steve found a promising Triton for sale through one of the Old Bike Mart ads. It was in roadster rather than café racer trim, with a dual seat and slightly upswept bars; no clip-ons or solo humped back seat on this one.
The ‘56 Norton Wideline Featherbed frame housed a ‘74 Triumph 750cc T140V engine, fitted with twin Amal MkII carburettors. Taken with its looks, Steve brought it home and set about a detailed check over – one that was to reveal a considerable number of problems.

“It had been smoking out of the right hand silencer, so the head and barrels came off for precautionary check, said Steve.” There was no obvious reason for the oil burning so, better safe than sorry, I fitted new valves, guides, springs and collets. It was rebored to plus 20 thou and fitted with new pistons. Fortunately the con rods were good, no play was evident and they’d been nicely polished too.”
The pistons proved a headache as it was quite difficult to find a matched pair, but eventually, two turned up that were the same size. During the rebuild, Steve noticed that the oil pipes to the head were; “Running off the feed instead off the return, which was probably the cause of the oil burning. It was a simple matter to put that right and now the engine is smoke free.”
The clutch pitched in with a problem or two of its own, slipping under power and leaking profusely from the oil seal. It was easy to spot the problem here as the seal had been fitted back to front, a new one fitted the right way round plugged the flow and Steve restored grip with a new set of springs. By now, he was of the opinion that the previous owner wasn’t quite up to scratch with his mechanical skills and so paid particular attention to checking that all else was as it should be. Just as well he did, as other problems came to light.
“For example, the carb choke levers had seized, the float needles needed replacing and an intake rubber had spilt. Small things by themselves, but together they noticeably affected the smooth running of the engine and had to be put right.”

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