GARY! I need your sage advice!

[87natty]

Hey, what's the difference between a Triumph and a Norton? What about BSA's? And do you know anything about 67-79 BMW's?

[Recklessrob]

A friend of mine has a motorcycle that was made
by Triumph and Norton. Its called a Triton. 3cyl. four stroke.
all drum brakes. It was considdered a state of the art race bike for the day.
It also has a really cool medallion mounted on a small bracket thats
attached to the front forks. It was some sort of a tax stamp from Great Brittain.

My friends dad used to be into BMWs he had four of them ranging
from the late 50's to the mid 70's. They were considdered to be very reliable.
Many were used for 24 hour racing.

[87natty]

Ahh... I'm considering making a cafe bike. I was starting to look at old R/65's. I always thoughts the Triton's were made of two bikes, but fabricated, not built as though. Right on.

[Gary Wells]

I am virtually lame regarding BMWs, I know that they are the epitome of reliability, safety, and comfort, but on the downside for me, they just don't have the right image. I want something that is racy, respected, and of the right heritage. Norton-Dunstall is pretty much the epitome of Western European cafe racing style. Triumph was right behind Norton for handling, class, respectability, and just all around being kool, but I think that relates to the older triumphs, although the new Triumphs have it all over the older ones for safety, reliability, not being considered the "Prince of Darkness" when it comes to needing reliability. BSAs, (Birmingham Small Arms) early makers of European rifles & carbines for those of you not into it, I never considered in the same class as a Norton or a Triumph. I had one, and they are somewhat more troublesome that their brothers. I think that making a cafe racer out of a BMW, if you have a chance to pick up one decent, would be fun & kool, but not in the same league as a Norton-Dunstall, and I have no idea what a Norton-Dunstall is worth on today's market. Nor how many of them are around. Truly the epitome of early 70's style cafe racing. Might want to pick up a motorcycle selling monthly or semi-monthly publication called Wanek's, or something like that, that seem to specialize in the unusual bikes left in circulation. A Norton-Dunstall would be pretty much the GNX of the cafe racer crowd. Very elite, but probably pricey. HTH

[Gary Wells]

No flaming intended here, but Norton nor Triumph ever had anything to do with the Triton motorcycle, made in maybe Pakistani or New Guinea, or Rumplestilskin land, or some fckng place. Still currently being made, unfortunately. Triumph did make a early 70's or so 3 cyclinder, maybe the Trident or something like that. Kool bike but too advanced for its time. Troublesome sometimes.

[Gary Wells]

And there was also the Triumph hurricane, a very limited edition 3 cylinder "Buck Rogers" look like thing. probably very rare and collectible today.

[gordyzx9r]

I've always wanted a Norton Commando.

[Gary Wells]

The Commando was the elite of the Norton line, unless you liked the looks of the oversize gas tank looks of the Norton interstate. It would be a really tough decision between the norton commando that I had or the Triumph Bonneville 650 twin carb 120 that I had. The BSA wasn't even in the same league, so to speak.

[Recklessrob]

I'll have my friend e-mail me some pics of the bike, and
some of the low down on it.
Natty, you could always cafe a jap bike. My friend with the Triton did that too.
He took an early 80's Kawaski and had at it. First he had made clip on bars
for it, and a homemade exhaust for it. From there he went nuts on it.
cutting off all sorts of stuff and welding a few things here and there. We
used to call it the "Wakaski" after he broke the letters on the tank, and
we moved them around on him.  :rofl;
After that he welded some grates to it, painted it flat black, and got
the vanity plate "MADMAX" (I forgot how he spelled it with 5 letters)
He'd always have people looking at it trying to figure out what kind
of bike it was... :supz:

[87natty]

I was thinking that too! A replica of Goose's Kawi 1000 in Mad Max!