THE WAY WE WERE

An unfortunate incident at a circular road junction led to Malcolm Hutton building this bike

A purple Triton and some trials trickery among the memories

THIS IS ME on my Triton in around 1967. I’d passed my test about four months after my 16th birthday, having ridden bikes on private land since I was about 14, and went straight out and bought a secondhand 650cc Triumph T110. You could do that in those days! At some point after that, I managed to ride over a roundabout (I started wearing glasses after that) and bent the frame, along with inflicting a few more dents.

The next six months or so were spent in our garden shed, listening to Radio Luxembourg whilst rebuilding the bike as a Triton and refurbishing the engine – using a gas poker to heat the crankcases so I could fit the main bearings in my mum’s kitchen. The front mudguard, as well as the mounts for the speedometer/rev counter and rearsets, were all made by me, cut out of a sheet of duralumin and polished by hand.

I can’t remember where I bought the Featherbed frame from, but it had no number on it, so when I came to register the bike I had to stamp it ‘msjh251949’ if I remember correctly – my initials and birthday. As my brother worked at AMC at the time, I managed to acquire a Norton Commando rear hub, so I didn’t have to grind down the Triumph drive chain sprocket.

In the photo it’s looking pretty shiny, so I suspect it was a Sunday afternoon just before a trip to Johnsons Café (memorable for its football machines and teaspoon on a chain) on the A2 near Brands Hatch, which would have been wall-to-wall bikes at that time. I also went to the Isle of Man TT races on it two years running, in the days of Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Bill Ivy, etc.

Of course, having sold it long ago for about £110, I now wish I’d kept it – but I have recently acquired a 1973 Bonneville, which is a pretty good substitute.