Featherbed frame
[4][2][5][full citation needed] Later adopted for Norton production motorcycles,[6] it was also widely used by builders of custom hybrids such as the Triton,[7] becoming legendary and remaining influential to this day.
[15][16][17][full citation needed] In 1949 brothers Rex and Cromie McCandless offered Norton a new frame to support their successful 500cc race single.
He had made several improvements to the Triumph, notably an innovative new frame with a swinging arm fitted with vertical hydraulic shock absorbers from a Citroen car.
The Norton Motorcycle Company were concerned at the reliability of their plunger (or "Garden Gate") frame, as several had broken through the stress of racing.
It was a welded twin loop with a swinging arm fitted with their own design of shock absorbers, with a heavily braced cross-over headstock.
The Norton works was not well equipped so the sif-bronze welding was undertaken by the McCandless brothers who produced the eight frames for the racing team by hand.
Harold Daniell was a successful Isle of Man TT racer with three victories and several placings in the Tourist Trophy races and the Manx Grand Prix.
The "Brough Superior" Rear Spring Frame, to quote "Castor" of "Motor Cycling," renders "pitching or wobble non-existent, impossible.
Using grade A mild steel, the size of this engine determined the space between the top and bottom rails of the full duplex cradle.
[39] Degens created what he termed as Dresda Triton from 1963, with the Motorcycle Mechanics' road test of June 1964 stating "The firm has sold well over fifty to date ...", naming two mechanics/bike builders in addition to Degens, who was a regular short-circuit road racer, having ridden for Monty and Paul Dunstall on his ex-works 500 cc Norton Domiracer with lowboy frame designed by Doug Hele in the 1963 and 1964 Manx Grands Prix.
Based on the geometry of the smaller-capacity (250 cc/350 cc) Aermacchis he had previously raced, the new frame had tube runs and layout based on the Featherbed, but with upscaled proportions to allow for the use of taller, heavier, more-powerful 650 cc parallel twin cylinder engines, similar to his 1965 Barcelona 24-hour endurance race-winning Dresda Triton.
After this success, French motorcycle dealer Japauto commissioned Degens to build a bespoke race-frame for the still-new Honda CB750 four-cylinder engine that had been specially enlarged for racing to 900 cc.
[12][13][43] In addition to the better-known Triumph-Norton and Vincent-Norton,[44][45] a small number of other hybrid motorcycles,[note 1][46] sometimes known as 'specials', have been created using the featherbed frame, mostly with associated Norton-sourced, matching running gear:
