page_title: Featherbed frame
section_title: Dresda
hierarchical_section_title: Featherbed frame / Featherbed variants / Dresda
caption_attribution_description: English: Chris Vincent's 1958 National Championship-winning NorBSA grasstrack sidecar outfit. A Manx Norton powered by a BSA A10 engine and gearbox. The outfit was lowered by using 16 inch wheels instead of 19, but the road-race origins remain clear, being still fitted with clip-on handlebars and rear-set foot-rests. Nortons with BSA engines were known as Norbsa, NorBSA and sometimes Nor-Beesa.
context_page_description: The featherbed frame was a motorcycle frame developed by the British Norton motorcycle company to improve the performance of their racing motorcycles around the twisting and demanding Isle of Man TT course in 1950. It was considered revolutionary at the time, and the best handling frame that a racer could have. Later adopted for Norton production motorcycles, it was also widely used by builders of custom hybrids such as the Triton, becoming legendary and remaining influential to this day.
  The Featherbed inspired other frame builders who based their own products on similar principles, including the 1960s heavyweight Münch Mammut, a lightweight version for a 250 cc BSA C15 engine, and the 1970-conceived Dresda frame.
  The Featherbed was replaced by the Norton Isolastic frame in 1967 for the then newly-developed Norton Commando which used a rubber-mounted engine and gearbox, although Norton continued to offer the Mercury with a Featherbed frame until production ceased by 1970. Replicas of the frame continue to be produced by specialist companies.
context_section_description: Dave Degens created his first hybrid motorcycle of a Triumph engine/Norton rolling chassis in 1961 when working for former racer and motorcycle race shop owner Geoff Monty, using a racing Manx Norton with a blown engine. The bike was sold before it was finished, and realising there was a potential business, in 1963 Degens bought into Dresda Autos, a small scooter shop in South London together with business partner Richard 'Dickie' Boon, keeping the existing name.
  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.
  In 1970, racer and bike shop owner Dave Degens produced his first bespoke Dresda frame, after his business name Dresda Autos. 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. The new bike used Degens' later development of a unit construction race-prepared Triumph engine, unlike the earlier models having a separate engine and gearbox.
  
  The new configuration won the 1970 Barcelona 24-hour race, reprising Degens' 1965 win. 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.
   This machine won the 1972 Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance race.
  Degens subsequently offered frame kits for self-builders using Triumph and Honda engines, and also produced complete machines for road-use, named Dresda Triumph and Dresda Honda.
caption: Chris Vincent's 1958 National Championship-winning NorBSA grasstrack sidecar outfit, a Manx Norton rolling chassis powered by a BSA A10 (650 cc) engine and gearbox, fitted with clip-on handlebars and rear-set foot-rests, it was also used for road racing needing only a change of tyres
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