Back some 40-odd years, CRM contributing writer Blair Powell used to subscribe to England’s Classic Bike magazine. The monthly provided a glimpse into a world of motorcycling that was fresh and completely new, especially for two twentysomethings riding funky old Harleys that spent as much time broken down on the roadside as they did in the passing lane. We were both mesmerized by the home-brewed engineering behind exotic machines like the Tribsa (Triumph/BSA hybrid) and the Triton, the successful marriage of a Triumph Bonneville engine and a Norton featherbed chassis. We’d been thrilled to read about a bloke named Dave Degens hadn’t so much invented the Triton special as popularized the breed, haling designed and constructed some of the fastest, sleekest versions on British roads during the ’50s and ’60s.
I was fortune enough to not only get to know Dave some 30 years later while filming episodes of “Cafe Racer TV” for Discovery Channel, but he and I became friends along the way, sharing an appreciation of classic British motorcycles that ran very deep. We learned of Dave’s passing today, and with it, the motorcycling world has lost a true craftsman, innovator and bold individual. His accomplishments are many and varied, having emerged from the first generation of London ton-up boys during the 1950s, developing the skills to keep his Triton running faster than those of his riding buddies.
By the early 1960s, he’d purchased Dresda Autos, a former scooter repair shop in the Putney section of London. His insights into making tuned Triumph engines run faster and more efficiently helped Dresda grow into a well-regarded aftermarket manufacturer. At one point, the shop had a dozen full-time technicians who worked long hours building, repairing and eventually racing Dave’s creations on circuits throughout the British Isles. Racing against the likes of Rex Butcher, Dae Croxford and even Mike Hailwood, Degens proved his home-brewed motorcycles could compete with the world’s best, proving that cafe racers were more than just bodged-together boy’s toys.
He eventually became so confident in the much-improved Norton frames that Dresda had engineered that Dave took one of his Tritons to the prestigious Barcelona 24-hour Endurance Race in Spain, beating the factory machines by a comfortable margin. He accomplished this not once, but twice attracting the attention of engineers at Honda who hired Dave on to help with their racing team’s chassis development.
Imagine conceiving of a motorcycle in your small, private garage that could take on and best the likes of Honda, Ducati and Triumph, and you get an idea of just how revolutionary Dave’s motorcycle designs were at the time.
We always felt honored when Dave would phone us, as recently as 2022, to comment on custom bikes we featured in cafe Racer, giving his (sometimes harsh, sometimes hilarious) assessments of their handiwork and style. He never minced words and had the history to back up his words, having raced Dresda machines well into his ’70s.
Cafe Racer magazine’s February/March issue will include a multi-page tribute to the man who popularized cafe racers for a global audience and proved that a ingle engineer, driven by a unique vision, can accomplish the seemingly impossible, with enough courage and determination.
