If I ever get the chance to be in your neck of the woods, please let me see your collection… from the pictures already… it’s special!
I’ve not shown you the other factory works Norton I’ve got, one of only five made and only two in private hands, the other three are in the museum. It got 1st and 2nd on debut for the newly signed rider and the new frame manufacturer.
I understand I’d have to be in Oz... but one day, if I’m lucky enough, the stars might align! I don’t think you are talking about the Williams monocoque bikes (as they were JPS as well, aren’t they the inspiration for the bug-eyes?) So are you talking pre-war? Or would you rather just show us... You could do a whole thread on your collection!
No it’s post war much later I could do a post if did a bike a day it would be well over a month of posting
I think it would be worthwhile ! Edit - I don’t know enough about Norton race history... I know there was the featherbed frame, the isolastic (edit - elastomeric? Oops cheers @Adie P ), the monocoque and obviously the rotary (558?)... Dunstall made Norton mash ups too with some success... you’ll have to let us out of our (my) misery!
The rotary engine is not dead, a former Norton guy is making a rotary race bike. https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/crighton-cr700w/
That also looks nice, but at £85000 for a non street legal or race legal bike... it’s a hell of an investment for a track bike.
I think you might have meant the "isolastic" which was the patented (I think) method of engine mountings used in the Commandos. The mechanism effectively killed the terrible vibrations of the big bore 750 parallel twin (R)Atlas engine 'developed' and used for the Come-and-go. Great idea that, by way of the law of unintended consequences, introduced its own set of problems in eveil handling when worn or incorrectly set up ..... not exactly a good property for the otherwise peerless handling of the Norton brand of machine. If you like older Nortons then you'd probably love the collection owned by my friend in the US. He has/had many Manx Nortons including early historic (CS1, etc.) bikes; factory race Manxes and predecessors - all of which he has personally restored to museum quality. A photo of his collection ..... Most of my other shots of his collection are too large to upload and, at present, I don't have time to resize them - maybe later. In the meantime I'll add a couple of a more modern Norton - one that Norton never actually built.
Cheers @Adie P ... I said I had limited knowledge I had heard that the mounts had to be well maintained for handling purposes. There’s a small but great museum near me that is also worth a visit... (some nice HRDs) it has an IOM TT section (as it’s a short hop away, and Legend John Mcguiness being fairly local, from Morecambe) https://www.lakelandmotormuseum.co.uk/
Is that two engines bolted together like Milly does... Edit - Hmmm, nah... Double over head cam with squared covers... summat like a z900 maybe?
Ok it’s one of only five Harris framed Norton works Rotary bikes. NRS001 gave Ron Haslam’s first and second on debut in 1991 on the newly designed Norton rotary bikes with the F1 style engine and 6 Speed gearbox based on a OW01 gearset. The most famous of the NRS bikes is 005 the white Charger with Steve Hislop winning the TT in 1992 Three of the Harris NRS 003, 004, 005 are in the bike museum in the UK and two in private hands 001 with me in Australia and 002 in Italy.
That’s a cool piece of history you have there @RaceComp… Sloppy’s white Norton is pretty legendary, do you know if there is much difference between yours and that?
No not really, the frame is the bike everything else is bolt on. The frame, fairings and probably the seat unit may only be real parts that bike as raced in the 92 TT win. Don’t forget it was Ron Haslam’s bike and the next week it was back in JPS colours racing again with a different engine etc. Norton were notorious for swapping parts from bike to bike. Ever wonder how many white chargers were made? You can spot Steve’s bike he had a piece of aluminium inserted to lift the screen up so he could get under it. This was done after practice. I have a lot of detailed pictures from Brian Crighton who rebuilt the motor for the museum so I know what it’s got now. my NRS001 frame started of with a wet clutch then a belt drive and moved the engine back like they did on Steve’s 005 bike.
