Hunter Valley Norton Day 2006

Great day in the HV today, our annual Norton Day was a bonza turnout. Probably had around forty or so Nortons, plus others that turned up in passing. Half those numbers would have been Commando types of various guises. The rest were exactly that, the rest of the Norton lineup.Earliest was a 1928 CS1, still under restoration, but proved to be a great conversation piece, next was my very much in bits, no front end, no tinware, no internals 1936 Model 18, another great conversation piece. Next oldest was a very nice 1938 Inter ridden up from the Central Coast, then my 1946 Model 18. Now into the modern bikes with suspension, a 1951 plunger ES2 ridden two up from the Central Coast, then an assortment of '50s swing arm era ES2's, Dominators, a very nice 99, a few Atlas's. Two lightweight twins.... Jubilees. A couple of very nice specials, an Atlas cafe racer and an ES2 cafe race style and a very tasty Triton with unit engine in a featherbed frame coupled to latish Yamaha twin disc mag wheeled front end and single disc mag wheeled rear end, not at all over the top and what appeared and sounded to be a very usable bike. A genuine Mk2a JPN and then the usual assorted Commando Roadsters, Interstates, Fastbacks etc.

What was interesting was the four generations of single cylinder engine designs on display. Wally Moore's design that brought Norton well and truly out of the bicycle era with his CS1, much more substantial frame than earlier, bigger brakes, only second year for the saddle tank for Norton, more robust Web forks and not to mention the 1927 TT winning OHC engine.

The bare 1936 motor in the bare frame next to the CS1 afforded a great opportunity to compare the Wally Moore design to the Arthur Carrol design engine. Keeping in mind of course the CS1 OHC thoroughbred heritage to the cooking Model 18 OHV jobbie. The remarkable similarity between crankcase shape. The incredible similarity to cylinder and cylinder head finning. If not for the fin cut outs to accommodate twin pushrod tubes on one and big OHC driveshaft tunnel on the other, these parts were out of the same mould. Cylinder head fin shapes were almost identical. On the opposite side of the CS1 to the bare bones '36 M18 was a 1946 Model 18 with the next generation engine design. Being post war, having a full cradle frame to the pre war M18's open diamond pipework. The '46 model having Nortons own Girder fork design compared to the '28 CS1's Web design, very similar. Brakes on the CS1 were big for their day especially compared to the rest of the Norton range of tobacco tin brake drums of the era. Wally made some big upgrades to the range back then. This same CS1, when fitted with the Model 18 engine became the ES2 and started the bloodline that would follow up to the beginning of WW2 whereby the ES2 followed the sportier CS1 / Internationals running gear while the humble model 18 followed along the track of the old sidewackers and ran the common or garden variety open diamond frame and running gear.

Further along the line of bikes came the fourth generation singles that began in 1948 and form the more common ES2 lineup we see coming out of the fifties and is the model lineup that most people relate to.At the other end of the line of singles early twins and specials we had the pleasure of being able to check the credentials of a representation of the last of the old style of Nortons race bikes. A genuine 1974 era Mk2a John Player race bike street replica. Probably the most misunderstood of any of Nortons model line up, never really fitted into the scene when it was new in 1974 because it was too radical and never really understood in all it's subsequent years.Really a marketing exercise, trying to pick up on their mid seventies Formula 750 racing success and to showcase the brilliance of their race rider / engineer Peter Williams. The street version was just a normal 850 Commando with way out fibreglass bodywork, funny sidepanels on the fairing weird double headlight and huge hump on the seat. Rearset footpegs and clip on handlebars.
Peter Williams was a trend setter in the extreme and he was not afraid to try his ideas and put them into practice. Before joining Norton he was one of the first to use disc brakes, mag wheels and study aerodynamics. His theories culminated in the monocoque F750 race bike the JPN street special tries to emulate. The deep sidepanels on the fairing represent the pannier fuel tanks on the race bike. The race bike top tank being only a header tank. Peters ideas were to get the C of G as low as possible. Lightness and strength of mag wheels with better more dependable stopping power of disc brakes, a stiff one piece sheet stainless steel monocoque frame incorporating ducts for engine cooling and carburetor intakes with in built pannier style fuel tanks either side. Lots of wind tunnel work to make a slippery shape with the fairing very low, enclosing the hands and having a high seat hump, so when crouched down behind the screen the air would flow over the fairing, down his back and over the seat hump in an uninterrupted penetrating no drag flow line. Read any of his writings and you'll get the feeling this was a fun bike to ride, being able to two wheel drift it with ease, pull the big speeds with only the 70 / 80 HP the ancient Model 7 design would give compared to the oppositions multicylindered 100+HP thrashability, the Norton hung in there against the oriental onslaught for a couple more years. Great stuff...... great representation.
The line up of Commandos must have covered just about all the models from the silver tanked orange seated first model, right through the range of Roadsters, Interstates, fastbacks and S Models. Pretty well all the years were covered. Fourteen trophies later and bellies full with soft drink and sausage sangas, brains busting with Nortoness, how could the day have been better. I'm sure we'll get comments from others.....

BP Bob