The plunger body was totally clogged with an amalgam of brake fluid, moisture & debris-



Another bunch of grunt removed-



The inner plunger valve was half plugged, leaving only one of the three orifices clear-

The main cylinder body is not too bad off with a bit of etching, it will seal just fine with the new o-ring-



Fairly clean external plunger section-



Much better...

Used a hand pump and got a nice solid pedal PDQ-



This wasn't critical to a test ride, but I wanted to nip up some of the loose hanging stuff; rear fender was pretty sorry-



I had to trim a couple of inches off the bottom to clear the upper monoshock arm, then mounted it up. After that it was a forgone conclusion that the starter solenoid & rectifier had to find new homes-

Initial test ride with rear brakes only showed that the front suspension is set too stiff; rear feels great. The bike DEFINITELY has guts! The sound of the header is very throaty and "vintage sports car" sounding. No suprises.



The primary side gets it's first reasonable photo. The chainguard needed a 2" notch trimmed off the front to clear the swingarm, not a bad compromise-



Tomorrow I'll get the rear brakes done on the Silver bike, and both sets of front brakes done (if I can get a custom hose made to go from the Norton master cylinder to a modern banjo fit manifold).

Went ahead and put in some more shop time after dinner, got the head & tail lights installed; still need to wire up the tail light.



I still need to get some more flat stock and make a pair of upper brackets for the headlight to triangulate both sides.

Beauty shots & additional test ride results:









Got the front brakes bled and topped off. Since the bike doesn't have a plate, and the city has been working overtime issuing tickets to slow thier budget deficit, I figured I'd better keep the test riding close to home. Still, the bike feels great; typical Norton bottom end torque that just sets your eyeballs back in thier sockets and accelleration that keeps them there (and we're talking moderate throttle use during run-in). The difference between a stock cam & springs and Megacycle cam with Precision Machine spring kit is DEFINITELY noticeable.

Suspension is decidedly stiff, but not jarring (then again, I only weigh 140). There's still some available tweaking, but I'm thinking of letting the owner fine-tune it to his preference.

I really need to get some miles on it, so I'll probably stick my Interstate plate on it and take it with me to the Texas Mile this weekend...

I like that light... prob 90% of the ones I see are crooked and pointing up. Looks nice to see it parallel to the ground for once lol.

U gonna put a v.stack on the amals?

It was easy, didn't even use a level. Hand-cut the notches for the rear frame loop, too; touched up with a rat-tail file.

Carbs on this one, and the 74 "mule" are getting UNI dirt bike type socks, the only thing that will fit in the available space.

Hi Paul. So I guess as there's no remarks about the handling (other than it being a bit stiff) that the monoshock is just that - unremarkable? By this I mean that it's just doing what it's supposed to do - and no reflection on the design or implementation.

I'm just back from the "Texas Mile" land speed event, it was PACKED, record attendance, and SPEED was shooting some Paul Tracy thing with a Camaro vs mustng (just goofing off for the cameras, they were doing 190+ MPH runs).

The bottom line on this bike and the Silver one is that I have simply not yet had the time to properly sort the brakes to the point where I have full braking capabilities, and nominal operational lights where I can take them out on the street and run them through any significant paces.

Now that I have the planning, preparation and "unwinding" done from the TxMile event, I can concentrate this week on nailing these two down and reporting back with a significant preliminary analysis of my swingarm design. I probably won't get to have either of them on the TRACK any time soon, so a comprehensive, "edge-of-the-envelope" analysis is still going to have to wait.

As far as BASIC low-speed observations: totally unremarkable.

The front & top steadies arrived from Windy Eads (BillT), through Greg Fauth (norbsa).





That completes the engine mounting picture. They'll be installed next, and not much left to do besides a bit of electrical wiring and battery mounting...

Dunstall rearsets arrived (kit was for a Kawasaki triple, no Norton MkIII kits available), thanx, swooshdave.



Here's my plan to adapt them; parts are already at the welder's-



Should have them on the bike by tonight...

I can't believe how nasty the original rear master cylinder was on that thing. The one I removed and sold off my MKIII looked NOS compared to the one you had.

grandpaul wrote:Dunstall rearsets arrived (kit was for a Kawasaki triple, no Norton MkIII kits available), thanx, swooshdave.

Here's my plan to adapt them; parts are already at the welder's-



Should have them on the bike by tonight...

That's a crazy setup on the brake side (the wrong side). If you had more time would you have figured out how to adapt another master cylinder?

grandpaul wrote:The front & top steadies arrived from Windy Eads (BillT), through Greg Fauth (norbsa).

That completes the engine mounting picture. They'll be installed next, and not much left to do besides a bit of electrical wiring and battery mounting...

You mean you you rode the bike with no headsteady and the thing didn't collapse upon itself? Inconceivable!