Hi All

I just sold my old BMW R100RS, now I have the money to start on my project bike a 1961 650 Manxman (blue slimline frame and it will stay that colour if I can match it), I got the bike cheaply as the last owner brought it 16 years ago, pulled it all apart without marking anything (all motor parts unmarked) and couldn't put it together again and the head was lost (don't know how you lose a head), its going to be built as a caferacer style, it took me 8 months to chase up a head for it, the motor had been build for racing and has racing history from the orginal owner of the bike, the motor will get a complete rebuild with all new bearings, the bores are 20thou over and has hi comp pistons that show no wear so they will be be going back in, the bike came with a brand new caferace style alloy tank has alloy wheels 19" fornt and 18" rear, alloy central oil tank, the front end is stock Roadholders for that year model but only has single lead shoes, like to put a twinleading front wheel on but they are getting too expencive now, it has a lucas full racing maggie so that will be going back on and mega phone exhaust pipes.

The things that will be put on this bike.

New belt drive and will be run open, racer style front gaurd, clipons, seat with hump on the back, rearsets (will make my own), later charging system with battery ellimator as it won't have a battery and anything else that needs to have to be put on the road, will be posting pics as I go with this rebuild, my yongest daughter who is bike mad is 14 years old so this bike will be built for her and when she gets her bike licence when she is 18, but dad will have some fun on it first when its going, will be starting in the next week or so.

Ashley

Egad . A Blue Norton . There were Red Nortons then . EEK , The WHOLE thing , ( as weve a silly magazine with a silly artical on them ). NOW , A Blue Norton was more of a rarity than a red one .
I think it was two years only , for the Red , with a few leftovers , for some reason . The blues a mid deep blue ? N.O.C. addicts will have the colour code info , alledgedly , accorording to them .

So , youd be defaceing a True Blue Rarity , stove enameling it black , and devalue it by 5.000 % . Hold Steady .Thought the red was a mid 50s wideline tho , will ave a look and see If I can find the referance .

Thanks Matt

I going to keep the orginal paint on the frame as it will be nice and hard by now just need to get some paint to touch it up where there some peeling in places, I already have a 850 motor in a Wideline Featherbed, it has a black frame with a blue tank, I don't know what colour the 650 will get on the tank as yet or I mite just keep the bare alloy tank, that will be the last thing on my mind.

Ashley

Roger ; Not an original ' facory ' blue then . Will dig out tripe anyway , later .

BRAKE , the ancient ' Dustall ' adds , had a picture of their ' T.L.S. ' conversion . Norton , The PICTURE was the Triumph / BSA 1967 Brake Plate ,
IN a Norton Wheel . So ' We ' have to presume it fits , and Tri flogged the design of him , or whoever did the Assy for him .
SO , if you trip over a Tri TLS brake plate , see if itll Nail In the hub / axle if you like . think later ones had the wider shoes .
Could always make one of course , bit of welding & boreing , tri shoes & cams ( or Norton ) on the old SLS back plate .

While we're hear , the Wideline from the 60s raceing bike ( built ) was the Blue Green metalic that Ducati Copied ! ' We ' had it first !
Other wideline from over that way was Grey/Silver .Lotta towns had beach race or local annual road races , 1950s Early sixties , before the rowdies
gave it all a renegade reputation . Wanganui , Paeroa & I think Masterton events still run . A good day out . Street Circuit meetings .

Matt Spencer wrote:While we're hear , the Wideline from the 60s raceing bike ( built ) was the Blue Green metalic that Ducati Copied ! ' We ' had it first !

Well then, Enfield Trials Bikes had (polychromatic) green frames (forerunner of metallic paints) from the early 1950s. Some of them at least were the pukka factory competition versions ?

a genuine Manxman will be worth a lot more than any cafe racer you build, they are rare, a guy I know in Brisbane restored one, he spent some time finding the correct bits, but he got it completed , I think he had it for sale at around $12000 or more.

Yeah, but, WHERE ARE THE PHOTOS???

Hi All


















Here are the pics of what I have and the last one is my Norton 850 that I have ownen since new but I converted it to a Wideline Feather bed in 1980 and was rebuild just over 15 months ago now.

Ashley

Ashley — that last pic you posted got my interest. I've never seen a magneto fitted to the outside of the timing cover of a Commando before. Who makes / made it? What made you decide to go down that route? You have a headlight, so I assume you have a charging system of some kind. Can't see from the pic if you have a battery. Can you elaborate, please?

Good luck with the project and I will be following it with interest.

Dave

Hi All

I will be building this bike as a cafe racer as thats what most of the parts came with the bike plus I like the look, as for building it up as a true Manxman, it would cost to much as for the value it don't matter as this bike will be in my care till the day I die, but its going to be my daughter's bike when she turns 18 but she won't be allowed to sell it as it will be under my care, as for oginal looks don't worry me as I changed my Commando to a Featherbed frame at a early stage of its life, as I know a Featherbed built right will out handle any Commando .

Ashley

Hi Dave

The maggie is a Joe Hunt, as the 850's didn't have a plate behind the motor like the 750's its the easyest way to go, they run great and starts first kick every time even better with JS carbies that has been on the bike for about 3 months now, as for a charging system I run a Spax battery elimanator and run my lights off the altenator so no need for a battery, the head light does go dull when I hit the brakes but I can live with that and I olny run 4 main power wires in my wiring so very simple set up and reliable.

As for the Maggie I ran a Joe Hunt on my Triumph for over 9 years (250,000 ks) without any problems with it, as for the new Joe Hunt maggies they run 4 rare earth magnets where the old ones run 2, it puts out a big spark always and is simple to mount with the kit and even easyer to tune, I have marked all my setting on the outside of the backing plate and when I need to service the maggie I just pull it off the bike and put it on the bench and put it back on on the marks and its all still tuned, so much easyer that any other systems I have used.

Ashley

Ashley — thanks for the low down on the Joe Hunt mag, which I had heard mentioned, but never seen.

Your daughter's lucky Ash! Cj

Hi all

I have decided to paint the frame black as the tank will be blue the same as my other Norton, a blue frame and blue tank would be to much for my likes, the other way was to keep the tank unpainted but I like a nice blue paint job and its my lucky colour, so I will be going down this road.

Ashley

Go for your life Ash, lets see lots of photos.
Hmm, great idea, the daughter thing, I think I'll try that out on my wife, see if it works.
AC.