After the rebuild

Hi All

After putting up the video of the first kick of my rebuilt of my Norton 850 Wideline Featherbed just over 2 months ago, I like to give you all a up date as how it is going, we have had some shocking wet weather here in sunny Queensland Australia in the last 2 months but in between rainy days I have clocked up over 800 miles, the motor was very tight at first but has loosened up very nicely, with the new Joe Hunt maggie it starts first kick every time, it was very easy to set up and I have only done the timing by sight and ear so far but I have got it set pretty much to perfect as the motor is running without any problems and it is idaling down where it should when stopped at lights or pulling over to stop...

The new belt drive is running where it should and is smooth as a babies bottom, the new mufflers are putting out a nice note when I give it a few revs ( I modiafided the baffles so the exhaust has full unresriced flow through the baffles ) where ever I ride I see a lot of poeple looking around when they hear me coming as well I get a lot of non motorcycle poepe asking me about the bike and how impress they are with my handy work...

With the motor getting close to being run in, I have been giving it a few quick short revs, the SS Cam grind kicks in at about 4000 rpm and the bike just wants to take off, with the port work that was done to the head the fuel is getting in quicky and the exhaust gases is getting out quicky, very happy all up with how the motor is perfroming, with the summer holidays coming up in 4 weeks time I will be clocking up a few long miles on the bike ( I have 4 weeks off )...

If you all remember when the first day back on the road I had to lay the bike down because of a dumb bitch in a car tuning in front of me with the wrong indercator on, the taco got damage ( broken glass and bezel ), there is a place in Brisbane where I live called Otto's Instruments that rebuilds Smiths gauges and is known world wide for his work, I took the Taco over and he is replacing the glass and bezel and putting a kit and service, as well I took the orginal speedo that was damaged in a major fire on the bike 25 years ago ( thats another story ) to see if he could save it and yes he can rebuild it, so it will be good to have both orginal gauges back on the bike, it is going to cost a bit to do but he said it will be beetter than new, will let you all know how they go when I get them back in about a week or two...

So far I have only had one muffler bolt come loose and a leak in the front brake line caused by the lay down on the road, the bike is handling excepctionaly well it is like riding on air, when I go through corners, sometimes I got to look back to see if I did go around the corner hehe...

Well all take care and ride safely

Ashley

I always loved the way the Norton went around corners. You could ride it up on a curb and back down on a left turn with the bank the wrong way. I went around a curve once just across the RR tracks onto route 1 in Beltsville and there was a big oil spot on the road right in the turn. When the rear wheel stopped spinning and came out of the oil, it just righted itself straight up and kept going like nothing happened. When the rear wheel was spinning I was convinced I was going down. Would have been all over the road on my side with a Honda.

Good job, keep us posted. We don't have your good weather here, so my reports are going to be in April or May.

Dave
69S

Ashman,

Which part of QLD are you in ?.

Thanks for the Oz adventure and tales of innate handling of articulated chassis.
Beware of the really fast sweepers where time to build up to hinging. Low aire practice can instill the sense of its onset and weird reaction to pilot inputs, then you call to ride it out of not. Tales of toss downs right out of the box help me not take mine so personal.

Hi Josh

I live in Brisbane...

Ashley