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I was wondering if anyone had a copy of the Classic bike magazine article on Fred Barlow, apparently he was a Norton development engineer(?) It was few years ago now.

If you have, would you be kind enough to scan and post or pm me to arrange a copy. I will purchase if available.

Any other additional info would also be appreciated.

I have a 12/71 combat with a head that had Mr Barlows expertise applied to.

Cheers
Phil

Phil — I have a stack of Classic Bike mags and I could sift through them, but if you could narrow down the approx year, it would be easier. Could you email Classic Bike and ask them to search their archives? If they can pinpoint the issue, I will search in my pile of mags. If I find it, I can scan and email it to you.

Dave

In '98 my Commando came with a newish 500mile FB head job (heavily pocketted valves) and 2S cam that didn't match anything in the 2S/4S range. Original owner explained this to me since the keyway was machined way off. The head work wasn't impressive I regret to say, at least not for a £330 bill. Only cost me that for a 'Cyl Head Shop' job 2 years ago......

Hi Keith,

I'd imagine Freds head performed better than anything Cyl Head Shop have ever done on a Norton!! My original FBS race head on my 750 was one of the quickest twins racing in the UK at the time....quicker than 900 Dukes in a straight line too, I was always being accused of running a big motor! However due to a severe mistake on my part I brought the head to Cyl Head shop.....the power went from 68 RWBHP all the way to 44 RWBHP.....now that can't have been easy!!
Luckily I have a new head which CHS will never even get to look at, and I'm back at the front of the twins class again!!

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I did the search on the classic bike website, no joy. I managed to get hold of a classic bike mag (7/93) on ebay. It has an article on FBS services. Hopefully it will be a good read.

My 750 goes really well, the previous owner had the head work done in 1996. He actually took the head over from Australia and left it with FBS while he toured around Europe.

Cheers
Phil

FrankB said:

I managed to get hold of a classic bike mag (7/93) on ebay. It has an article on FBS services. Hopefully it will be a good read.

Click to expand...

I looked up that CB 7/93 issue, the article is "Fred Barlow shows how to overhaul your Norton head"

L.A.B. said:

FrankB said:

I managed to get hold of a classic bike mag (7/93) on ebay. It has an article on FBS services. Hopefully it will be a good read.

Click to expand...

I looked up that CB 7/93 issue, the article is "Fred Barlow shows how to overhaul your Norton head"

Click to expand...

At least I will be full bottle on overhauling my head

Good old ebay :roll:

Thanks, if you find any other good reads on FBS just let me know.

It would appear Fred was popular that month!

As it seems there are two different articles in different magazines, one is in 7/93 issue of "Classic Bike", and the other in 7/93 issue of "Classic Bike Guide"!

I'd imagine Freds head performed better than anything Cyl Head Shop have ever done on a Norton!! My original FBS race head on my 750 was one of the quickest twins racing in the UK at the time....quicker than 900 Dukes in a straight line too, I was always being accused of running a big motor! However due to a severe mistake on my part I brought the head to Cyl Head shop.....the power went from 68 RWBHP all the way to 44 RWBHP.....now that can't have been easy!!
Luckily I have a new head which CHS will never even get to look at, and I'm back at the front of the twins class again!!

Click to expand...

My apologies I didn't mean to cast aspersions since Fred is no longer with us but I have to say the head was not well done, something pointed out to me by Norman White when I took it to him for helicoils......his comments are unprintable! Yes also heard occasional negs about CHS but I must have been lucky. What did he do to lose you 24+horses?

Hi Keith,

CHS decided that he was going to play about with the gas flow, and as I was using 34mm carbs he was going to take the ports out to match....he managed to break through the drain on the drive side inlet, so it was sucking oil into the cylinder, gouged huge lumps out of the roof of the port etc. The result was so bad that on the dyno a change of 4 jet sizes either way made no difference to carburation or power, it just couldn't breathe enough air!! He also was asked to do another head.....just recut the seats and was reminded on a daily basis that he wasn't to touch anything other than the seats.....but when the head came back it had been roughed up, ports modified and ruined.....an expensive lesson learned!! Now I go directly to Serdi when I want a job done....closer to you too, in Uxbridge!! Lots of tuners use them P&M are one well known one, and Richard doesn't send work out to just anyone!!

Interesting. Yes I also told him to leave the ports alone since the intakes were already quite well opened up by FBS. He did however do work on the exhausts but clearly learned his lesson from you! and didn't overdo it. Even closer to me now in Wormley, Surrey, about the same distance to Uxbridge. Look forward to seeing your machine at Donington.

Cheers Keith,

I should have both bikes there if all goes well.....I'll be No70 as usual!!

See you there

John