Missing Nortons in the bedroom

Status
Not open for further replies.
swooshdave said:
Yes, but do you have to go up and down stairs? :p
Click to expand...
My Vincent spent its first three years in its own bedroom while under initial re-construction. It then spent the next eight years in the living room; during that time, a scaffold plank was used to ride it down/up three steps before/after each ride. That was late 70's/mid 80's in the pre-helmet days in California. The rattly, chuffy rumbling sound of the engine while motoring up and echoing through the kitchen was sweet! :)

Finally built a garage when the 71 Commando entered the picture.

Edit: Exited one marriage and entered into another in that time frame. :cool:

Cheers!
~998cc
 
Last edited:
What year is the green one?
It has the early pointed clutch dome on the primary cover.
And I see Mike doing a non-cul-de-sac interview with the owner.
 
The masters were sleeved. The calipers were rebuilt. I never introduced brake fluid because I didn't know when I would be getting them roadworthy again. The MK II didn't even have the front caliper installed. I installed the parts the night before, and got one bled in the morning. The MK II front brake was bled out on the deck.

The green one is a 1973. My younger brother bought it at HPI from George Gjonovitch. It has always a peppy Norton. It currently has an HPI #3 cam, and lots of compression, with twin 34 Mikunis. The rear disc and mags were on it at the time of purchase, around 1977 or 1978. The black one has twin 32 Mikunis, but I have 34s to install. The rear master cylinder needs a rebuild, and I'm not sure what it is. I do believe that it is a handlebar mount front brake caliper with a remote reservoir, but I don't know the source. It appears that a front brake lever was machined to accept the foot pedal brake cable. It had the '68 primary cover when purchased.

HPI was a Norton shop first in Orange, then Garden Grove, then he worked a bit out of his house after an illness he never quite got over. He was a great guy. He was building 940 Commandos, was a Drouin Supercharger dealer, and also made his own NOX kits in the mid 70s. He built some Japanese engines too, mostly for some form of midget racing, but the occasional dragster.

There is a thread here about his V4 with two Commando top ends.
 
Last edited:
I did have a strip of plywood over the carpet. It didn't cause the house any grief. The foundation was about 30" lower in those days, and the front door faced the street. It was nothing to get them in and out. I did love that Enfield. Somebody in Portland wanted it really badly, and away it went. A couple years later, he bought the '70 Lightning, which I have very little good to say about aside from its styling. That was a German market bike. I bought the Enfield and BSA both in the fall of '87. Both non running. The RE came from a Delta Junction farmer. His brother had purchased it new on leave, returned to Vietnam and lost his life. It had not been run in the interim. The BSA cam from its original owner; purchased when he was stationed in Germany. It had come with candy red paint and chrome at the knee indentations. He had painted it flat black, and bondoed over the badge indentations. Neither had anything wrong with them, and were running right away. The Enfield was the smoothest 4 stroke non balanced solid mount vertical twin I have ridden. Poor front brake. Somehow, it just made you happy to be on it. A MK II had Norton forks, and could have easily had a disc. On the Lightning, I mostly wanted to get off of it after 50 miles. I remember riding it out to Tok from Fairbanks to see some racing at the old WW II Lend-Lease airfield in Tanacross. Delta Junction to Tok is super boring. The BSA did run that part of the trip between 80 and 90 mph indicated without leaking any oil.
 
Super Seven said:
The main part of the house was built in 1918. Little engineering, and lots of wood.
Click to expand...
I estimate at around 300 lbs without fuel for each bike x4 = 1200 lbs which is .536 imperial ton.
If you are willing to put your faith in the woodwork without reinforcing it from below, then it's your pocket it will hit if it goes wrong.
 
I converted my 850 into the Featherbed frame in my bed room in the early 80s wasn't married at the time so no problems for me, my mate Don who got me into Norton's lives out at Granhton where they had the floods a few years back but he lives up high, he has about 6 bikes through out his house, 3 in the lounge room one a world speed record holder he brought back from the States up on a display stand, his first Triton racer is in the kitchen and 2 in his bedroom, his shed is also full of bikes up on a mezzadine floor and down below a fully equipped machine shop and rebuild area with his twin engine Triumph drag bike and a few projects on the go, Don has only remarried so not sure what the new wife thinks lol, another mate has his Hardtail Triumph in his lounge room, so its very common for me to see bikes in houses.
Myself have built a big shed/workshop up the back for bikes only, built it in 91 and is now well set up for working on all my bikes as well building a few others for a bit of pocket money, my wife knows my bikes come before her in every part of my life, she knows if she said "its the bikes or me" she know I would have her bags packed before she knew it lol, well she is still with me after 30 years.

Ashley
 
Bernhard said:
I estimate at around 300 lbs without fuel for each bike x4 = 1200 lbs which is .536 imperial ton.
If you are willing to put your faith in the woodwork without reinforcing it from below, then it's your pocket it will hit if it goes wrong.
Click to expand...

I think you're light on your estimate. 400 lbs per bike easy. But you are way underestimating how stout they could have built the houses in those days. Trees were practically free out there so they didn't skimp.
 
Houses of that era can support an old skool 70s style king size waterbed. My dad had one on the second floor of a couple of early 1900s houses in Seattle.

Actual 2x10 straight grain Doug fir floor joists, 16" on center.
 
swooshdave said:
I think you're light on your estimate. 400 lbs per bike easy. But you are way underestimating how stout they could have built the houses in those days. Trees were practically free out there so they didn't skimp.
Click to expand...
I deliberately underestimated the weight!
You have a lot of faith, along with prayers for a building where the carpenters did not need to work out the combined weigh of the householder putting 4 motorcycles there. Oh BTW, add say, another 200 lbs for a human being standing there, double that if 2 people triple that if ...........
 
Well, the bikes are no longer in the living room and the house is still standing. So all your concerns are moot in this situation.

You are correct that one should consider the weight but in this case it was fine.
 
It is heart warming though to see so many Norton enthusiasts concerned about the damage that could have happened to those fine bikes if the floor had given way. ;)
 
swooshdave said:
I think you're light on your estimate. 400 lbs per bike easy. But you are way underestimating how stout they could have built the houses in those days. Trees were practically free out there so they didn't skimp.
Click to expand...
Yes, and approx 200 lbs per wheel is less than I put on a floor. It's not so much the overall weight that matters - it's the spot weight. Even modern crappy construction can handle way more weight that those bikes!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

P
Where do people race nortons in the UK?
Replies
0
Views
830
Peteyoung75
P
brokeneagle
  • Locked
Missing the politics in the "pub"
3 4 5 6 7 8
Replies
152
Views
15,719
Jerry Doe
Jerry Doe
Back
Top