- Joined
- Jan 7, 2016
- Messages
- 1
Hello; My name is Jon Ramsden, from north Alabama. I have an old Nomad, that has been in the family since it was bought new by my uncle, Joseph Dewey Sides, in Texas in 1958. I actually once had the original bill of sale on the bike, but have no clue where that is any more. Going from memory (very dangerous at this age), it seems like I remember the bike new cost $1,658.00. He bought the bike new, raced it for a few years, then moved from Houston to Nashville TN and parked it. Motor froze up, even though he would occasionally squirt oil down the cylinders. He gave the bike to me in 1971 (I was 21 then), as a trade for a piano I no longer used, for his daughter's music lessons. A friend of mine went with me and we drove from Athens to Nashville to pick up the bike and bring it back home, where we worked on it for several months, and finally got the thing going. It was surprisingly fast. I rode it for years, through the rest of my college career, even commuting between Athens and Florence one semester on it. I stopped riding it, after almost killing myself on it one day around 1976, and it sat for a few years. I got all hot and excited to get it going again around 1992, bought a bunch of new parts, had a lot om machining done, but by wife suddenly found we were pregnant with our first child. So the hot rods, the motorcycle projects, and the boat went away. Now, with both kids grown, single again, I am playing with hot rods, and have drug this old Norton out again to start considering renovation on. So I am seeking out all sources of information and parts I can associate myself with during this process, with this forum being one. The only pic I could post, is a stock 1958 Nomad 600 cc, which looks almost exactly like my bike, except mine is a factory 650, and the front fender had a Pedestrian Slicer on it, where the stock photo shows a lean front fender, and the tail light is also different. The one I have is a factory original all numbers matching example. I have seen the debates on crank journal sizes, crank breakage, when which part was available on what year, and the like. If there is anything I can measure or show pics of to support a solution to any of the arguments, I am happy to do that. Please let me apologize in advance for what will likely be a barrage of questions. Thank you for allowing me on this board :mrgreen:
