Norton In The Family

Don’t know if anyone saw the recent article in the October AMA American Motorcyclist magazine by Dave Mathers about his Norton and old bikes in general.
Don’t know if he is a forum member.
Very good, his experience resonates in me and probably others on the forum.

Good read, a couple of good lessons in there. First his layshaft bearing failed destroying the gearbox (common problem on the 850's) and second a check valve in the oil line failed and toasted his motor.

Great read, good bloke.
Thanks,
Dave

This is the member from the article: the-buckeye-rider-u182.html

It's the only one I've seen with a rear disk brake. Was that a factory design or a mod? Were the original equipment front disk brakes on the left side? Most I've seen were on the right and. IIRC, that's what we were working on at the time I left N-V. The big mistake made in the early development was to try to make the disk slide in and out to work with a single piston caliper. With the caliper on the outer edge of the disk and the splines (first try) and dowel pegs (second version) down near the axle, the disk always tilted. Since it was a steel or cast iron item sliding on an aluminum hub, the hub got chewed up. I think the first disk-braked version on the market was maybe 1970.

MK3 850's has discs front and back, front moved side as well from being on the right side on MK1 and MK2.

frankdamp said:

It's the only one I've seen with a rear disk brake. Was that a factory design or a mod?

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Factory (850 Mk3).

frankdamp said:

Were the original equipment front disk brakes on the left side? Most I've seen were on the right and. IIRC, that's what we were working on at the time I left N-V.

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Right side except for the 850 Mk3.

frankdamp said:

The big mistake made in the early development was to try to make the disk slide in and out to work with a single piston caliper. With the caliper on the outer edge of the disk and the splines (first try) and dowel pegs (second version) down near the axle, the disk always tilted. Since it was a steel or cast iron item sliding on an aluminum hub, the hub got chewed up. I think the first disk-braked version on the market was maybe 1970.

Click to expand...

First fitted to 1972 production models it had a fixed disc and double piston caliper. The Norvil racers had floating discs earlier, however, that type of brake wasn't used on production models.