P11 series Literature 1967-1969

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Thanks to BillT for starting the P11 thread and getting it into world play.
Thank you to Jerry Doe for setting up Accessnorton.com and taking good care of it. BIG job!
I am always looking for period literature on the bikes I have in the workshop to help in a quest for best period look. Realizing that period lit can be misleading as old photos are used sometimes or simply bad graphics. Here is the first USA ad for P11 in July of 1967 Cycle.
This drawing is an early press release and the left battery cover is an artists best guess at the time.
 

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Here is the cover of July 1967 Cycle with the new P11 along with the new Atlas.
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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So I found this photo drawing of the other side of the "wrong battery cover" P11 in a Domiracer price list 1995.

Not sure where Bob and his team got this drawing .....but Domiracer WAS AWESOME!
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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P11A brochure was a 2 sided pieces of lit with this photo showing the picture side front.
Unfortunately the P11A pictured is a P11 and is great reference for P11 use.
All P11A have no tank stripe, low pipes, dual seat, rear pegs, new taillight, steel chrome fenders, rib 3.25 front tire, and more
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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So you want a real Norton P11A? To cruise London...... So did Clint Eastwood!
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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Another great P11A period photo with Clint Eastwood.
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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Cycle Sport Magazine May 1968 published an article about the P11. Nothing like a wheelie on a new street equipped Norton.
This photo was not good resolution, but Wow factor for the time.
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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The last of the P11 series was the P11A 750 Ranger. 1968-69 production/sales time. Here are the inside pages of a simple folded brochure. - known as "Color Me Fun".
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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There was a weekly British motorcycle newspaper called Motor Cycle, not a magazine, that followed current motorcycle events.
Here is part of the August 9 , 1967 test of P11.
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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Here is the lead page (page21) on this Motor Cycle newspaper P11 article August 1968. Notice the Matchless hubs are already wearing polished, right hand covers.
 

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Hot Rod magazine did a great P11 test in mid 1967, titled "Wild Thing", and took several great documentation photos of their test P11 Norton.
Here is the top view -
 

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Here is the 1967 factory bulletin on suspension revisions to allow best hi speed road use of an early competition version P11.
It would be nice to have a dimensional study/pictures of these Matchless Teledraulic fork pieces discussed in this bulletin....not in this lit thread but another thread maybe dedicated to P11 suspension.
P11 series Literature 1967-1969

P11 series Literature 1967-1969
 
Modern Cycle magazine did a great test in their Aug 1967 issue.
The P11 was known for a short time, during 1967, as the " Cheetah".
Interesting to see how close the tach cable is the exhaust, open paper filter, cable route, thin seat foam already showing deformation, wood square under kick stand, fender brace location, oil tank vent looks routed under rear fender tail, etc
 

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The first time Norton-Villiers became aware of the P-11 was in late 1967, when a US lawsuit was filed after a desert racer was killed in a "tank-slapper" instability accident. The bike was an invention by the US Norton Importers (Berliner Motors) with no collaboration with the parent company. One bike was shipped in to Marston Road experimental shop for evaluation and testing, to prepare a technical response to the pending lawsuit.

I did the early break-in miles, just riding around to put miles on it before we got down to actual testing. It only had about 20 miles on the odometer when it arrived. I found it a disturbing ride. It had an uncontrollable "weaving" motion that got larger as speed built up. By 70 mph it was going side to side almost the full width of a motorway traffic lane, with about a half-mile wavelength. Another test rider took over from me to do more break-in miles. He had it up to 85 mph and said the weaving stopped at 80 mph. Braver man than me!

We'd started looking into suspension dampers, particularly the front forks, when the program was stopped because the US lawsuit had been dismissed. As far as I know, the bike was still at Marston Road when the company went broke. It was parked in the back of the experimental shop when I left the company around Easter of 1968.

My opinion at the time was that there was a weakness in the frame's directional stiffness and that the weight and torque of the 750 engine was too much for a frame designed for a 500cc single. Unfortunately, we had no test instrumentation to get data to investigate.

I was surprised that the machine gained such a strong market share in later years. I don't know if any design changes were made to tame that directional stablity problem.
 
frankdamp said:
I did the early break-in miles, just riding around to put miles on it before we got down to actual testing. It only had about 20 miles on the odometer when it arrived. I found it a disturbing ride. It had an uncontrollable "weaving" motion that got larger as speed built up. By 70 mph it was going side to side almost the full width of a motorway traffic lane, with about a half-mile wavelength. Another test rider took over from me to do more break-in miles. He had it up to 85 mph and said the weaving stopped at 80 mph. Braver man than me!

I'll keep this in mind after I change the original tires on my Ranger. I almost got spat off my Trident in an 80+ tank-slapper, decided to roll off easy and managed to keep it upright. Loose rear spokes.
 
I have not experienced any instability or weaving on my old, tired original bike with old bias ply tires. Maybe the problem only occurred on factory fresh bikes and disappears once they are broken in??
 
Here is Cycle Sport from a magazine in 1968.
The exhaust pipe shape is notable
 

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  • P11 series Literature 1967-1969
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And here is the same Cycle Sport article photo, right side
again the exhaust pipe rout and shape are worth noting.
The bend pattern on right side do not appear to match left side
 

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Maybe the experimental folks figured out the problem after I left for Boeing. We only got the test bike about 8 weeks before my departure and I only did about 600 street miles on it. It certainly was an unsettling ride because the rider had absolutely no control over the weaving.

The fatality in California was a desert racing accident, running on an unpaved surface. If I'd had the funding originally promised when I hired in at N-V, I'd have had some decent test instrumentation to help figure it out, but they'd spent it on the PR campaign that produced the "green globe" logo. All we could go on for investigation of anomalies were rider observations. That was very difficult to do for the AJS moto-cross bikes, as I wasn't a good enough rider to go as fast as the pros. I couldn't demonstrate the problems to myself. Very frustrating - hence my departure.
 
cycle World magazine article contains quite a few good photos of the P11.
Here is a tail photo with the classic clear tube on the back plate for registration papers.
Note oil tank vent that is clipped to the right rear fender brace tubing.
Also dlr plates .
 

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