Silver or Gold?

Lorenzo · Apr 19, 2011

I am down to make an important choice: the colour of the logo on the back of the seat..
My Norton is a 750 Roadster Year 1973 but I am choosing the ribbed pattern former style of seat:
I know this is real academia.. but anyway, what colour do you suggest?
ThanX!

swooshdave · Apr 19, 2011

Lorenzo said:
I am down to make an important choice: the colour of the logo on the back of the seat..
My Norton is a 750 Roadster Year 1973 but I am choosing the ribbed pattern former style of seat:
I know this is real academia.. but anyway, what colour do you suggest?
ThanX!

What color is your tank?

DogT · Apr 19, 2011

If you have any gold in the decals, I would use gold. Otherwise, silver. The 69/70 seats had gold. It took me a long time to figure that out.

Dave
69S

mikegray660 · Apr 19, 2011

your bike - do what you want

Hobot · Apr 19, 2011

What vendor might have seat stencils? My first b/g IS tank Combat had gold seat label. My 2nd b/g Combat Roadster had silver label, not almost unreadable. My taste is in my month so vote with gold if other decals have it.

batrider · Apr 19, 2011

Where are you getting your ribbed seat from? Does it have a metal pan? I need to do this too. My fiberglass pan has been crushed by the rider. Does the seat have the chrome trim strip or just black?

After a year or so the Norton logo color will partially rub off and you won't be able to tell what color it is anyway. My '72 seat logo was gold when new and bike was yellow.

Lorenzo · Apr 19, 2011

swooshdave said:
Lorenzo said:

I am down to make an important choice: the colour of the logo on the back of the seat..
My Norton is a 750 Roadster Year 1973 but I am choosing the ribbed pattern former style of seat:
I know this is real academia.. but anyway, what colour do you suggest?
ThanX!

Click to expand...

What color is your tank?

Good question: actually it is 'dressing' a yellow tank (and then with black writings on)
according to this, I should take a silver writing for the seat (???)

at the same time, I am looking for a 'second dress' in black with golden striping and writing: according to this, the seat should have a golden writing (???)

as I can understand, norton never had white seat writings (???)

Lorenzo · Apr 19, 2011

batrider said:
Where are you getting your ribbed seat from? Does it have a metal pan? I need to do this too. My fiberglass pan has been crushed by the rider. Does the seat have the chrome trim strip or just black?

After a year or so the color will partially rub off and you won't be able to tell what color it is anyway. My '72 was gold when new,

good question: where to buy the best/original looking ribbed seat?! :shock:
I still don't know..

JimR · Apr 19, 2011

My opinion, but just mine, is that if tank is yellow and Norton logo is black I'd go with silver Norton on seat. My experience is that this won't rub off that fast. My original seat stayed in good shape for about ten years until I lost the seat in a move. Try Old Britts for a seat cover

http://www.oldbritts.com/13_511102c.html

Mr Bean · Apr 20, 2011

Yes, I agree - definitely go with the gold logo on the seat :? :lol:

DogT · Apr 20, 2011

Walridge and OB have seat covers. RK Leighton has anything you might want from the complete seat to parts. The Walridge cover is a Leighton product if you look in their catalogue.

Dave
69S

T95 · Apr 20, 2011

DogT said:
If you have any gold in the decals, I would use gold. Otherwise, silver. The 69/70 seats had gold. It took me a long time to figure that out.

Dave
69S

Dave,
I know you were looking into this a couple of months back. I took a look at my 71 seat and it was so faded I couldn't make out the
stensel color. I am curious if you might know about the 71?
71 black roadster.

ILLF8ED · Apr 20, 2011

Original seat logo is yellowish, not really gold. Silver was not seen on '71-'72 models...don't know about 850s. Aftermarket covers with the pleated pattern don't have the correct number of pleats and the heat weld isn't correct. That prompted me to find an original cover in very good condition for my '72 and it has the "dirty yellow" logo on the back.

DogT · Apr 20, 2011

T95, I really don't know about the 71 and up seats. I know they were taller in the back and had a bit more padding. Mike at Walridge said there was no logo on the 69/70 seat, but my 69/70 Riders Handbook shows one, but not the colour since it's B&W. Jeandr had an early picture of his 69 S and it was gold. I think Leighton says it was gold. You might try to contact Leighton and see what they say, they seem to know their stuff, they sent me an email of the correct 69/70 complete seat. The 69/70 cover I got from Walridge (Leighton) has 21 pleats in it and my original has 16, so it is a bit different, but I don't know who is looking that close. 69750S, Bruce, has his original seat and it also has 16 pleats on it. He has a picture of it on my old Phoenix thread somewhere I think.

Dave
69S

ILLF8ED · Apr 21, 2011

DogT said:
T95, I really don't know about the 71 and up seats. I know they were taller in the back and had a bit more padding. Mike at Walridge said there was no logo on the 69/70 seat, but my 69/70 Riders Handbook shows one, but not the colour since it's B&W. Jeandr had an early picture of his 69 S and it was gold. I think Leighton says it was gold. You might try to contact Leighton and see what they say, they seem to know their stuff, they sent me an email of the correct 69/70 complete seat. The 69/70 cover I got from Walridge (Leighton) has 21 pleats in it and my original has 16, so it is a bit different, but I don't know who is looking that close. 69750S, Bruce, has his original seat and it also has 16 pleats on it. He has a picture of it on my old Phoenix thread somewhere I think.

Dave
69S

Hi Dave,

I'm not a concourse nut, but the aftermarket cover just didn't look right after owning Nortons with orginal covers since '73.

Lorenzo · Apr 21, 2011

illf8ed said:
DogT said:

T95, I really don't know about the 71 and up seats. I know they were taller in the back and had a bit more padding. Mike at Walridge said there was no logo on the 69/70 seat, but my 69/70 Riders Handbook shows one, but not the colour since it's B&W. Jeandr had an early picture of his 69 S and it was gold. I think Leighton says it was gold. You might try to contact Leighton and see what they say, they seem to know their stuff, they sent me an email of the correct 69/70 complete seat. The 69/70 cover I got from Walridge (Leighton) has 21 pleats in it and my original has 16, so it is a bit different, but I don't know who is looking that close. 69750S, Bruce, has his original seat and it also has 16 pleats on it. He has a picture of it on my old Phoenix thread somewhere I think.

Dave
69S

Click to expand...

Hi Dave,

I'm not a concourse nut, but the aftermarket cover just didn't look right after owning Nortons with orginal covers since '73.

if we should give a prize: which would be the best/closer to the original aftermarket seat?

DogT · Apr 21, 2011

illf8ted, here's a picture of my old cover and the new one installed. I didn't have much of a choice.

Dave
69S

ZFD · Apr 22, 2011

When Andover Norton decided to do seats a while back we looked up all the original seat drawings we have- we tend to do our homework first. Those that specified a logo colour all specified "gold" so that is what we do for all now.

Gold logos will fade to silver over the years as the yellow pigment tends to fade- hence, I believe, some genuine seats look like their logo is silver.

Joe Seifert

Ron L · Apr 22, 2011

My '73 750 Roadster came from the factory in blue metalflake, with gold tank and side cover logos and a gold seat logo. When the 850's came out in that year and in '74, the blue metalflake paint had silver stripes and silver logos. I always assumed that these models had silver logos on the tank as well. I have to admit that I have never seen a picture in a brochure that would confirm this.

Silver or Gold?

Similar threads