Triumph Thruxton Fairing fitted to Norton 961 - I want one (a lot)!

Stephen_Spencer

Stephen_Spencer

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OK, I’m retired right! So I have waaaaaay too much time on my hands, as ‘she of higher authority‘ keeps telling me! Sufficient to keep searching for a fairing fix for the 961 anyway. There has been talk in other threads about the beautiful Thruxton R fairing being fitted to the even more beautiful 961 - worth its own thread methinks. I know not everyone is interested in this but I have been (very) interested since I purchased the Norton.

Long story short, it has been done by Omegaracer.com, out of the states. They have fitted the fairing as a customisation and in my opinion it looks the ‘dogs bollocks’! I have sent off a cursory enquiry about the potential of purchasing the mounting kit. Maybe even the fairing painted to your bikes colour scheme with mounting kit? Who knows? I’ll let you know if/when they reply. Might be worth one of our stateside members contacting them also.

Let me know if I’m Robinson Crusoe (on my own) here? More pictures on their website.

PS. This is actually a Thai based company judging by the 0066 dial code.

C6283A1A-B423-46D9-B40C-86425040F895.png
 
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Hi, the bike in their website is mine. I purchased their standard big aluminium fairing in a Matt finish with brackets but it took a bit of work to make it all fit. The brackets had to be cut and re-welded to suit the Norton‘s geometry and the underside of the fairing trimmed to gain clearance around the triple clamps. Mine is an SF meaning I had also to replace the bars with some Woodcraft clip ons. The company is in Thailand and because Australia has the borders closed to the world you have to organise international courrier to get the fairing or wait until things get back to normality. Markus, (the owner I think) was very easy to deal with and very helpful during the all process. Hope the above helps. Regards, Sergio
 
Yes, Thruxton R pipes look nice as well. They'll need an adaptor section to fit the 961 but already have a nice shield in the right place. If my bespoke rev cones don't work that's where I'll be heading.
 
SMA69 said:
Hi, the bike in their website is mine. I purchased their standard big aluminium fairing in a Matt finish with brackets but it took a bit of work to make it all fit. The brackets had to be cut and re-welded to suit the Norton‘s geometry and the underside of the fairing trimmed to gain clearance around the triple clamps. Mine is an SF meaning I had also to replace the bars with some Woodcraft clip ons. The company is in Thailand and because Australia has the borders closed to the world you have to organise international courrier to get the fairing or wait until things get back to normality. Markus, (the owner I think) was very easy to deal with and very helpful during the all process. Hope the above helps. Regards, Sergio
Click to expand...
Hey Sergio, great to hear from you. You’re a forum member and in Aus! What are the chances?

Seems that I got most of my initial assessment wrong. For some reason I had assumed that Omega Racer Shop had customised your bike, clearly they only supplied their aluminium version of the Thruxton R fairing and you fitted it yourself. Marcus responded to my enquiry straight away and seems pretty efficient and helpful.

45F8C1C8-05BD-4A2A-B47C-F9CDFE6CCE44.jpeg

The fairing appears to be a reasonably faithful representation of the Triumph item and looks awesome painted to match your bike! A few questions if I may.

- Marcus states that they provided the bracketry for fitting their Thruxton fairing to the T100. How extensive/difficult were these modifications? A few pictures would be great.
- Is the quality of aluminium construction as good as it looks, it’s difficult to tell from the pictures alone?
- Have you painted the fairing, beyond the pinstripe, or is that the original matt ally finish! Again difficult to tell from the pictures.

Thank you for engaging with the forum on this conversion. I suspect that other Cafe Racer owners will be pretty interested in this project; any further detail that you could provide would be greatfuly received.


Regards

Steve
Sunshine Coast
 
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Hi Steve,

I am in Sydney and the fairing was installed by Deus Ex Machina has the work was more intensive than I initially predicted. Below are answers to your questions:
- Fairing comes with a chromed finish “spider“ bracket and a couple of steams/screws to fixed it to the steering column/frame. Because I wanted the base of the fairing aligned with the thank the spider bracket needed to be cut and re-welded with an angle that respected the Norton’s tank geometry. The steams/ long screws needed to be extended as they weren’t long enough to fix the spider bracket to the Norton frame. It also needed a couple of new machined plates with spacers to hold the ends of the fairing to the norton’s bracket that holds the tank.
- The quality of the fairing’s craftsmanship is in my opinion quite good. Just be aware that is hand made therefor you may encounter inconsistencies that some may see as imperfections while others may see it as part of hand made character. I beleive the fairings come in a polish finish as standard but I asked mine to be in a mat finish. Overall I am very happy with the quality and look.
- The fairing is not painted, it’s in a raw (not sealed) mat finish aluminium. Its intentional as I like the look, I though I would have to apply a clear sealer but so far no issues.

Overall it was an expensive exercise but I am quite happy with the result.

Regarding photos, I can’t upload them on this site as I am not VIP but can email you some if you still want.

Regards,

Sergio
 
The shape of that fairing is quite different from the Thruxton R fairing. It might be better suited to the 961 than the R fairing. The R fuel tank is much narrower and smaller than the 961 tank. The fairing and tank join with the R fairing has the mating curvature and width for that tank. I am currently building an alloy tank for a project 1975 Norton that will be fitted with the R fairing.
I would say that for starters the R fairing is quite a bit smaller than Sergio's fairing.
Note Sergio's fairing above headlight vertical area whereas R fairing slopes back immediately from headlight.
The are other shape differences as well. The bigger fairing might suit the 961 appearance as the R is a physically smaller bike, quite tiny really.

Glen
 
Here's that join-up. Ill be thrilled if my alloy tank matches up like this. With some error in my pattern making and more error in fitting tank to pattern, chances are it won't!

 
worntorn said:
Here's that join-up. Ill be thrilled if my alloy tank matches up like this. With some error in my pattern making and more error in fitting tank to pattern, chances are it won't!
Click to expand...
Glen, that's what hammers are for.
Gap too big, hit it again, repeat until it fits.
 
At that point where I fit the fairing, the tank will be finished and welded, no more hammering as there's no way to remove the bumps at that point.
Also don't want to crack any welds with hammering.
With the number of hours spent Wheeling and then hand sanding to remove all wheel marks, I'm all done hammering now.
So the fit to the tank is kind of a must win situation.
I think it will be acceptable.

Glen
 
That looks very nice. If my attempt fits together like that I'll be happy.
But I'll be happier yet if it fits like the red one above!

Glen
 
BTW , the little fairing does add some speed. An older fellow (my age) on the Triumph forum has been drag racing his near stock Thrux R quite a lot and has beaten quite a few high HP sportbikes with it. 73 races, 61 wins, best et 11.1 and 125 mph.
The fairing cut about 2or 3 tenths off his et., which is often enough to turn a loss into a win.
I was mainly interested in it for appearance as the bike looks like it was styled to have the fairing fitted.
It does also help with some wind protection for the body.
The extra speed is a bonus.

Glen.
 
SMA69 said:
Hi Steve,

I am in Sydney and the fairing was installed by Deus Ex Machina has the work was more intensive than I initially predicted. Below are answers to your questions:
- Fairing comes with a chromed finish “spider“ bracket and a couple of steams/screws to fixed it to the steering column/frame. Because I wanted the base of the fairing aligned with the thank the spider bracket needed to be cut and re-welded with an angle that respected the Norton’s tank geometry. The steams/ long screws needed to be extended as they weren’t long enough to fix the spider bracket to the Norton frame. It also needed a couple of new machined plates with spacers to hold the ends of the fairing to the norton’s bracket that holds the tank.
- The quality of the fairing’s craftsmanship is in my opinion quite good. Just be aware that is hand made therefor you may encounter inconsistencies that some may see as imperfections while others may see it as part of hand made character. I beleive the fairings come in a polish finish as standard but I asked mine to be in a mat finish. Overall I am very happy with the quality and look.
- The fairing is not painted, it’s in a raw (not sealed) mat finish aluminium. Its intentional as I like the look, I though I would have to apply a clear sealer but so far no issues.

Overall it was an expensive exercise but I am quite happy with the result.

Regarding photos, I can’t upload them on this site as I am not VIP but can email you some if you still want.

Regards,

Sergio
Click to expand...
Hi Sergio, really appreciate the info.

Having access to Deus is a real bonus, they do some beautiful bikes and certainly made a great job of yours. I’m guessing that is where a lot of the expense came. The alignment of fairing to tank is critical here and again yours appears nigh on perfect, not surprised that you are happy with it. The hand made aspect is attractive to me also however, not sure how best I would tie in the fairing to my black (gold pinstripe) Cafe Racer. I had planned to purchase the Norton ally tank down the track, so maybe a polished finish would work best, tied in by way of colour to the rear of the bike somehow. Or maybe just paint the fairing. Both would look great in my opinion.

I have requested pricing for the fairing and mounting kit from Marcus. The photos would be really helpful and if it’s ok with you, I will share key ones with the forum. Even if not interested in the fairing, there are quite a number of enthusiasts/ engineers on this site who would be interested from that perspective. I would also need to seek engineering help if I were to go ahead with this modification.

My Email address is steveandmo@optusnet.com.au

Thanks for your help Sergio and stay engaged with the site, there is lots of useful information to be had about these awesome Nortons.

Best regards.

Steve
 
worntorn said:
The shape of that fairing is quite different from the Thruxton R fairing. It might be better suited to the 961 than the R fairing. The R fuel tank is much narrower and smaller than the 961 tank. The fairing and tank join with the R fairing has the mating curvature and width for that tank. I am currently building an alloy tank for a project 1975 Norton that will be fitted with the R fairing.
I would say that for starters the R fairing is quite a bit smaller than Sergio's fairing.
Note Sergio's fairing above headlight vertical area whereas R fairing slopes back immediately from headlight.
The are other shape differences as well. The bigger fairing might suit the 961 appearance as the R is a physically smaller bike, quite tiny really.

Glen
Click to expand...
On closer scrutiny you are spot on Glen, there are differences and I take your point about the Thruxton tank/fairing being more diminutive in comparison to the 961’s big ol’ tank. Looking at Sergio’s bike the proportions look spot on; proportionally bigger fairing for the proportionally bigger tank. I’m liking it, a lot!

Also lovin‘ the skills on show with your 75 Norton project. Keep the pictures rolling with this thread - fits quite nicely.

Steve
 
worntorn said:
BTW , the little fairing does add some speed. An older fellow (my age) on the Triumph forum has been drag racing his near stock Thrux R quite a lot and has beaten quite a few high HP sportbikes with it. 73 races, 61 wins, best et 11.1 and 125 mph.
The fairing cut about 2or 3 tenths off his et., which is often enough to turn a loss into a win.
Click to expand...
Makes sense.
Many sportbike folks, and other riders too can't launch properly, and lose time there.
Any sporty fairing that smooths air flow over the front end will improve a bike's overall coefficient of drag (CD) significantly at 50-60MPH.
Improvement increases with at higher speeds.
Nice little dividends are - better fuel mileage, if you can use throttle discipline, and less air blast on the rider's upper body.
Looks Bitchin' too. :cool:
 
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