Norton Race Parts

[Fast Eddie]

Not sure if y’all familiar with this outfit, I’ve never bought anything from them myself, but they do have some good looking stuff on offer...

Norton Race Parts

Manufacturers of high quality Norton Cafe Racer parts. We can supply anything to build a Cafe Racer

www.nortonraceparts.com

 

[Mark Savage]

They are quite local to you Nigel. They were meant to turn up to the Norton Cafe Racer day at Cassington but didn't. Not sure why. Those tanks are way too expensive compared to TAB11 Classics, although they do look nice.

 

[mdt-son]

Those tanks are way too expensive compared to TAB11 Classics, although they do look nice.

Are Tab II's tanks manufactured with brazed filler necks? That may be one of the differences in quality. Of course design is another.

-Knut

 

[madass140]

Are Tab II's tanks manufactured with brazed filler necks? That may be one of the differences in quality. Of course design is another.

-Knut

no. with some epoxy

 

[Chris]

Hi Eddie
Piece written about this company in one of the mags recently. Late husband ran a bike business. His wife has taken it on MASSIVELY & gone online. My thoughts are it's a good source of care race items. She is very thorough & has covered e everything. Same as Disco Volante but if you know your way around you can find everything from good suppliers for at least 20% cheaper.
Chris

 

[Fast Eddie]

Hi Eddie
Piece written about this company in one of the mags recently. Late husband ran a bike business. His wife has taken it on MASSIVELY & gone online. My thoughts are it's a good source of care race items. She is very thorough & has covered e everything. Same as Disco Volante but if you know your way around you can find everything from good suppliers for at least 20% cheaper.
Chris

Chris, I think you might be referring to ‘Chris Knight Motorcycles’ which is a different outfit.

 

[oldbeezer]

Those tanks are way too expensive compared to TAB11 Classics, although they do look nice.

Per the Norton Race Parts site they use 2 mm aluminium
"All of our NRP Norton Cafe Racer aluminium gas/petrol tanks & oil tanks are hand made in house using high quality 2mm aluminium."
Per Tab2 they use 1.5 aluminium
"All our tanks are handmade using time honoured techniques. All separate components are hand formed from 1.5mm thick sheet aluminium,"
I am not sure what effect that will have on durability or cost but something to consider.

 

[mdt-son]

1.5 vs. 2mm sheet alloy means less wear on press forming tools (I guess tanks are not entirely hand formed) and of course easier forming of the manually shaped parts, thus less time and money spent in prefab, less time for welding, etc. As Don (madass140) pointed out, Tab II tanks do not feature a brazed filler neck. That's another "saving", at the expense of the customer of course. Quality has a price.

-Knut

 

[Chris]

Hi Eddie

Oops.
Yep cods that one!
Same reply, good stuff but
Chris

 

[Danno]

I sent them an email about a part and shipping to the USA.

 

[acadian]

I was very interested in their Commando manx style oil tank kit, pricey, but looks to be a high quality kit. I've since decided that it would only be an aesthetic change (adding an oil cooler gave me some additional capacity), and one that's a bit too pricey for now

 

[Onder]

I stumbled on them quite recently. Pretty good coverage of bits but as you say they can be a bit pricey. Was looking for alloy tank retaining
straps, they have but not exactly as I wanted. Still looking for 40mm x3mm rubber with some elasticity.

 

[acadian]

I stumbled on them quite recently. Pretty good coverage of bits but as you say they can be a bit pricey. Was looking for alloy tank retaining
straps, they have but not exactly as I wanted. Still looking for 40mm x3mm rubber with some elasticity.

FWIW, I cut up a bicycle inner tube for my manx tank retaining strap, does the job and dirt cheap

 

[Onder]

Thx dont have a push bike so I guess Ill have to go to the school yard and nick some kids ride....

 

[worntorn]

It's generally a lot easier to build in 2 mm than in 1.5
Most want an alloy tank for weight reduction.
1.5 is obviously lighter but also much more difficult to weld, given welds must be high quality and leak free.
The next alloy tank I build will be at 2 mm, the last one was at 1.5
A little heavier but a lot easier and a bit more durable.

If Tab is building them at 1.5 mm this probably means their weld quality is excellent, otherwise they would be plagued by leaks.
Lighter doesn't mean less quality, in fact as with many mc or bicycle items, the lighter it is the more costly it is to produce.

Glen

 

[gortnipper]

I have a Lyta style Tab2 tank, and the build.quality on mine is excellent. No leaks out of the box. The only criticism is that the fuel neck could have been a few mm higher for the Ceandess caps.

 

[mdt-son]

Lighter doesn't mean less quality, in fact as with many mc or bicycle items, the lighter it is the more costly it is to produce.

You are comparing apples and oranges. Owning a racing bicycle I can tell you the lighter parts are usually of different alloys and other manufacturing processes (e.g, forging instead of casting), also better engineered (optimised) than the cheaper parts and sometimes more sophisticated. As price goes up, sale diminishes and price has to increase even more.

As for welding - yes, thin sheets are sensible to heat influx but it's controllable using TIG and heat sinks. It's a matter of using the correct parameters and knowing the drill. Once set, welding 1.5mm is not more demanding than welding 2mm, and it is faster. For butt welds, friction stir welding is a very good process allowing welding of Al sheets down to 0.8 mm.

-Knut

 

[worntorn]

Welding 1.5 Al is not more demanding than welding 2 al mm?
You might want to fabricate some alloy tanks and put that theory to the test!

Getting a uniform non porous weld with 2 mm Al. Sheet material is pretty high on the skill chart, 1.5 is much tougher.
I've built in both and I'm going back to the 2mm. It's just easier all around.
And the little bit of extra weight isn't going to matter with my bikes.
Evan Wilcox also uses 2 mm due to ease of welding . There are a couple of other practical reasons as well. One is that after fairing the tank you thin the material considerably in places. Between the sanding the ewheeling , the 1.5 mm sheet may only be 1 mm in spots, especially near welds.
Good luck trying to reweld that should a leak show up in that thin area. Welding al at 1.5 mm is difficult enough, at 1mm it becomes much more difficult again. It can be done, just as razor blades can be welded, but not by most welders!



Glen

 

[cjandme]

Their products look great, I had not seen or heard of them before - (admittedly my Norton is on hold at the moment and I'm riding a 1986 Yamaha SRX single) but thanks for posting Nigel.

 

[ashman]

There are some nice looking alloy tanks and I like to replace my old worn out Wideline tank, they have some good prices on them but really you get what you pay for, quality cost money so paying good money for workmanship is better than buying cheap to fine out you been ripped off on the quality or having problems that need to be fixed, I think I will start to save me some money lol.

Ashley