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Latest
News: |
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Last
Updated : 09/10/09 |
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Please note: I originally wrote
this update in late July, but have only now had the opportunity
to finish and publish it.
It seems almost traditional now to give my annual update from
my holiday location, as being the only real time I seem to get
these days to sit back for a while and take stock of what has
been happening. This year is no exception, and I find myself
giving this update from a very pleasant private villa in Cala
En Blanes, on the east side of the mediteranean island of Minorca.
It is also very nice to be sat here, chilled out and having
a chance to forget about the normal trials and tribulations
and get away from the daily grind. |
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My wife Sandy and daughters
Stef and Abi with Rose (on left), who works in one of the
nicest bars in Minorca. Rose is also originally from Leicester
and this is the 2nd year we have met her there - hi Rose!
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Idealic
Villa in Minorca was very relaxing and nicely private - a big
advantage if you are as anti-social as I am. As can be seen in
the second photo, we still had to wait for my wife Sandy to get
ready before we could go out! |
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Looking back since I did my last yearly
update in August 2008, this has been one of the toughest years
I can remember, wtih both family issues and work pressures meaning
that the mail order business has been a struggle just to keep
going and certainly my own bike restoration work has been curtailed,
to the point that the Big Plunger Manx - that should have been
completed a year ago, is still not quite finished (Oct 09: although
it does at least now look very close). If there have been times
when I have been slow to answer emails or answer customer enquiries,
then please accept my apologies but bear with me, it has not been
for the lack of trying! |
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First of all, on a personal front,
my father was diagnosed with cancer in October last year, and
as I report elsewhere, despite an operation in December and a
dignified battle, my father passed away in June. Apart from everthing
else, this has meant I have had less time available at the weekends,
as I tried to spend more time with my parents and be there when
I could, along with my two sisters. I took the opportunity to
publish an obituary on the homepage for a period of time (one
of the nice things about having my own web site), and although
I have now removed the link, if you would like to see and some
of the old family photos (including a couple of bikes), then here
is the link to the page:
Les Norman Obituary
October 2009: As a footnote to my father passing away, it is now
mid October and I had a few days off work this week to try and
get some jobs at home done. As well as this, my mother had asled
me if I could start the task of clearing my fathers 'hobby room'.
For the last 10 years of my fathers life he had spent most of
his free time in this upstairs room, which had a small workshop,
repairing anything that had taken his fancy at the local council
tip! He was definitely some one from the old school - he did not
believe in throwing anything away if it could be made workable
again. His favourite passtime (judging from the contents of the
room) seems to have been repairing old 1970's Hi-Fi systems and
I kid you not when I say that I ended up having to clear two full
transit van loads of old stereo equipment and early computer systems,
just to get to the current position of being able to open the
wardrobe doors!
What made the task particularly upsetting was that in all reality
I don't think I could realistically have sold this equipment and
despite my attempts to ask the local recycling site to take them
so someone else could get some use from them, in the end I had
to put them all in the local council tip - I couldent help but
feel that my dad was looking down on me swearing in constanation.
I did not feel good that day.
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Titch and myself at Mallory
1000 Bike Festival in July. Titch fell ill the folowing week.
Notice the dude with sunglasses in the background - Foggy
himself!
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Founder Allen and Other Stuff
Shortly after my father passed away, a close friend (well known
to many of you) - Titch Allen, became ill and was admitted to
hospital in July. I have been visiting him every week since, ironically
in the ward just next to where my father spent much of his illness
- they must think I am a member of staff by now! I am pleased
to report that Titch is looking as well as can be expected now
and hopefully will shortly be leaving hospital, which is good
news.
Titch is 94 now and obviously very frail, but he is clearly a
tough old bird, from a generation that was used to adversity.
I cant help but think though that it will not be easy at first
re-adjusting to being back living on his own and independent,
after such a long period of being looked after - if nothing else
he has said he will miss the hospital food!
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It has not been an easy year from
the 'day job' perspective as well. I work as an IT Program Manager
for a large retailer. The current program of work I am on started
last summer and has meant a fair bit of stress and working long
hours, much of it working away in London for a large percentage
of the week. This has resulted in most weekends being are a case
of playing 'catchup' as far as the Norton parts business is concerned.
I don't mind admitting there have been a number of times in the
last year where I have given serious thought about a change of
lifestyle! Some weeks I have been working up to 70 hours doing
my day job, then have come home and worked another 15 hours over
the weekend doing parts orders or working on new parts. I am beginning
to wonder if I should just pick one job or the other!
Unfortunately, much as I like working on the Norton parts and
have enjoyed meeting the people who order parts (or at least talking
to them through email!), I suspect it would be extremely diffcult
to make this profession pay my mortgage. I am a realist though
and know that in todays economic climate, once my current project
is finsihed, I might have the decision made for me(!), so having
a backup plan may not be a bad idea. |
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Projects
and Bikes Update: |
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1938 SOHC Manx (Big Plunger)
Norton
Ahh well, to happier things. This year has not been
a total loss as far a the bike restoration is concerned, in
fact far from it, My 1938 Big Plunger Manx is actually looking
quite good now, it is just that it has taken far longer than
I was expecting it to take, it should have been finished a year
ago! |
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My 1938 500cc SOHC 'Big Plunger'
Manx
Just detail parts left to complete now
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View of SOHC Manx magnesium
engine and Francis Beart oil tank
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When stripping the bike
down for restoration (in its previous guise, it had been Titch
Allens 'Posing Outfit' fitted with a 600cc pushrod engine), I
had been able to check out the chassis number and found that it
was the first of a batch of 7 bikes built by the Works for the
1938 ISDT, which that year was held in the UK.
I found this very suprising considering the chassis is a full
'Manx' racing type frame. Although very interesting (and I would
like to find out if this bike, being the first of the batch, might
be one of the UK Vase team) I had already decided I was going
to rebuild it to full GP specification, and had already built
a full magnesium 500cc engine, to this end.
It does have a couple of bits on it that although not strictly
speaking original for the year, I think are very interesting -
the oil tank is actually a Beart item, identical to that fitted
to Cromie McCandless's post war Gardengate, which was effectively
the Beart 'Works' bike. Although less obvious, the front wheel
currently fitted , although employing a genuine pre-war Norton
magnesium brake plate, is also a Beart alloy item, although it
is very similar to the late '40's Norton item.
I hope to have the bike running shortly (it is fully rebuilt inside)
and it may be the topic of future website articles |
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I was very proud that the
Norton Owners Club had asked me if I could bring some of my
bikes to the 50th NOC anniversay at Donington. Even more so
when the great Les Archer came over to chat and have his picture
taken. This engine is a bit later than the rest of the bike
and is shown on the Norton records as being supplied directly
to Les in 1948 by the factory
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Drive side of the Manx, showing
the distinctive neck of the Beart oil tank with its quick
release filler. Notice no drive chain at this stage
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Interesting comparison between
Manx Bolthru tanks and Racing Inter tank
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Manx 600cc Gardengate
(future sidecar outfit)
As some of you may remember, about 3 yars ago I was lucky enough
to acquire a very rare 600cc Gardengate Manx chassis from Australia.
One of only 17 600cc Manx outfits made post war, this chassis
was the first delivered into Australia (a common home for the
600cc bikes).
Well anyway, I am not quite ready to start rebuilding this bike
yet, I am still at the stage of accumulating the right parts,
but thanks to a customer putting me in touch with someone, I was
very fortunate to acquire two of the parts I have been most desperate
to find - a 600cc Manx square barrel and 600cc Manx crankshaft,
wahhay!
I have now got 90% of the parts I need to start building. Unfortunately
the 10% I am missing is a set of magnesium crankcases, which is
arguably a quite major part(!) but I am not actually as disheartened
about this as you may think. You see, I have every intention of
being able to have some fun with this sidecar outfit, which means
being able to give it a bit of welly!, so to do this I dont really
want to be relying on fragile, irreplacable original SOHC magnesium
crankcases. Therefore, this is very much my biggest incentive
to have patterns made for SOHC M30 (and late M40) style crankcases. |
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Proverbial Hens Teeth - 600cc
Manx crank!
Note the slight gap between the cutaway on the mainshaft and
corresponding round cutaway on the flywheel for the BigEnd
Nut - on a 500 there would be no gap, signifying the extra
stroke of the 600.
Note also the extremely long length of the vertical shaft,
I also have a 596 Inter shaft but this Manx version is even
longer
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Ultra tall (and rare!) 600cc
barrel on left. It has a larger base flange than the 500cc
version and an additional fin (although the 500cc version
on the right is actually a repro, with an extra fin!)
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600 chassis and parts. Petrol
tank is an original 49-50 Bolthru, as I will be building it
to this spec, including the conical rear hub, only fitted
for last year of the Gardengate. Engine and oil tank are from
another bike at this stage
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This is the wraparound oil
tank I will be using. As per the the petrol tank, for the
last year of the Gardengate they were in alloy. Lovely and
original, the large dent on the carb side should come out
with annealing and persuasion . . .
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The On-Line SOHC Parts Catalog
One of the main developments in the last year has been a subtle
move to try and develop further the catalog of parts I am able
to offer on-line, mainly for the Norton SOHC engine, and slowly
to expand out from this as well, although I will try and keep
the emphasis on competition parts for historic motorcycles.
Although still relatively small in volume, I have tried to keep
this in line with what I know I can deliver, as I am aware how
infuriating it can be to place an order then have to wait for
parts. I am already finding a couple of parts that are proving
hard to replenish (and apologies to those of you waiting for
copper bevel nut washers), but overall it has been a very positive
year and I would very much like to thank all those of you that
have trusted enough to place orders with me, I have valued your
custom and hope you have not been disappointed. |
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Patterns for SOHC Manx covers
- currently being cast in magnesium
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For me, I cannot be sure what direction this part time endeavour
will take in the long-term, but I started it as a more economic
method of providing parts for my own rebuilds and being able
to share these parts with others, and paramount has always been
to ensure that quality of product overrides all other considerations.
While I am still enjoying the challenges of providing these
parts, and am able to maintain the quality and service I would
expect myself, I will continue with it, and with luck will continue
to expand it further.
If you would like to know more about the new products I am able
to offer, or those in the pipeline, I have introduced a new
webpage, accessible directly from my RacingVincent Homepage
(the animated banner with the yellow background) or by pressing
the link here:
Latest Product Review
By the way, one thing I would like to say about the direction
the website is taking; I never set out to make the website a
commercial site, to sell product or advertise. That said, as
I am now selling some parts, inevitably there is a medium to
be found where I can advertise this merchandise, but hopefully
not lose the more ‘human’ viewpoint I try to aim
for in the articles. I welcome your views, but up to now the
most gratifying feedback I have received is that this still
seems to be the case. I will try to keep site of that in the
coming year. |
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New Articles and WebPages
Although I have tried hard (no really!), I’ve failed miserably
in the last six months to publish any more articles, either
for the Norton’s or Vincent restoration. However, I hope
to rectify this in the next two months. In the last year i did
finish an article on assembling the Norton cambox, which I published
a few months ago, but other than that and a few product updates
I have not been able to do much. You might have noticed that
in the last 6 months I have been able to switch over to a 'Shopping
Trolley' style (transactional website for any teccy's out there)
catalog and the preperation for this has taken pretty much all
the spare time I have had in the last year. But now it is published
and up and running I have found that maintaining it as a much
easier process and I can keep adding new products with much
less fuss. I hope also that for customers (other than the process
of initially logging your details) it will turn out to be much
more efficient - as you can select the products you want and
the order is automatically generated - rather than me
getting it wrong!
So now I have this in place it will give me a bit more time
over the coming (dark winter months) to catchup with some of
the long overdue pieces that I am intending to write. In the
following months I am hoping to write at least some of the following
articles: |
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- A series of articles on SOHC Manx engines, and the differences
between these and International engines
- A short series of Restoration articles - i.e. restoring
and painting Norton petrol tanks
- A newsletter for those accessing my online catalog - to
keep customers abreast of latest additions
- Some new downloads and screensavers
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The Vincent as it currentlysits
- with clutch assembly semi built (as I left it when I last
worked on it some 6 years ago). The petrol tank is trial fitted
to allow for me to measure up the special Black Lightning
cutaway, to fit the downdraught 32mm TT carbs
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And
Finally - Vincent Black Lightning Replica: Hard to
believe but I am actually thinking about finishing the Vincent
off, as my next project.
I have decided it is about time I joined all the large lumps
together and got it running - well, 20 years is enough for any
restoration project!
However, just before anyone starts asking me how this is going
I must point out that I have promised myself that I will try
and assemble the Morini engine first, so I can sell it as an
assembled bike, as well as giving the Big Plunger Norton its
final detail touches - which given the current 'garage time'
on my own bikes probably means there is another 3 years before
this will get wheeled out, hey ho.
Incidentally, if anyone has any Black Lightning\Grey Flash rearset
footrest assembly parts they would consider selling, then I
would be very interested.
For anyone considering a similar project I might soon be having
a small batch of Black Lightning petrol tank (bigger cutaway
underneath to clear TT\GP carb) made. The tank in the photo
opposite is an original tank I have, but the ones I am commisioning
will look identical but with a larger cutaway underneath (taken
from photos of an original Black Lightning tank). I should also
be able to obtain standard Vincent tanks. Email me at the normal
email address if you are interested and want more details |
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Anyway, that about brings me up
to date on where I am at the moment. As always I have a few
more things going on, as well as the relentless search for those
elusive parts for future projects. But that is the fun of this
hobby is'ent it - dreaming about what the next bike is going
to look like, and the excitement of finding that part that brings
you another step closer to being able to put it together.
Best Wishes,
Paul.
October 11th 2009.
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