The sun shone again for Kempton, and gave us a nice warm spring day, and this of course bought out plenty of people, and this always gives the place a real buzz. I managed to find a couple of small parts for my A65, so with any luck I can get it fired up soon, and maybe on the road for the summer.
Out in the car park was an unusual special, a V-twin Velocette, very nice.
Velocette Special
Lots of other nice bikes about the place too both inside and outside the jumble.
Moto Guzzi
Vincent HRD
I have a few more pictures from Popham, there are always some nice bikes both in the show area, and in the carpark…
I quite fancied this 1969 T120 project, but is it right?
Triumph T120?
Nice old Guzzi in the car park.
Moto Guzzi V7 750 Special
Trident Cafe Racer.
Tripple Power
Cafe Triton
Wonderful Norton.
Nearly perfect Norton
Nice Yamaha in the car park.
Yamaha XS
BSA? SR400 special.
BSA Special
So it was just another Saturday, too short as usual, and too much to fit in, but it was sunny, and things needed to be done, starting with a little ride to a lane I have passed many times, but never been up, so out with R60, and a ride into Hampshire…
The road to Ibworth
I wonder where it goes?
Next I had to go and see how my Norton Clubman was coming along, very well as it happens, and I even ran today, just a few more parts to finish, and it will be time for the road…
Brooklands Can and bum pad
Will it start
Finally what do you do if you want a blower Bentley, but don’t have the odd million to buy one? Well easy just buy an old Rolls Royce and build your own version from scratch.
Bentley Special, Hand Made.
Supercharged Special
Do it yourself Special, all hand formed
Another fine Jumble put on by Eric, and the guys from EGP, if you have never been, you really are missing a good day out. This is the Motorcycle Jumble by which all others are judged, and so very often fail.
I will show some of the items for sale in another post, but first I will show you a special that was parked in the car park. You always get some bikes that are worth seeing, but this was a step above the average special, and almost looked like a factory build.
Norton/Harley special, Nice work indeed.
Narley, Norton Harley 45 special
Norton/Harley Special
Harley 750 “WL” series motor, Norton “Dolls Head” gearbox
Norton ES2/Model 18, Garden Gate plunger frame
Special? yes it is.
I wonder if the guy who owns it will see this, and drop me a line with a few build details? What a great build.
As a couple of people have asked, I shall show you all how the newly recovered seat looks on the bike…
Recovered Seat
First fitting
Looking pretty good…
I have been making a little headway with the Tribsa, after attaching a battery, I was pleased to find all the lights, switches, and horn working. One of the carbs is damaged beyond repair, so I have ordered a new pair. I have also fitted the new Goldstar silencers…
New Exhausts.
70’s Cool.
You never know what you might find when walking around Kempton bike Jumble, and that was the case yesterday, when shortly before going to the pub for lunch, I came across this old long forgotten Tribsa special.
Kempton Project Tribsa
98% complete, and looking like it just needs a good service, it had a lot of interest from the passing hoards, but after nearly five hours, no one had bought it. Well that is until I showed up.
Consisting of an BSA “A” series frame, with a pre unit Triumph T110 650 bottom end, and a T120 alloy head and twin AMAL carbs. It also has a BMW TLS front hub/brake assembly. I thought the price was very good, and a lot cheaper than most of the other projects that were at Kempton that day, so I agreed to buy, and it was delivered last Sunday.
Another Project
The bike had one owner, who built it himself as you see it, last ridden to the IoM TT, in 1976, the guy then got married, and the bike was put at the back of the garage with another bike, and that is where it spent the next thirty nine years.
I know the frame came new, unstamped from Nourish for I think it was £18.00, I have the paperwork to confirm this from the time of purchase. it has other parts bought from Alf Hagon’s, The frame was given a frame number, and reg number from Essex County Council so has a unique number. I have the original receipt for this, and letter from the council to confirm.
Short Norton Road-holder forks, and the BMW Earles fork,TLS front hub/brake assembly, and Girling shocks.
ROO 47K
Not too bad for 39 years
BMW Brake
Triumph T110
I found these pictures on the internet the other day, whilst looking for information on Manx Nortons, the bike is apparently a 1951 Manx garden gate, with a fitted Harley Knucklehead motor, that is all I know. I could not find any other info on this bike. Who built it, where it was built, where it is now? all just a mystery at the moment.
But it sure does have that cool factor.
I wonder if anyone reading this will be able to fill in some of the spaces with regards this bike… Well, someone did and has replied, please read Fred’s reply below, it is great to have some of the back story. Thanks Fred.
Norton Harley Special
Knucklehead
A Tight Fit
As mentioned, the bike was built by a friend of my father, Bill Selby. However it was built 1964-65, probably using resources of Piasecki Aircraft (not to be confused with Piasecki Helicopter, that became Boeing-Vertol) where he was working in the toolroom at the time. Locally it was known as the “Norley”. He then sold it to Caleb Cressman of Ward, PA., though I think it was in the mid- or late seventies. One of the first things Caleb did was ‘blow up’ the engine, which probably was just a used engine Selby scrounged up for the project. Caleb got another engine, had it rebuilt, but no one cleaned out the oil tank from the first blowup. That trashed the second engine. I think it may be on its 4th knucklehead motor or rebuild! Caleb had no involvement with building or design, though certainly knew Selby.
The ‘story’ was it was one of the bikes brought over for the 1950 or ’51 Daytona. Recent checking shows it does have features of the machines built for Dayton to look like Norton International models (Internationals were eligible, Manxes were not), but using Manx hardware. Unfortunately the frame number had been ground away, so it is not possible to prove that. Caleb took the Norley with him to Nantucket where he moved to in the eighties. It was there that he had an accident with it. On encountering a bend in the road covered with gravel, he aimed for a gap in the hedge leading to a field straight on beyond. Unfortunately the gap was for a guy wire to a telephone pole. This caught the bike on the kickstarter and threw Caleb, knocking him unconscious. Fortunately the accident was witnessed and he got prompt help. The only damage to the Norley was to treat off the kickstarter and fracture to the end cover of the Sturmey-Archer dollshead gearbox. It got laid up for a awhile, moved back to Pennsylvania, then came to our place to have the gearbox repaired and the motor checked over as it had sat for a while. The gearbox end cover got replaced, and the peculiar tall 1st gear Dayton ratio replaced with a standard road going 1st gear set.
By the way, the wheel hubs are magnesium and the petrol and oil tank aluminum. I took some photos of it at that time, 1989, while it was apart and then assembled. Also some 8mm camcorder video of my brother and I riding it about. At that time, it looked just as you see it in the pictures above. After Selby sold the Norley, he started on another project, sticking a 1953 Panhead engine in a 1956 Norton wideline feather bead frame. No special race parts there, other than Grimica and Fotana hubs and a big Lyta alloy gas tank. That never got finished and Selby also sold that to Caleb, and then through another mutual friend I ended up with it. Naturally it was called the Norley Mk2, and the original became the Norley Mk1. Selby in quick succession also started installation of a late Indian Chief motor in a Norton slimline featherbed frame, and then the last a Sportster engine (not sure of year), the frames being 1965 and 1967. Caleb probably helped Selby find the parts, which may the source of the idea that he had a hand in designing/building the Norley. These would have been the Norley Mk3 and Mk4, but got even less further along than the Mk2. Just before Selby died, I bought those projects too for the Norton parts, as Selby had already sold the Indian and Sportster engines to raise money.
Fantastic, thanks Doug.
A couple more of my older shots from a few years ago…
Bultaco
Jawa
Norton Race Bike
Greeves
Rex-Acme
Yesterday (Saturday) was a Norton day, I have to split my time over different projects, or I would get nothing done. And as I had to pick up my hub from the machine shop, I spent the rest of the day in full on Norton mode. Now, I am really getting into the whole Norton vibe, the more time I spend around, and working on them, the more I come to appreciate what they are, and how they work.
So after collecting my hub, I dropped into the shop to see what was happening in old bike land…as usual there were one or two Norton’s floating about the place..
Norton Inter Clubman
Norton Model 18
AJS
Also there this time was an old Dommie, pulled from a shed where it had languished unused since 1979…
Dommie 650
1979 Time Warp
Norton Dominator
So I gave the old thing a bit of a fettle, a good hot wash to remove some of the grime, I then removed the plugs, dropped the oil from the sump, before pouring it back into the tank, then kicked it through a few times to get it circulating. then it was a case of checking the carb filter, replacing the cork in the petrol tap, cleaning the points, and adding some fuel. Two kicks later it fired right up and sat ticking over like a watch.
Needs a Little Fettle
Also in the yard, is a metal bashing shop, the young guys who work there, make alloy tanks and things, in fact they are hand making my Norton Inter tank. But they also have another unique talent, they hand beat alloy car bodies from scratch.
Here is their own hand built Austin Ten sports.
Austin 10
Austin Special
Backstreet Thunder 