M30 International

Early thirties? It looks like a very German scenery to me.

M30 International

This one looks as if it has seen some proper use...

CS1 Norton

Rob's got a new one! It's an early CS1 Norton. The frame was found by the previous owner in Kent and apparently is of 1928 vintage. The engine is a year younger, reimported from the USA. The previous owner spent around twenty years gathering all the parts before offering the lot to Rob for him to assemble. Rob is 'as happy as a pig in mud' with his new toy! He should be, this is one of the nicest Nortons to be had.

Pet Cock Tip....errr, I mean here's a petcock tip

Ha! got your attention. No this is not pornographic. It is the part of a non fuel injected, or carburated bike that controls your fuel flow.

Off, Run and Reserve are the three positions. O.K., Still sounds kind of pornographic talking about three positions. Stay with me, there is a point cumming, I mean coming.

While in Colorado on storm duty, I was on my way back to the airport rental to return my rental vehicle. It was about 97 degrees, with no breeze, and no clouds. I spotted a guy on the side of the freeway sitting on a guard rail next to his motorcycle. He was not on the phone, and not doing anything, which led me to believe he might need a hand. (Of course I stopped).

I asked, "Are you just resting, or is the bike giving you trouble?"

He said, "I'm out of gas."

Me,"I gotta ask the obvious, how bout the reserve?"

Him, "I tried it. No gas. Won't start."

Me, "Let me run through the scenarios. Were you riding, realized you ran out of gas, and hit reserve, and ran that out too?"

Him, "No."

Me, " You had it on reserve when you left, not realizing you were on reserve, and drained all of the gas?"

Him, "No, I ran out of gas, coasted to this spot here, turned on the reserve and tried to start it a couple of times. It won't start, so there must not be any gas."

Me, "There's gotta be enough gas in there to get you about 20 miles or so. You have a pressurized petcock. You need to give your throttle about two to three full turns while the bike is off, hit the choke, and she should start right up. Mind if I give it a try?"

Him, "Sure, go ahead."

I gave it a try, and she fired right up.

Him, "Thanks a million! You are a life saver. Where the hell were you 45 minutes ago?"

I followed him to the Airport area nearest gas station, and was then on my way home.

I posted this story not to boast about what I did for this guy, but to share a little knowledge for those of you who might not already know this. Hopefully I can save someone else the headache of thinking they are screwed when they are really just fine.

Happy trails!

The Engelhardt M18 racer

Another very special M18; 1930, as identified by the engine with the enclosed rockers and the Mk V B&L oilpump. Someone converted the frame to 'cradle specification', fitting engine plates underneath the engine and extra frame tubes to connect these engine plates to the lugs originally meant to fit the rear stand; nice!

Hi John -nice to see a photo of this bike on your recent blog. I have come across this before - in New Zealand, at the Pukekohe Classic meeting a few years ago. It looks extremely scruffy and goes like a scalded cat. Despite its fairly orthodox appearance (apart from the torque stays) Christian Engelhardt is a very clever bloke and the engine containes his own home made flywheels and cams. As I remember, he had made a vernier arrangement for each cam and arrived thereby at optimum timing figures from the performance point of view. He shipped it out to New Zealand for the meeting and there was a certain amount of merriment by the locals at its appearance and even doubt that it would pass scrutineering. However the merriment faded when he got it going in practise: it was miles faster than any of the Vintage bikes running and I well recall it thrashing down the finishing straight about 100 yards ahead of Ken McIntosh on his '37 Model 30!- Cheers Simon

Norton M18 crankshaft bearings

Finding new bearings for the M18 did turn out to be a hassle; it's an obsolete size at 22x50x17 mm. It took begging and substantial sums of money to get the sets I now have; an overview!

On both the side valve (SV) and the overhead valve (OHV) models, a single row roller bearing was used at the drive side; similar to the one in the top picture. SKF order numbers were W6000, nowadays the bearing is known as RMC22L.

The SV used a single row ball race bat the timing side; identified by the SKF number W5162 but better known as MC22; the bearing in the middle pic. The OHV often used a double row self-aligning ball race at the timing side, identified by the number 11494a; in the bottom pic.

In the past people may have used whatever they could lay their hands on; my M18 had a single row ball race MC22 fitted on both sides which worked perfectly fine for a very long time.

Rocky Mountain High

My absence can be explained yet again by storm duty. I've just recently returned from a tour of storm duty, handling tornado and hail claims from Colorado. Within about one months period of time there have been over 9 significant storms. Several of which had tornados and all that produced hail. It seems ironic to be sitting in your vehicle writing up a hail damage estimate for someone's home or auto while it is hailing at that very moment. It's happened to me once. I've also been on an auto "drive in" assignment once where as we were driving to the drive in location it hailed on the vehicle we were driving three different times.

This time handling hail claims in Colorado there was a tornado one night within a neighboring city to where I was staying at. It too produced lots of damaging winds and hail. This is crazy shit. I'm glad to be home. I only hope I can stay here. Hopefully they won't need me again for awhile. Maybe I can actually get caught up on some of your blogs.

Anyway, I didn't have much time to really get out and see the sights so much, which really bums me out, because it is such a beautiful place. While on storm duty you work a minimum 12 hour day. This leaves no time for anything else but to eat, sleep and shit. Sometimes you feel like all you do is eat, sleep and shit hail. The Rockies are truly breathtaking. At times while driving along from one home to the next, I'd get beautiful glimpses, but no place to really take the photos that would do the Rockies justice, because, well, work got in the way and so did the other moving cars flying by on the freeways.

I got one shitty picture while driving. That's it. Oh, and my camera's zoom sucks, especially while driving down the freeway.

I did get an interesting set of photos that I thought I'd share.

Nice trailer huh?. See anything interesting?

(I altered the picture so you don't really see.)

Yup, That is a mighty big trailer for a motorcycle.

Another angle to show you that the bike is truly pulling that thing.

Oh wait is that actually a Fido in that trailer????? WTF! I thought it was kind of cool, and yet at the same time, kind of cruel. I got mixed feelings on this one. Keeping in mind it was in the middle to upper 90's. Although at the same time as much as I love to ride, and as much as I love my dog, and he loves me, It would be nice to take him with me sometimes.

.

Ain't he cute?

P.S.

Scroll back two pictures and look at the guys checking this out.

Not for sale, rather swap -NOW SOLD-

Parts from the shed! I have an early 1920s rear wheel as fitted to Norton machines, one of those that comes with a dummy beltdrive rim used as a brake. Further, I have an original rear wheel hub for a late 1930s Model X Matchless.

I would rather not sell these but I would like to swap them for hubs that fit 1920s-1930s Nortons. I still need a correct Enfield rear- and Horton 7" front wheel hub for my 1932 CS1 project. Off course I don't mind paying for the hubs when you're not interested in a swap.

1937 CS1 Norton

How's that for an investment; today a 1937 CS1 norton was sold at Bonhams. It had been aquired by the Ward brothers on the 19th of october 1997 for the sum of 3.795 GBP. Bonhams told me that the Ward brothers spent approximately 600 GBP to have it refurbished back in '97. Thereafter it lived in their collection for 12 years, seeing little use, before being sold again for 13.800 GBP this afternoon.

It really is a very nice bike, but the paintjob on the tanks looks out of place, the front forks and frontwheel are 1946, the 8" headlamp is missing, the handlebars and levers are rubbish. Nortons are getting expensive.

Side valve racer, part 2

Another nice picture of a 16H racer. No licence plates were fitted and tommy-bars were welded to the wheelnuts for quick release of the wheels. Not sure when it left the factory; the rear wheel with the dummy beltdrive/brake looks older than the seperate oil- and petroltanks. Though it could also be a 1925 16H to which M18 tanks were fitted (see this post).

International

Norton owners do not normally try to shoot the photographer; still, this is an exceptional family anyway as fitting a family sidecar to an International Norton is like having a towbar fitted to your Ferrari.

Norton M18

Another pic from the web; mr Joseph Goodchild on a 1929 M18 or M19. Apparently, mr Goodchild was killed in 1933 so the Norton must still have been fairly new when this picture was taken.

Anti Monkey Butt Powder review

The first time I'd ever seen this stuff was in a major sporting goods store just before last X-mas . My eye immediately caught the bright yellow packaging with the hilarious name, the funny monkey and his big red butt.

I thought it would be a great gag gift for my Brother-in-law, so I bought it for him. We all had a good laugh about it at Christmas. After that, I didn't really ever think about it again until recently. Knowing that I ride motorcycles, I was approached to try Anti Monkey Butt Powder and do a review on it. I decided to give it a shot. I thought what the heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained. After receiving the offer to try a free sample in exchange for a review I instantly remembered this stuff I had purchased as a gag gift for my brother-in-law. I remembered thinking how funny and eye catching the packaging and name was. I remember not really taking it seriously, and feeling like it was nothing more than a smart way to market some typical baby powder. I remember thinking that it was really more of a gag than anything else.

I couldn't have been more wrong!

This is the Sh*t. They have put Calamine powder in this stuff. It works fantastic as as a drying agent and leaves no clumping. It is not over drying and does not irritate the skin. It has a pleasant smell, without making you smell girly perfumy, or making you smell like a baby's ass after a diaper change.

I was and am so impressed with the stuff, I will even go "There" with you if you know what I mean. If you have read much of my blog in the past, you know I try to keep things kind of tame, but yet am not afraid to say what is on my mind. So I'm gonna let you have the details.

Yes, I tried it. Yes, I love it. I do actually like it so much I use it every day now. Even when I'm not going to do any rigorous activities or motorcycle riding. I am a guy, and I sweat. You know where the sun don't shine. I even use it on the boys if you know what I mean. I've never in as many years as I can think of been so dry and comfortable. A little is all it takes. One application will last all day with no major sweating, and some days I'll apply twice. No biggie. I can't believe I had to wait 38 years to be blessed with such comfort down there in never never land.

Anti Monkey Butt Powder is specifically designed and marketed for those who do lots of activity and those who sit on their butts a lot. But I'm telling you this, don't think you don't fall into one of those categories, and not give it a shot. It is for everyone. (unless you never sweat, and are not human.) So give it a try. Take my word on this one. The worst that can happen is you'll be dry and comfortable all day.

Speed

There is very little to argue against this statement...

Two firsts

Two important moments in my life; the first photo depicts me (in the middle), my brother, my father and one of his motorbikes. Unfortunately it's not a Norton. My father was not very keen on motorcycles and exchanged his NSU (Norton Spares Used!) for a car as soon as he could afford it. I do look quite happy, sitting on a bike for what may very well be the first time.

The second pic is another first; my first speeding ticket on a Norton. This was on my trusty 1935 ES2, at one of the camping trips that I made on that bike. 66 km/h is not impressive but I improved on that figure doing 80 km/h on my 1929 M18 when caught by another speed camera.

Nice bike, happy people.

Another nice pic showing three people enjoying themselves with their Norton and sidecar outfit. The registration appears to be WK9272 or WX9272 which dates the bike at 1929-1930. The sidecar looks more modern than that though.

As the exhaust pipe sits very high it must be an OHV model; the 8" Enfield front brake and the George Dance knee grips (that can not be easily fitted to the tanks of other models) identify the bike as an ES2 or CS1 (thanks Simon)

Sugar Daddy

An 86-year-old man went to his doctor for his quarterly check-up...

The doctor asked him how he was feeling, and the
86-year-old said ,'Things are great and I've never felt better.'

I now have a 20 year-old bride who is pregnant with my child.

"So what do you think about that Doc ?"

The doctor considered his question for a minute and
then began to tell a story.

"I have an older friend , much like you, who is an avid hunter
and never misses a season."

One day he was setting off to go hunting.

In a bit of a hurry , he accidentally picked up his walking cane instead of his gun."

"As he neared a lake , he came across a beaver sitting at the water's edge.

He realized he'd left his gun at home and so he couldn't shoot the magnificent creature.

Out of habit he raised his cane , aimed it at the animal as if
it were his favorite hunting rifle and went 'bang, bang'."

"Miraculously , two shots rang out and the beaver fell over dead..

Now, what do you think of that ?" asked the doctor.

The 86-year-old said ,
"Logic would strongly suggest that somebody else
pumped a couple of rounds into that beaver."

The doctor replied , "My point exactly."

Tragedy hits close to home

5 motorcycles crash on I-90, tying up traffic Friday July 3rd.

What a horrible way to start the holiday weekend.

I can't help but wonder what the hell happened here. It must have been a chain reaction crash.

I hope all of you had a safe holiday weekend. I got to ride my bike to and from the family cabin this weekend and the weather for the ride was absolutely gorgeous. I was able to clear my head, and just plain enjoy the thunder of the bike below me and feel the stresses of everyday life roll away with the miles behind me.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. My thoughts and prayers go out to those riders and family's who did not.