1936 Model CJ Norton - For sale

For sale at Verralls; a decent looking 1936 350cc OHC Norton

The Shelleys and Norton history

An interesting email conversation started by Nick Shelley, grandson of Bob (R.T.) Shelley, one time owner of Norton Motors.


Nick: "My grandfather was Bob (R.T.) Shelley and I am still in touch with the O'Donovan family although I think that they actually fell out in the 1920's. One of the things that has puzzled me greatly, given Bob's pre-existing involvement in the trade and take over of Nortons in 1913, is that I have found no photographs of him whatsoever and he never appears in the photographs at the end of successful races."


Roger: "I am in touch with Don O'Donovan's grandson Kevin and Tony's widow as well as his great grandson Simon (Gerald's grandson) and through them I have a reasonable collection of pictures of Nortons at Brooklands.  I have no idea what Bob Shelley looked like to be able to find him in any pictures. Certainly while Pa Norton was alive he was the one that appeared in the race pictures although most of the time the activities at Brooklands were remote from the factory.  All of the development work after the OHV engine was developed took a different route to that of the road racers when Walter Moore took over that aspect. Kevin has put me right on one of the stories about Don's involvement with Norton which most writers believe was the result of his marriage to Bob's sister.  In fact he married Bob's sister in law and that was a couple of years after he started racing Nortons. I don't think that Bob fell out with the O'Donovan family when Nigel Spring edged Don out in 1927, certainly Nancy regards Spring as the cause of the problem - something that was confirmed the other day when I was able to listen to the Woolly Worters recorded by Charles Mortimer in 1975."

Martin: "

Bob (R.T.) Shelley's involvement in Nortons is well covered by Mick Woollett in his excellent history 'Norton' which was published by Osprey in 1992. Basically the Norton Manufacturing Company's assets were sold at auction in 1912 and Shelley bid for the company as he was one of the largest creditors.  Bob Shelley had realised that the new company's success (renamed Norton Motors)  depended on Pa Norton's continuing involvement, so he kept James L 'Pa' Norton on as Managing Director. However, Bob Shelley installed his own man Walter 'Bill' Mansell as Joint Managing Director to keep an eye on financial matters.  Bob Shelley's company made steel stampings and castings for the trade, and apart from general engineering, specialised in tools like spanners and jacks (I have examples of both!) but Norton Motors become fairly autonomous, hence Bob Shelley himself does not seem to figure in TT pictures or the like, as he had little or no day to day involvement in Norton. 

Dan 'Wizard' O'Donovan was R.T. Shelley's brother-in-law, and he became involved after the 1913 TT where he had ridden an NSU.  His first Norton he rebuilt from a dismantled wreck he acquired at the works.  This bike, known as 'Old Miracle' became a works test hack at Brooklands where O'Donovan and his team used to run in engines before the belt drive bikes were sold, and is now in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. O'Donovan stayed at Nortons until he took an offer to develop race bikes for Raleigh in I think 1927.  In the meantime when 'Pa' Norton died in April 1925, the company apparently treated Pa's widow Sarah and the family badly.  Lansdowne, Pa's eldest son, was sacked from the drawing office soon afterwards, and he subsequently became an aircraft designer at the Bristol Aircraft Co.  Bob Shelley passed away in 1927 from cancer, but before he died, he had reconstituted the Norton Motors financial structure to create Norton Motors (1926) Ltd, which helped the company survive the coming depression rather better than many motorcycle companies who folded"

Nick: "

I was in touch with Kevin (O'Donovan's grandson) for a few years until he became too ill to respond any longer. When we first corresponded, he let me know with something of a wry grin that the Shelleys and O'Donovans weren't really on speaking terms but we both agreed that by three generations we should perhaps move on!  I don't think that I ever understood the full details of this fall out but my memory of the discussion is that it might have been over the ownership of a patent. 

You are right of course in saying that Don married Bob's sister-in-law Hilda in 1915; I must say that she often looked rather severe in her pictures but it might have been something to do with the hats and the hair style of those times.

During the period 1913 to 1927 I have only two pictures of Bob Shelley - one at Don and Hilda's wedding and the other a portrait picture taken I am guessing some time in the late 1920's.  I am attaching an extract from the wedding showing both Bob and his step-sister Fredericka (the only know picture of her) and also the portrait. In the wedding extract you will see, from left to right, Charles Frederick Hulley (Hilda's father), her sister and Bob's wife Edie, Bob Shelley, sister Lillah Hulley and Fredericka Shelley aged around 17, photograph taken 19th Oct 1915. 

I do remember the allusion to 

Pa Norton's family being treated badly, presumably this was by Bob 

Shelley. Just at this moment I can't remember if I ever knew the full 

details of what happened or not. My understanding is that Bob appointed 

his three children Geoff, Ken and Eric within the company for a while 

(they would have been in their late teens I guess) but they were chucked 

out when Bob died"

Jon's 1936 M30

Another nice picture of Jon's 1936 Model 30 Norton, taken at the village of Snape in North Yorkshire.

1929 Model CS1 Norton - Sold

Currently for sale on eBay Germany; a 1929 CS1 Norton. Engine: CS 427XX. Frame: 349XX. Gearbox:  Sturmey Archer HW 142190 TT. According to the vendor the machine was shipped to Berlin in 1929 in racing trim. It looks like a nice specimen though the barrel could be from another model as it just doesn't fit the vertical shaft tube very well. Simon:" It looks quite good although fitted with an incorrect KD1 BTH mag and kickstart end cover on gearbox. Also the footrests look like short ex-WD ones and surely that's a 7 inch front brake?"

Sold for 24.659 euro.

121 MPH Model 16H racer

By Nigel Fox

I run a unique Model 16H Norton racer; it’s based on a very special side valve barrel provided by VMCC founder Titch Allen who got it from Ivan Wicksteed; a summary is in the cutting below. The machine has reached a top speed of 121 miles per hour which is faster that the speeds obtained by famous tuners of side valve engines in the 1920s.

General comments (mostly subjective!)

With an OHV engine the required flow past the inlet valve is needed INLINE with the stem. With a SV engine the required flow past the inlet valve is needed at RIGHT ANGLES to the stem. The special used Wicksteed Barrel mentioned has just two changes in direction of inlet flow, a typical SV engine has three and arguably four! SV barrels distort the piston rings are best pegged to let the rings bed in to the shape. A lot of piston squish makes for a cool running engine. I did run an engine with 100% squish over the piston with “pop up pistons (0.5“) ala some USA performance side valve car motors albeit with normal type inlet ports with reasonable results but the inlet flow over and into the barrel can be restrictive. The race version of a good side valve engine will have a lower compression ratio than a good road version. I suspect low CR engines react better (as an improvement on power) to tuned Inlet and Exhaust lengths than higher CR engines (the cylinder pressure at inlet valve closing is lower). The Norton pre war barrel makes a better high performance engine with more space around the inlet valve. I built an engine with a pre war top on a post war bottom (with standard inlet port position) and this was nearly as quick as the Wicksteed motor. This engine was run on 10% water/methanol fuel as it had just a two-piece flat top plate aluminium head. It had a very light flat top OHV piston (lightening an already very light piston plus an HE30TF small end bush) and this blew up eventually - it was so smooth. The rev limit with the SV Norton engine is not the full compliment roller big end (as Titch suspected) but the 8” con rod (the area below the small end). Titch working with his son Roger on the OHV with a stronger and shorter 7-1/2”con rod found the big end bearing was the limit. I road raced a post war Big 4 and the more metal I removed from the head around the Inlet valve the faster it went, the limit was the stud holes, it had a severe undercut around the valve to leave a gasket sealing face. Head sealing with methanol and petrol: I use a half dried out thin coat of Hammerite aluminium paint! Titch is well remembered for recommending a touch of paraffin to modern fuel with the old low CR engines. Prompted by this I carried out some tests with paraffin on a SV road bike. Titches theory (by my understanding) on this regarding old engines and the low octane petrol that was available and used with them is as follows: old engines pitched their compression ratios just below the detonating CR of the low octane fuel available, but put a higher octane in the same engine and the fuel air mixture so lowly compressed is nowhere near the optimum temperature: it’s going to burn slowly and create all sorts of problems. My road paraffin tests were very interesting - I went up to 25 %

Titch enjoys a cuppa...

Lazarus’ engine specifications

Basis a pre-war rocker follower type engine. 82x100 (528cc). Special Wicksteed modified upswept inlet port barrel. (Titch seemed to think this work was carried out by Granville Grenfell at Brooklands). Special alloy head with modified chamber shape (Titch seemed to think this was made by Roland Cross). Inlet length 13” overall. Exhaust valve std 1.61” G2 (Austenitic). Inlet valve 1.75” (magnetic) modified diesel lorry valve. 2mm head clearance over Inlet valve at full lift. 6.5mm head clearance over Exhaust valve at full lift. Std cast iron valve guides. Valve clearances Inlet 0.004”, Exhaust 0.012”. Moto Guzzi LeMans valve springs (inner and outer). Both valves 103lbf load seated , 157lbf load at 0.375”lift. Insulating washer under exhaust. CR 6.67:1 , 50% squish over piston - 1.7mm clearance. Norton domed solid skirt piston, skirt shortened, (not 16H!). No top ring - slot filled with alloy ring and peened over, 2nd ring pegged two stroke fashion , standard oil ring. Std 8” En24 conrod , polished and shot peened, std big end. Flywheels turned down and ½” steel ring shrunk on. Flat bottomed tappets (Titch seemed to think these may have been an option for the OHV engine). Special Cams Inlet and Exhaust modified by myself for more and gentler lift from std Exhaust cams. Timings at 0.030” lift. Exhaust opens 71deg closes 45deg (total lift 0.334”lift). Inlet opens 57deg closes 60deg (total lift 0.375”lift) (These cam timings are very close to the KTT Mark VI cams). 40” total exhaust length - plain pipe.

1-1/16th Amal TT carburetter bored out to 31.5mm, rubber mounted. 0.118” needle jet, 2.5mm dia, main jet (820). Modified needle (more taper at tip to suit a large jet). Float level adjusted to give a drip at carburettor. Fuel 100% methanol + dash R40. R40 engine oil.

Ignition timing 40deg adv., NGK B8EV spark plug.

Gearing 21,42,24,43 teeth. 5,500rpm giving 114.1mph in top and 103.7mph in 3rd. Gearbox ratios 1,1.1,1.61,2.33 (a mix of gears from International and trials (?) available).

Bantam forks and wheel (19” ) Tyre pressure 30,34 psi. Fairing modified Sprint Super Nero replica (supplied by Titch).

Sculthorpe 29th September 1996

Times and speeds recorded

Standing Kilometer
Run 1 30.25sec - terminal speed 113.2mph
Run 2 28.13sec - terminal speed 111mph
Run 3 28.47sec - terminal speed 112mph

Flying ¼ mile timed after the above standing kilometer run ups
Run 1 No time recorded
Run 2 7.80sec - average speed 115.38mph
Run 3 7.71sec - average speed 116.73mph

Standing ¼ mile with fairing - 15.3sec - terminal speed 92mph

Comment on Run 3: Titch commissioned a friend to do some calculations on Run 3, and as the bike entered the timing lights at 112mph the calculations indicated the machine must have reached at least 121mph to have averaged 116.73 mph over the quarter mile.

Best standing ¼ mile to date:
Wroughton 17th Aug 2008
14.727sec - terminal 90.171mph

No fairing Gearbox ratios 1,1.21,1.614,2.33, Sprockets 21,42,19,43, 1200jet, on 25% nitro, ignition on 45 deg adv., Inlet 13“ overall, Exhaust 46” overall, no megaphone.


Doug Hele and Joe Craig

(Not about side valve tuning but very interesting nevertheless...)

I worked at Norton (Shenstone) in the 1980s as a draughtsman and later a designer under David Garside and Doug Hele. Doug told me he designed and drew up the laydown Norton gearbox mechanism (I did not know this at the time - a very nice piece of work!). Doug just post war was working on the best flywheel balance factor for the Big4 and a young tester got killed on the test bike somehow and Doug received threats from the poor chaps family - to his life! While there in the 1980s Doug was doing tests with angled (back cut) face dogs on the Norton Wankel gearbox gears to aid selection, a young chap on the test bike crashed mysteriously on a road into Walsall, poor Doug perhaps haunted by the earlier events with the Big4 abandoned the angled dogs project there and then. This is only my interpretation - but he did relate the Big4 incident to me at the time of the crash.

Doug also in conversation about past times also mentioned the Desmo Manx work but he did not seem that enamoured or over excited with the project, Cross rotary valve head - oil everywhere, and also a curious twin carb Manx engine sent over from Australia with much promise, that on test developed no more power than a standard Manx, I said maybe the carburettors were meant to be opened progressively to improve power spread, he gave me the same look; well similar to when I questioned the relatively small size of the carbs fitted to the Manx compared to the G50, Gold Star and racing Italian engines; I was relatively a young man and he was a real gentleman; I only ever heard him raise his voice once!

Doug also recalled to me that when in the 1950s working under Joe Craig he was given a design job for a new wheel spindle, Joe supplied a Velocette sample for Doug to copy, Doug went away and did his calculations and drew up what he thought was a better spindle design and showed it to Joe, his reaction was very abrupt “No just make it like the Velocette !”. Maybe poor Joe too was haunted by the past for Jimmy Guthrie riding was killed while riding a works Norton in 1937; there were also rumours of his crash being caused by the rear wheel spindle breaking.

1912 Model 9 Norton

Sent by Alf. From an article in Classic Motorcycling Legends No. 5

1931 Model CS1 Norton - Sold

Sent by Alf. From the April 2011 issue of The Classic Motorcycle.

Don't bother contacting Marco, it's gone already.

Norton Manx engine art

These drawings were made by Niels, Marcel's brother. Niels is a wizard with computers and a big fan of cammy Nortons. When he got one of his uncle's (Ko Konijn) Nortons he took it apart, measured all the components and entered the dimensions and position of each part into his computer. No clue how it works but the results are amazing! It allows him to look 'into' the engine from any angle.

Surprisingly, these are the low quality prints. Niels is working on a book that will contain many more pics of his Manx, in much higher resolution, in addition to photo's and technical data sheets. It may take 'till the end of this year before the book is available though.

1902 Norton Energette - For sale

This Norton comes up for auction in New Zealand with a price tag of 75.000 to 95.000 Euro. The description suggests it's a genuine machine discovered in the 1940s but unfortunately it has been restored to a condition from which it is hard to tell how old it is and which parts were fitted by James Lansdowne over a century ago or by a bloke in New Zealand last year. Below is part of the description from Webb's, the auction house.

"The machine’s recent history starts in 1945 when Russell Miell saw the bike while collecting scrap metal for the war effort; it was hanging in the roof of a workshop in Kingsland. Some 15 years later, the machine came to Russell in return for a good deed. As Russell undertook the task of bringing the machine back, he found the word ‘Norton’ stamped in small characters on the pedal crank casing. The chassis number 289 was located also. Although the machine was basically complete when first obtained, Mr Miell had to remake some parts such as the fork stem and the extra control levers, using the two bronze examples that were with the bike as patterns. The original tyres, which were still on the machine when restoration began, were white beaded-edge rubber that could not be replaced so 26”x2”x1 3/4” tyres on modern rims are presented. The behind-seat petrol tank is marked ‘Essence’, which betrays its French origin, and was originally nickel plated like many other parts of the bike including the cylinder barrels."

Frans's c1932 CS1 Norton

Sent by Frans in Belgium

This Norton, owned by Frans, was raced in Belgium untill quite recently. The tanks are from a later model, the Enfield and Horton hubs have been replaced but the three-stay frame and the engine are clearly 1931/1932. The gearbox is a very rare early Sturmey Archer as fitted to the works racers (like this one).

1921 advertisement

Sent by Alf. From The Motor Cycle, November 24th, 1921

Titan Sidewinder Custom Paint

Start to finish phots of complete process.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

1916 Model Big Four Norton

"In yard of Queen's Head Coventry. Wartime Norton m/c on test 1916 or 1917" is written on the rear of this photo. In "Perfect in Every Part", a book on Francis Simpson.

The Norton in the picture would be a 1916/1917 model destined for the Russian army. Note the full enclosure of the rear chain the the additional set of footrests.

Simon: "A friend of mine has one of these WW1 Big Fours which came from Finland and is almost certainly one of those sent to Russia before the Revolution. Juris in Latvia has another which he acquired in Moscow a few years ago."

1908 Model 3 1/2 HP Norton

By Martin

I have recently found another image of an early Norton in an album of early vehicle pictures from the state of Victoria, Australia.  I think this is one of the first Norton-engined 3 1/2 HP machines from circa 1908 but as ever, I stand to be corrected by others more knowledgeable than me! I suspect the background is a painted country scene rather than an actual outdoors view.