Classic Bikes

An engine with a big piece of History.
It is a chopped 1000cc engine, i.e. the gearbox has been cut off, "tears in eyes" because they were regarded as too slow a gear change for racing, and the clutch was a bit quirky also as they used a single plate for setting off and then a centrifugal clutch took over as speed rose.
It had a Norton Commando gearbox and clutch grafted on to it.
The engine ran on Methanol with a compression of 12 - 1 as all grass bikes ran on dope i.e. Methanol, in those days, because it gave more power and ran cooler.
The engine has been brought to top specification, i.e. two front heads, lightening cambs etc and complete rebuild by Alan Fairweather, he also rebuilt the engine I used in my grass outfit.

Dennis Teasdale used this engine in his grass outfit after i retired , then when he retired from racing he had someone put the Vincent engine into a Norton featherbed wideline frame still with the Norton gearbox, but the clutch was changed for a Bob Newby race item and belt primary drive, a pair of Suzuki front forks were substituted for Norton ones and a pair of front discs it now brakes substantially better.

The compression had been lowered so it used petrol instead of dope fuel, and it has been successfully used for Hill climbs in 2001 with Rob Bradley, the 2001 sidecar Grass champion riding it.

When I purchased it the gear lever was just reversed so the gears were down for down, up for up just as Triumph, but I am more used to one up and three down so I have converted it to such, and as it didn't have a kick-start, I have also altered a Yam 650 excess lever to fit.

I couldn't bounce my passengers 1000cc Norvin off on my own 30 years ago, so I didn't fancy my chances at bouncing this one off now, so I fitted a kick-start.

I have started 1/4 mile sprinting, on petrol, with it this year. (2002)

The last weekend of April 2002 I entered the 1/4 mile sprint competition at Elvington, just outside York.

Run Number 1.

13.89 seconds.

Run Number 2.

Oiled plugs. DNF.

Result :     Finished 1st place.

The weekend of 11th May 2002 I entered the 1/4 mile sprint competition at Melbourne, just further along from Elvington.

Quickest Run.

13.23 seconds.

Terminal Speed.

98 Mph.

Old Class Record.

13.57 seconds.

Result :     A new Class Record..

I made a few changes, in fact I am always changing things.
The latest is a new pipe. This gives an extra 10 mph.
The are also lots of other changes, but you will have to guess the rest.

Below you can see some of the changes, and the results to go with the new spec.

Elvington 16 June 2002

Quickest Run.

12.77 seconds.

Terminal Speed.

100 Mph.

Elvington 7 July 2002

Quickest Run.

12.13 seconds.

Terminal Speed.

110 Mph.

Elvington 11 August 2002

Quickest Run.

12.12 seconds.

Terminal Speed.

110 Mph.

East Kirkby 11 August 2002

Quickest Run.

12.12 seconds.

Terminal Speed.

110 Mph.

Result :     A new Class Record..

2003
Getting quicker at every meeting, broken the class record at six meetings and got down to an ET time of 11.52 secs, and 115 mph running on pump petrol.

2004
Entered in the post vintage class , won the NSA sprint championship. It is believed to be the fastest vintage machine in the country with an ET time of 11.19 secs, terminal 120 mph.