Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) The glory days of british motorbikes...

Me too !! ..... you'll need an Ogri patch for your leather jacket 🙂


K

Ps ... sorry, couldn't resist it 🙂

Jeez, the sight of Ogri after all those years certainly brings back a few memories.. Thanks for posting K.

The Norvin looks to be a very interesting project and given the carbs fitted it seems someone has had a go at updating the engine at some stage.. Also it has a nice set of alloys too, Dunlop perhaps..? Alloy levers too..I also note that the frame is a wideline version of the Featherbed, but without the usual "race" modification of having the frame having been "lightened" by cutting out part of the flat plate to which the swinging arm and rearmost engine/gearbox mountings attached, and which more importantly carried the frame`s individual I.D..

One big advantage of old Brit bikes over the Jap machines, it that engine can polish up like a new pin, Boy did I spend a lot of time polishing not only the outside of my old Brit bikes but their innards too.. Happy days indeed..

I can remember a time when visiting the transport museum and seeing a Manz Norton in the metal for the very fist time, It looked like it needed a good clean the oxidisation on the alloy seemed shameful and it obviously had run on R as the only areas lacking oxide were those smattered with hardened R staining.... I was a m/cycling yoof at the time and had not yet arrived at an appreciation for patina..

This whole British Motorcycle thing has got me going a bit. My first motorcycle was a 250cc BSA with a sidevalve engine and a girder front fork. I pushed it home from behind a neighbours shed and my father gave me a kit of tools and helped me with a few bits and a lot of advice. He was astonished when I got it running and he spent the next hour fettling it and riding it around our yard

No photos that I know of.

Other than some of my father's photos and so on that I have posted, Brough Superior and Honourable Combination, he was a Despatch Rider at the start of the war in France. He was awake for three days or more without rest on the retreat to to Dunkirk and was found unconcious next to his bike in a field at the side of the road. Most passing thought he was dead but the driver of the last truck of the last convoy to pass stopped and told someone to check to see if he was still alive. They got him on the truck and somehow on a small boat, he regained conciousness in the middle of the English Channel.

I know little about the photo below but I think it unlikely that it was taken in France, but who knows.

My father was a Royal Artillery Don r, but there was no way you could get him to talk about the war. I still have his military issue brown leather 3/4 length sleeveless jacket.

We have someone like the Ogri in Germany too - "Werner". Werner drives a Horex chopper.
Here's the story why the water-cooled Honda CX 500 is nicknamed "Güllepumpe" ("Slurry pump") in Germany.

That's why I own several CX500 since 400.000 km

Mention of the Norvin reminds me of an Australian racer who came over here a couple of times about 1980 with one -he looked so old to my eyes off the bike but crikey he flew on it, I am told it was 1973 before someone passed him on Conrod straight Bathurst- I believe on an H2R. The Norvin man was Eric Debenham a real nice bloke.

Back in the early 2000s I used to ride with Derek Peters, he was a Vincent man through and through. He was very much involved with the Vincent owners club and after retirement he built a bitsa Vincent Comet, as such he gave it 12v electrics, a disc front brake, a modern rear monoshock and a "modern" compression ratio. It was quicker than my 2001 Triumph Bonneville and handled well. Derek, who must be in his 90s now, sold it when he found starting it was just more than he could manage. To his amazement he got enough from the sale to buy a new car.
Thanks for reminding me of sme happy days.

That is one beautiful Norvin.