Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

With the gearshift located on the right side. the left side of the Norton features the rear brake mechanism. awarded annually for the best foreign performance by a British Classic Racing Club member in modern historic competition. By a happy chance, Billy Mathews' Daytona-winning Manx Norton has survived in basically original condition, having spent much of its time in the last 30 years in the Daytona Museum of Speed, before it was acquired about eight years ago by New England Norton enthusiast Carlton Palmer of Vermont. Though the paint work has been restored, Carlton believes that the engine has not been rebuilt since Beart did so after the 1950 Daytona race, when he refettled the team machines for them to be used again in North America. However, since in those days apart from Daytona the only road race of any consequence was the annual Laconia event in Belknap State Park, near Loudon, this would have restricted the bike's use: judging from the state of the elderly, original Dunlop tires still on the bike, it's never had much track time. In view of the Loudon connection, it was all the more appropriate that when I came to try the bike at Carlton's suggestion, it should be at the modern-day Loudon track. The beach course at Daytona wouLd have been nice, but apart from any other considerations, after seeing contemporary photos of the sand-blasting effect on machine (and riderl) that running on the beach had, I think maybe it was just as well we·couldn't use itl In fact, I'd had the chance to ride an almost identical bike some years ago, when I reimportedanother of the 1950 Norton team bikes from the U.S. and used it for a while before selling it to a British Norton fan. That had· engine number EllM27273, and was probably one of the bikes used by the semi-works squad backed by Indian, whereas Mathe,:\,s' machine, still bearing his racing number 98 and engine number EIIM27276, was a full factory machine. One o( the reasons I parted with my own Daytona Manx was that I found the vibration of the longstroke (79.62 x 100mm) double-knocker engine pretty considerable, and the bottom ratio of the four-speed Inter gearbox with kick-start was so low it would lock the back wheel even at the Mallory Park hairpin if I tried to use it on the move. Nice for the sand if you want to kick the ·wheel out, not such a good idea on the hard stuff where the idea is quite the opposite. But the engine on that bike sported a deeply-finned Alfin barrel, indicating it had been used for Formula 3 car racing and then rebuilt, whereas the engine in Carlton Palmer's bike is almost certainly as The Master rebuilt it himself. The difference is amazing: I couldn't believe how smooth and beautifully-balanced the Mathews Norton's engine felt to ride, even compared to the modern V-twin racers I was testing the same day. At first I thought it might be because the footrests and handlebars were rubber-mounted, but though they do represent departures from standard Norton practice, that's not the case. The bars are relatively high, gracefully curved one-piece items which not only provide a more comfortable riding position compared to the flat bars or clip-ons favored by Europeans, but also more leverage when throwing the bike into the sandy Daytona corners. Beart discovered by experimenting with 500T triple clamps from a Norton trials bike that the bike would handle better on the sand than with normal Manx clamps, especially with a 19" front wheel fitted, as was the case in 1951. Here, though, the bike is in 1950 s~cification, with a 21" wheel and nbbed Dunlop tire, and a 19" rear, both mounted on alloy rims. The footrests are of the American 1950 NortQn Daytona Manx 500 Engine : DOHC. air-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke 79.62x1 OOmm Dimensions Capacity '.' 499cc Output 45 bhp at 5750 rpm 'Carburetion 1x1 3 /1I in. Amal 1ORN9 carburetor Ignition BTH magneto Compression ratio 8:1 Gearbox 4-speed. with kick-start and chain primary Clutch Singht-loop tubular steel Chassis Front: Roadholder telescopic forks Rear: Plunger Brakes Front: 7 SLS drum Rear: 7" SLS drum Tires Front: 3.00x21 Dunlop' Rear: 3.50x19 Dunlop Weight Approx. 360 Ibs. Top speed 122 mph H flip-up type, which proved disconcerting at first, especIally with their quite high-set position. But otherwise the Daytona Manx proved surprisingly comfortable to .ride, thanks to the well-sprung saddle and 'bum-pad' onto which Mathews would have slid himself for the twomile blast in each direction, perhaps even removing his left hand from the bar in dirt track style to grasp the fork tube and squeeze a Little extra straight-line speed out of the bike. On Loudon's twists and turns, I'm afraid I didn't feel brave enough to try that! In spite of the Dunlops' elderly appearance, they proved surprisingly grippy and even allowed me to start grounding the flip-up machine stand a couple of times on the left: this would have been fitted to the bike for practice but not the race: Mr. Beart had very strict ideas on excess weight, even at the expense of convenience. One lap the rear tire let go suddenly to remind me not to get too enthusiastic, but otherwise the Norton behaved well in slow comers, the Roadholder forks especially giving a good ride over the bumps and ridges that abound on the Loudon held against the very ineffective plunger rear suspension. which IPlve so little wheel movement it mIght as well have been a rigid-framed bike. That would actually have been desirable for the dirt track-like sandy turns of Daytona, though not so much for the fast, bumpy straightaway southwards along the sandbar. There, though, the rider would just have had to hang on and derive some relief from the well-sprung saddle, though with his nether regions on the uncompromising "bumpad," I can understand why Billy Mathews wanted a stiff belt of whisky after his winning race! It's possible that the plungers may even have been deliberately firmed up to make the bike handle better on the sand, but in my many conversations with Beart about Daytona during the years he prepared the Aermacchis [ used to race, I never asked him that. Pity. The many races I had on Beartbuilt Aermacchi engines taught me how high Francis' standards of . engine preparation were, and that's why I'd have to agree after riding the Mathews Norton that the engine is almost certainly the work of the Master himseI£. With the higher octane fuel available in the U.S. at The DOHC. air-cooled. single-cylinder Manx Norton powerplant features an Amal carburetor; the package puts out 45 horsepower. course, where other machines I was riding that day would skip the front . wheel and toss their head. On fast sweepers, though, the plunger-sprung Garden Gate frame was less at home, weaving and hacking about if I tried to go through with the power hard on. At first I thought I could remedy that by simply torquing down the central steermg damper with its knobbly bakelight top - till I discovered that it was already done up tight! The fact of the matter is that the extra weight and power of the double-knocker Manx engine was too much for the vulnerable plunger chassis when it was introduced: the McCandlessbred Featherbead frame changed all that, though ... Since the high-speed steering problem occurred even on smooth sections of the track, it couldn't be that time (compared to the 70 octane petrol used in postwar Britain), Beart raised the compression ratio to a heady 8: I, Il\3.king the engine crisper and more responsive than its singlecam predecessor. But a practice blowup.due toa blocked oil pump on Mathews' race engine meant that he had to build up a completely new engine from the copious amount of spares he'd insisted that Norton send over, and it's this power unit which carried the Canadian rider to victory, and which is installed in that bike. It starts very easily, as you'd expect on such a low compression by today's standards, with a healthy crack from 'the large open megaphone: though you can kick start it, the arrangement of footrests and gearlever on theright side ensures that thl: foot start pedal is mostly cosmetic. Bottom gear is definitely higher than on my bike,

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