Hello
Many many years ago I bought a 650SS cafe racer. It was rather tatty but I rode it around a few times then took it to bits and stored it as a project for the future. I recently brought it all out again and assessed what i really had. Great I thought -I have much of what I need to build a good bike. However I now realise that the original builder had put the twin into a single cylinder Model 50 wideline. I know that Triton builders often used Model 50s as frame donors but the Norton twin engine has two mounting points at the front whilst the single cylinder featherbed has just the one. It has converter plates which only make use of the existing arrangement - that is just using the one mounting point. My worry is that since the Norton designers considered it right and proper to fix it at two points then it should be so. Perhaps only riding will tell whether vibration is a problem (I don't remember it being a problem all those years ago but back then it was the first British bike I had ever ridden and didn't know what to expect) but nonetheless at this point it would be interesting to hear whether anyone has experience of this configuration. Are my worries unfounded or should I be welding lugs onto the frame? Thanks
Gary
Gary, While there were no…
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I have a 1959 (first of th…
I have a 1959 (first of the slimlines) 99 which was fitted with an Atlas engine a good few years ago. No sign of the headstock suffering. I wouldn't worry about putting a 650 engine into your wideline. Gordon.
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Previously neil_wyatt wrot…
Previously neil_wyatt wrote:
Gary, While there were no 650ss' made in wideline frames, I believe that the wideline twins only had a single front mounting point too. The four front lugs came with the slimline. Personly this wouldn't be an issue to me. However, I believe that about 1964, give or take a year or two there were some frames that suffered stress around the headstock on the 650ss. The 650ss frames were strengthened inthe stress area.
I have a 650 in a 1960 slimline, so it does not have the modification to the frame, however, I don't intend to thrash it so I'm not too concerned, although I recommend regular checks. Two forwardlugs (single point) were OK tohouse the 50 bhp manx engine, spending much of its time at full throttle, so a 49bhp 650 in domestic use should be OK. The stress around the head stock is another matter however as the frames arenot the same. Depends how hard you want to push your 650.
Thanks for your thoughts Neil. I take your point about the early wideline twins but a nagging thought is that the redesign of the frame to slimline which included the extra fixing coincided with the release of the 650 manxman and very shortly after that the 650SS. The relatively small increase in cubic capacity to 650 was accompanied by other engine changes which significantly increased power output over what went before. I can't help but think that Norton saw fit to make another fixing point to accomodate that extra power and while they were up to it standardised all other twins for production purposes. I may be wrong in all this and need to read more but I'm going to take your advice and ignore it and get on with building it. Another factor which puts me at ease is that this bike was actually raced. The chap I bought it off wanted to raise quick cash to buy a TZ Yamaha which had just come on the market and I got it at a snip. I can't see any damage to the headstock and I don't think he gave it an easy life. Thanks again.
Gary
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Good on you Gary, it will…
Good on you Gary, it will be fine but if you plan to ride it hard then just keep an eye on behindthe headstock for cracks etc. I'm sure Gordon has and that's why he can tell you all is well to date, so go for it.
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Gary, While there were no 650ss' made in wideline frames, I believe that the wideline twins only had a single front mounting point too. The four front lugs came with the slimline. Personly this wouldn't be an issue to me. However, I believe that about 1964, give or take a year or two there were some frames that suffered stress around the headstock on the 650ss. The 650ss frames were strengthened inthe stress area.
I have a 650 in a 1960 slimline, so it does not have the modification to the frame, however, I don't intend to thrash it so I'm not too concerned, although I recommend regular checks. Two forwardlugs (single point) were OK tohouse the 50 bhp manx engine, spending much of its time at full throttle, so a 49bhp 650 in domestic use should be OK. The stress around the head stock is another matter however as the frames arenot the same. Depends how hard you want to push your 650.