650SS models in North America

Hi Tom......The answer is yes but to do so using my records and those from the Club Librarian can means checking through thousands of the individual factory records. This is due to the number of different models being produced, by the Norton Factory, at the same time.

So, for example, the records for just one week of production, in say 1962, would possibly contain a mix of singles and twins. All intertwined within up to 500 sequencial engine/frame numbers.

The Build dates are all over the place. It looks like, initially, the 650 bikes were built in small batch's of up to 60+ machines. The engine number do not always run consecutively and the shop numbers are all over the place. This is not too surprising as the construction of the Manxman and later 650 models had to fit in with all of the other models being built at the time.

The first two 650SS were Numbers 18-100099- 650SS Shop 666 Exported to Hamburg .date 5.10.61 . Engine frame Number 18- 100100 650SS shop number 630 sent to Hooley's of Nottingham Date 5:10:61 both machines where in Blue And Machine 18-95153 shop number 358 exported to the Falkland Islands Possibly it is still there.

The First Shipping Date from Liverpool docks was on 13:1:1961 320 machines And the first UK 650 Police machine to City of London. Dated 06:02:1961 was Number Number 18-95181 with Shop number 398 In All Black with 12V High output Electrics and a single seat .

Six Machines were sent to The Paris Garreau or Police with Numbers 18-96489 Shop number 402to 18-96495 Shop number 407 Dated 28:3:61 Probably with Black tanks.

It takes a keen eye to spot the 650 bikes hidden between the lines of model 88, 88SS, 99, 99SS, ES2, 50, Lightweights and the odd Manx.

Possibly someone is working on a computer program to read and sort these records to make it much simpler to crunch the numbers.

Lateral Thought.........As Berliner were the sole import agents for Norton for the 650 model, their records, if available, ought to be smaller and simpler to check.

Your Best move would be to contact the NOC Librarian...Chris Streather. He has more of the factory Records than I hold.

Send him as much information as you can about your bike. He may be able to provide you with details about the importer and dates of shipping as well as any Factory extras added to you machine.

The problem with the 1961 to 63 era is the closing of Bracebridge in late December 1962. This resulted in many of the factory records being dumped. So there are quite a lot of gaps for those years.

My own records show that most surving 650 Nortons produced in the 1047** range were November/December registered in the UK but 104737 was a January 1963 registration. This is interesting because as mentioned previously, the bikes weregenerallyproduced in batches. So this particular 650SS must have just missed the September boat that yours was on.