My Norton's factory records

Eugene,bikes were often bought by US servicemen about to return to the US.Bike was transported free,by USAF.You might find a base near to Mansfield. Regards John.

Previously wrote:

Eugene,bikes were often bought by US servicemen about to return to the US.Bike was transported free,by USAF.You might find a base near to Mansfield. Regards John.

The USAF bases are sited some way south of Mansfield. Alconbury and Molesworth are the nearest. Possibly of interest, the USAF 42d Troop Carrier Squadron disbanded at the end of 1957.

Cheers

Alan

Hi all

I treid to post this earlier but was unable for some reason.

You will find the nearest USAF base to Mansfield (where I was born) was in fact North Luffenham in Leicestershire. F86 Sabres flew out of there. Also Shooting Star trainers, it was an operational training 'drome in the late 50's and early 60's. I should know I lived around that neck of the woods then. Many USAF crews were also treated at the Mansfield Kings Mill Hospital for any medical reasons since the US came into the second WW, hence the area was well known to and visited by the Yanks. Good on 'em.

Previously wrote:

Hi all

I treid to post this earlier but was unable for some reason.

You will find the nearest USAF base to Mansfield (where I was born) was in fact North Luffenham in Leicestershire. F86 Sabres flew out of there. Also Shooting Star trainers, it was an operational training 'drome in the late 50's and early 60's. I should know I lived around that neck of the woods then. Many USAF crews were also treated at the Mansfield Kings Mill Hospital for any medical reasons since the US came into the second WW, hence the area was well known to and visited by the Yanks. Good on 'em.

North Luffenham was a Canadian base! They won't take kindly to being thought of as from The USA.

Cheers

Alan

Previously wrote:

Hi Gang,

It's Sunday morning here in the USA & its a typical cold wet autumn day, it was only a week ago that it was sunny & 80 degrees (26.6c) & I was on a great autumn ride watching the firestorm of color from the leaves tuning color.

I wanted to comment on the factory records service that our club offers. I sent my info to Dave Catton (Twins Records, Norton Owners Club) last week & within a weeks time I received the factory records for both the '57 M77 & the '50 M7 ! What great service! Sometimes it seems like all we hear about are complaints about things, so I thought it might be nice to hear about a job well done, Thanks Dave, good job!!!

My model 7 info seems as I figured, but I now have confirmation of the gearbox number, fork number, frame code, & dispatch date of 16th June, 1950. In addition I have the shop engine number, the testers name, Cheshire !

What reallysurprisedme was the info on my modest little 1957 Model 77. As I am reading down the list of things I expected,

serial numer breakdown: M15= M is 1957, 15 is model 77 (600cc)

machine dispatch date 18th October, 1956

engine number M15 70127

shop egine number 77-1768

gearbox number N1174

fork number 5629

tester: Harris

agent or dealer: Direction General (country unknown)

Then, out of the blue I see a line marked ANCILLARY/EXTRAS: Ace High Handlebars, Polished Ports! WOW!Polished ports on a M77! Whoda' thunk-it! I amfamiliarwith Ace bars, but am not sure what ace high bars are? Maybe someone can fill me in.

The Agent/Dealer was: Woodies, Mansfield, England . Any info anyone can provide me on them would be a treat, I assume this means my bike didn't leave the factory destin for the USA? Very few Model 77's came to the USA, other than its cousin the Nomad, which I think most of them came over here.

Woodies were an American based importer of Norton's, and they were called Woodie's Motor Sales, 1159 West Fourth Street, Mansfield, Ohio, USA. They were one of six dealers who imported Norton directly into the USA. They imported 18 Nomads. They would have also imported other models from the Norton range of bikes.

Previously wrote:

WOW! Now this is getting interesting! I was at the international rally in New York this summer & after meeting Phil Radford from San Jose California we started talking about Nortons (what else!) & agreed to buy his 1950Model 7 project. So, I made the deal in New York, shipped the bike from California, to my home in Northern Ohio, & your telling me the bike was imported from England, to Mansfield Ohio, USA (less than 2 hours from my house!), that isincredible!!!!!!!!!!

And you mentioned Nomads, as you probably know, my model 77 is very similar to the Nomad.

Thanks, thats great info !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woodies were very large importer of Norton's and also had their own full page adverts, in American magazines in the 1950's. They also were given offical pictures of Norton models by Norotn's at Bracebridge Street. They would have imported a full range of Norton twins and singles to the American market. As for a Model 77 being very similar to a Nomad, this conception is basicly incorrect in a huge amount of ways. The frame for the Nomads was a modified Norton singleES2, the centre stand alone confirms this. I for years believed the 77 frame story, having bought two 77 centre stands, that were not even close. The fork internals are different, the mudguards (fenders) are alloy and not heavy steel. The oil tank for the 77 has an extra piece of metal welded on the side of the tank, and the Nomads do not. The rear swinging arm in also a totally different item, as the Nomad was meant for off road use, on dirt tracks and also in the desert. The gas tank was also mounted differently, and all the hardware used to bolt a Nomad together had a special chrome plating on them. The gas tank was also special to the Nomads, as it was also a one off. The footrest were also spwecial to the Nomads, as well as the carbs, and air filters. A 600cc Nomad held the number one plate in the desert in 1959, and Charlie Cripps came in 8th in the Big Bear Run in 1958, on a very new only uncrated Nomad, that was supplied by Dale Brown of California. I have both the 500cc and the 600cc Nomads, that i have now totally resotred. The 500cc took me nearly 20 years to complete, and restore to as near as factory specification, as could be dome to a 53 year old bike. This 500 was the only 500cc imported by Hap Jones of San Francisco. They imported 181 Nomads, and only one of these was a 500 Nomad the one i own. Woodies imported thee 500 Nomads, so only four 500cc Nomads were imported in toAmerica. My own 600cc Nomad managed a first place award at the 23 October 2011 Ardingly show or last Sunday. They just happen to be one of the most intersting and beautiful bikes that Norton exported, from Bracebridge Street.

Previously wrote:

Previously wrote:

Hi all

I treid to post this earlier but was unable for some reason.

You will find the nearest USAF base to Mansfield (where I was born) was in fact North Luffenham in Leicestershire. F86 Sabres flew out of there. Also Shooting Star trainers, it was an operational training 'drome in the late 50's and early 60's. I should know I lived around that neck of the woods then. Many USAF crews were also treated at the Mansfield Kings Mill Hospital for any medical reasons since the US came into the second WW, hence the area was well known to and visited by the Yanks. Good on 'em.

North Luffenham was a Canadian base! They won't take kindly to being thought of as from The USA.

Cheers

Alan

Alan

You are correct, temporary senior moment, I was thinking of Langar which was a USAF base in WW2, again Canadians used it with N Luffenham in the early 50's, but the US was also it's NATO partner at that time and they flew with them on joint training missions conjoining with the RAF esp at RAF Wymeswold 504 (AUX) with Meteors from those stations. Some of both the countries personnel were at Wymeswold from time to time too.

I don't think the Canadians are too bothered being linked with their south of the border colleagues from that era. However I would suggest that is quite likely how the Dommie was purchased got back to the US be it takne by a Canadian or N American Forces member.

That was the orignal post query. Hope this helps our poster.

Ian

This is also intersting

http://wikimapia.org/2251019/Former-RAF-Langar

Postwar NATO useAfter the war, the field was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force as RCAF Langar as part of NATO, the only Canadian base in the UK. The 137th (Transport) Flight operated five Bristol Freighters and a Beech C-45. A major unit was the 312th Supply Depot handling spares for F-86 Sabres.

Previously wrote:

This is also intersting

http://wikimapia.org/2251019/Former-RAF-Langar

Postwar NATO useAfter the war, the field was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force as RCAF Langar as part of NATO, the only Canadian base in the UK. The 137th (Transport) Flight operated five Bristol Freighters and a Beech C-45. A major unit was the 312th Supply Depot handling spares for F-86 Sabres.

Suggests to me there was some USAF there.

Ian

Previously wrote:

Thanks Anthony, good stuff! I know what you mean about all the differences between the Nomad & the 77, but to the casual observer, they are similar. I started the model 77 project with a frame, part of the engine, & the rear wheel & swing arm. I found out the hard way all the differences between the 77 & the Nomad, buying the wrong parts! Even the tool box was slightly different in depth. I still have a nomad oil tank that I thought was for my 77 when I bought it, only to find the bracket you mentioned. I'll bet you and I could easily write a book on the Norton Nomad & model 77! I tried to buy a Nomad this year, but it was so hacked up & was missing nearly all the correct pieces. Ebay got the best of someone, but I backed away .

Thanks again everyone for the wealth of info, this is why I joined this club.

Skip Brolund

The 500 Nomad that i bought in 1992 had a huge amount of parts missing, and it took me nearly 15 years to even attempt to put it back together. There was a brand new Model 77 oil tank for sale on a stall at Kempton Park, and also on the same stall at Ardingly on the 23/10/2011 where my Nomads were being displayed. I suspect it is still for sale, as this one did have the extra side part welded onto it. It even had the properoil level transfer attached to the side. This is acontiental vistors stall i suspect.There is a Model 77 in the NMM and for years i thought that this was how a Nomad should look. This was a huge mistake. The Nomads also had a change of oil tank for the 8th batch and last batch that was dispatched in January 1960. This had a proper breather tower added to the top. All Nomads also has white lines painted on the raised fins on the side of the oil tank and tool box covers. The Nomad was a proper off road bike, with the Norton 500T fork internals, and alloy damper tubes, stronger rear and wider rear swinging arm. The 77 was made and soldas road or sidecar bike. Woodies is in Mansfield, USA, and not in England, as there was only one Nomad ever sold new privately in England, and no UK dealers sold any Nomads from new. This is a matter of fact and record, as the Norton dispatch records do not lie.

Previously wrote:

Hi Gang,

It's Sunday morning here in the USA & its a typical cold wet autumn day, it was only a week ago that it was sunny & 80 degrees (26.6c) & I was on a great autumn ride watching the firestorm of color from the leaves tuning color.

I wanted to comment on the factory records service that our club offers. I sent my info to Dave Catton (Twins Records, Norton Owners Club) last week & within a weeks time I received the factory records for both the '57 M77 & the '50 M7 ! What great service! Sometimes it seems like all we hear about are complaints about things, so I thought it might be nice to hear about a job well done, Thanks Dave, good job!!!

My model 7 info seems as I figured, but I now have confirmation of the gearbox number, fork number, frame code, & dispatch date of 16th June, 1950. In addition I have the shop engine number, the testers name, Cheshire !

What reallysurprisedme was the info on my modest little 1957 Model 77. As I am reading down the list of things I expected,

serial numer breakdown: M15= M is 1957, 15 is model 77 (600cc)

machine dispatch date 18th October, 1956

engine number M15 70127

shop egine number 77-1768

gearbox number N1174

fork number 5629

tester: Harris

agent or dealer: Direction General (country unknown)

Then, out of the blue I see a line marked ANCILLARY/EXTRAS: Ace High Handlebars, Polished Ports! WOW!Polished ports on a M77! Whoda' thunk-it! I amfamiliarwith Ace bars, but am not sure what ace high bars are? Maybe someone can fill me in.

The Agent/Dealer was: Woodies, Mansfield, England . Any info anyone can provide me on them would be a treat, I assume this means my bike didn't leave the factory destin for the USA? Very few Model 77's came to the USA, other than its cousin the Nomad, which I think most of them came over here.

Hello eugene, please note the dispach date is not when your machine was built , it could of been built put to 2 months early-er before being shipped to the USA , as for your Nomad tank we will keep a eye out for you and let you know , also would you be intersted in and Norton Manxman 650, I know of 2 for sale In the USA ,both build in the first week of production, you can contact me on my email adress its on the East yorkshire branch web page . good luck yours Anna J