I took the bars off my 1937 16H today and took the opportunity to take some pictures to illustrate the bracket which provides positive steering when rubber bushes are fitted (following recent questions about this topic).
As can be seen: the bracket is folded all the way around the bars and simply soft soldered in place. So it would be relatively easy to make.
But (of course) do take great care that the bars are at the right angle - you can't twist them forwards or backwards after the bracket has been added!
Attachments 20170508_175353.jpg 20170508_175402-jpg noc-chHi David, I am working on…
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Hello, Tony There are lots…
Hello, Tony
There are lots of photos of prewar Nortons on the vintagenorton.com web site.
Most bars seem to rise a bit from the middle and then turn back to lie quite flat in a plane surface tilting gently back and possibly slightly up from the centre. It looks to me as if your photo is from the front and is the usual way up.
Yours look to me as if the bar on the right of the photo (the left bar) is a bit bent down and needs bending back up to match the other.
Obviously they should be the same both sides. If they are as stiff as mine, bending is not easy. After fruitless efforts using a vice, I ended up supporting it on two wooden blocks, and bashing the middle down using a 2 foot length of a 3" section cut from the branch of a tree! (Making sure the two supports and the point where I was hitting it were all in a dead straight line so it did not twist when struck!)
I know that I'd be a lot happier if the end portions carrying the levers were dead straight for a bit more length so they would then support the straight shoulder within the lever brackets better. I worry that my brackets flex too much and might fatigue. Yours look to me to be better in that regard.
Maybe others might have more to say?
Regards
David
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Thanks for the comments Da…
Thanks for the comments David, I particularly like the inventive use of the tree branch ! I shall try the bars back on the bike again, both ways up and see what end is wrong. Cheers.
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Hi David, I am working on a '39 ES2 with these bars, and my question is, should they be 'flat' ? The bike I am working on has a bend up or down (depending which way up you hold them !), on one end, and flat the other. Also one end has a rounded off blanking plug welded in which I can't think is original. I've attached a picture, not very good, to note the right hand end is straight in line with the centre, the other left hand end is tipping up by a number of degrees. I need to fix them before re-plating.
Cheers, Tony.
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