Oil bath decal - what years?

Hi Jonathon,

I had a three year old 1957 M50 which I don't recall having a decal on the primary case.  Looking through the Norton Brochures of that time however, images for 1956 show no decal, nor do the pre-war brochures 1934-39, whereas that for 1957 does.  I would guess therefore sometime during 1957.

With regards your 1961 M50, one can safely say it would have had a decal.  Pasted below a page from the 1961 brochure showing one just visible.

Hope this helps.

The transfer was definitely in use before the war, probably from the introduction of the Oil Bath itself which was standardised across the range in 1935. I have no idea when it ceased though.

Hi Jonathan,

when it arrives it will have the patent number on it. If you check the number with the patents office it is a fair bet that that was when the decal commenced.

Regards

Dick

hello I have a rare export model a Norton Manxman 650 and these had the oil bath transfer on the chrome primary cover  just below the inspection cover  and these motorcycles where built from November 1960 to august 1961 in 3 batches   were delivered  to the USA  hope this may help put light on things  and I do believe  that the oil bath transfers were  stop after everything was moved to Plumstead London and as history servers   after Norton moved to Plumbstead they tried to simplify every part cut down on models  to just  3 heavy twins the model 88ss the 650ss and 750 atlas and 3 light twins but this no good as AMC were facing financial  short fall and with the next 3 years  went in to receivership  in 1966    only to be bought out buy  manganese bronze  and dennise poor                 yours  anna j

You're absolutely right Jonathon   -   D'oh !  

I guess the factory brochures are not the best source for this sort of detail.  The profile images likely to have been artistically enhanced/simplified in the process.  Actual photos show the decal on machines from the mid 30s to the early 60s.

What is more, I should have been only too aware that the alternator primary case only really allows the decal to be positioned at about 4 o'clock to the filler cap, well away from the foot brake pedal, so the 1961 M50 image had to be nonsense  - mea culpa !

Drive side original photos are in the minority but the image below of a 1961 Dommie shows the correct position.  And attached my own 1960 ES2 showing similar.

Mine is a 59 Dommie 99 and the oil bath transfer is in the same place. Nice looking machine. Regards, Hugh