I recently bought a front mudguard at Kempton, it was labelled (well masking tape and marker pen) as ES2. It looked about right for a Norton, good weight and not much rust. When I got home, I gave it a more detailed check. It had the correct style mudguard bridge, but instead of 4 bolts it was secured with 3 sturdy rivets.
Then I spotted no holes for a front number plate- these were only discontinued I think around 2001?
Finally the colour: its what you might call a duck egg blue.No other colour visible where chipped.
All this makes me think it may once have been a police bike ie with fairing hence no mudguard number plate.
Just to add to the mystery, the reg number on the label still appears on the DVLC website.
Listed as 490cc, and taxed to March 2026. V5C issued 4th March 2023- but colour listed as Silver.
Bit of a puzzle?
The RAC had them in RAC blue…
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Forgot about those!
Had a quick Google Image, an RAC outfit comes up, but in a much darker blue.
So I'm still in the dark!
I might post the reg number in "where is it now", as it seems to have changed hands relatively recently, and as I mentioned is taxed and not on SORN.
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Mudguard paint colour.
Hi Michael,
I have never seen a police ES2 over the last 55 years, most of the police bikes were LE Velocettes or Triumph twins in the 1950s, as you probably know. I would think a dark blue would probably be used by the RAF, so might be worth investigating.
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Cycle Part Variations.
Was there such a thing as an ES2 front mudguard ? I'd have thought (with the exception perhaps of Inters) that there was a different guard most years but that it was common across the singles and twins. The biggest change would have come with the wider yoke spacing.
A slimline guard could have fitted up until the Mercury in 1969 and they were an odd colour blue...We used to joke that they were marketed to use up ex-RAC paint....
Lots of parts have come back from overseas. There were certainly overseas Slimline-single Police contracts...Egypt, for example.
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The RAC had them in RAC blue with sidecar boxes. I had one for a while. There is an example at Brooklands museum.