Grab Loops - Slimline frame | Norton Owners Club

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Slimline frame - There are two sets of holes at the top/back of the frame, and the rear shocker always goes in the front ones.

I think that the bolts for the spool-spacers for the rear guard go through the rear set of holes.

Do the fronts of the grab rails go on the rear holes? and if so, are they 'outside' the frame - or in the gap?

It is an area that is seldom photographed close up, and especially with black ones it is hard to see.

I need to drill my new mudguard with holes in the right place.

Mine grab rails are bolted…

My grab rails are bolted to the bracket outside the rear holes.

The bracket is a toe-down channel. The inner rear bolts have their head inside the mudguard, and bolt from there through the spacers (spools) to the bracket, with their nuts on washers inside the inner toe of the bracket. The outer rear bolts just hold the grab rails, with heads and grab rails outside and nuts on washers inside. So I have two bolts in the rear location: one slightly longer one from the inside, and one slightly shorter one from the outside. I don't know for certain that it's correct, but I don't intend to change it!

The mudguard hole is drilled about 1 inch up from the bottom edge. I can't measure it since I am not at the bike. The twin holes for the back of the grab rails are also a similar distance up from the mudguard edge.

Found in the barn

As it was when stripping the 650SS five years ago. The cylindrical spacer has thick washers, each side. Mudguard is reinforced on the inside, probably original.

650SS mudguard

That's interesting Mikael -…

That's interesting Mikael - your single bolt makes more sense than my pair of bolts. Maybe my two bolts led to a problem. My frame was less than perfectly aligned here. The result was that the 'spool' was not at perfect right angles to the mudguard. So as loads on the grab rail changed, the guard flexed and eventually cracked. So I fitted a taper washer to flatten it, and repaired it using stainless steel strip araldited inside the mudguard. I don't have a welder, and didn't want to wreck the paint. that was 10 or 15 years ago, and I've have no problems since. (The stainless was 6" of a stainless steel ruler...). A friend with a slimline ES2 stiffened his with steel rod along the edge for a similar reason. Is that a repair on your photo, just to the right of the spool, Mikael? I suspect that the single bolt is better.

Anyway - I think it's worth having a good look to make sure the side valance of the mudguard is dead flat when it all goes together, so it does not 'breathe' whenever the rear of the bike is lifted.

One bolt, two bolt

Thanks for the input

This looks like the grab rail bolts are in line with the shockers.

I wish my guard had looked like Mikael's, it would have been rechromed. Rusted too far after only 60 years.

Auction pic