1968 frames

My Norton collecting partner and I have or have had three early Fastbacks with these frames. All three were broken completely or severely cracked as the one in NORBSA's photo that LAB posted. Two were very poorly "repaired", but all three were delegated as a source of rear loop repair sections, and down tubes to repair bent or pinched ones on otherwise sound frames.

I can't imagine grabbing a handful of brake and have this kind of failure. My opinion is riding one of these is just simply foolhardy.

Hi,

That's a bit of a bugger, I have a 69 with the frame mod and my coil brackets have broke off a couple of times and that's about it. I guess that's why they call them suicide frames, best of luck with the repair.
Jg

Fast Eddie said:

Wow!

That picture would be enough to persuade me to NOT ride an early frame un-modified.

The theories about induced weakness from unsatisfactory crating may well have been true at the time.

But that is interesting history. The real question, 48 years later (if you are considering using one) is what about the induced weakness of 48 years of fatigue and unknown history of any potential 'induced weakness' incidents?

Doesn't seem worth the risk IMHO.

Click to expand...

From everything I could find out about the frame problem, you should not ride it without fixing it first. It's not that difficult to do.
My frame # 127129, is welded just where that crack is in your photo, the first time I have actually seen a cracked one. I don't know what else, if anything was done to strengthen it before I bought it. I got the bike from the son of the second owner in Laconia NH. Without removing the motor I had a friend cut a steel tube and weld it on in the same position as the later frames. I haven't put too many miles on it since then, but from what I could find adding the new section is all Norton did to fix the problem.