New electric start conversion

Are you guys thinking like ostriches? If CNW can make a better designed starter system than an Alton, why would or could it be cheaper.
Dereck

If it is a fully self contained, pre-engagement reduction type starter that can engage with a ring gear on the clutch, that would be great. Use an Andy chain 2 row primary chain, and you could fit a ring gear to the first or third position on the clutch hub instead of that 3rd row of chain teeth.
that one way, but Matt may have something else better up his sleeve.

CNW said:

As far as price. We will make sure its competitive. We want you to keep your body parts (but do you really need two Kidneys anyway ?)

Matt

Click to expand...

We're hoping it'll be competitive because that's what's been promised.

Old scratcher, there is a "but " in there. He may want one of your kidneys. [ just poking fun ]
Dereck

Old Scratcher said:

CNW said:

As far as price. We will make sure its competitive. We want you to keep your body parts (but do you really need two Kidneys anyway ?)

Matt

Click to expand...

We're hoping it'll be competitive because that's what's been promised.

Click to expand...

Well yes, but being 'competitive' does not mean 'smashing the competitions price' per se...

If you look at CNW web site, and or the reviews from satisfied customers on here (me included) the conclusion would be that CNW do not tend to smash competitions prices. In fact, their offerings tend to be at the high end of the price range. BUT the quality of the parts and services and the level of customer service offered by Matt is right at the top end.

So I guess you could summarise CNWs competitive advantage as offering a high level of quality at a price that people are happy to pay as it represents good value for money. That is not the same as being cheap!

I'm not knocking 'cheap' parts here either, "to each his own" as they say. There is a market for cheap, and there is a market for higher quality / price.

So, based on Matt's business model to date, my guess would be that his starter kit will most definitely not be the cheapest on the market, but it will probably be the best thought out and best quality option available.

thanks. That's putting peoples expectations in perspective.
dereck

As far as I'm concerned, if they out out a superior design with high quality components. They're smashing the opposition if CNW can put it out at a price that's anywhere close to Alton's. But if they can lower it, all the better. As long as quality's not compromised. What's the problem?

I don't see any reason why CNW won't have a high quality pre Mark3 electric start available this fall as planned.

The only "competition" I know of is Alton, hardly a flooded market.

I now have over 500 perfect starts with my Alton, which cost $2600, which I gladly paid after two spine surgeries it has kept me riding my Norton.

Hey guys...and sorry for the late response to an update on the electric start conversion

We decided it was going to be impossible and will start riding and working on Honda's instead.........

Just kidding of course

I have had my head down finishing the new cNw shop and playing catch up a due to some delays in my schedule. John at Special Tool Solutions (STS) have been busy moving into his new workshop ( stay tuned.....more on this in a separate post shortly).

We have done a fair amount of homework and some base designs have been moved onto CAD programs where they can be manipulated

We will be closing in on a design and layout before to long and once this is done, then we will focus on what it will take to make it a trouble free, high performance system.

I am not going to go into detail at this time since we are still bouncing a lot of thoughts around. This is exactly the approach we wanted to take when we set out to do this as we want to feel like we looked at all possibilities and moved forward on what will make the most sense.

You can rest assured that the cNw quality will be there and we will make this a system that is reasonably priced (in line with the other offerings on the market), especially considering what will be included. We are also looking at possibly offering a couple of different kits that will operate the same way but use different parts to do so. More on this as we get closer.

I am really looking forward to seeing something take shape but at the same time have developed enough part and mods to know that we have to allow some time for it to all come together.

Thanks for your interest in this system and for your support

Matt / Colorado Norton Works

www.coloradonortonworks.com

Matt - are you still on track for this for Barbers in October?

Any time scale for pro to-types, market release date etc?

We are definitely wanting to have something at Barbers.

If it will be packaged and ready for sale remains to be seen. It's more important that we get it right then meeting a deadline for a certain date. However, if we can show something close then people will know whether or not this is a kit that they will want to work with

Matt / Colorado Norton Works

www.coloradonortonworks.com

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with, & I think it's great that you're taking the time & effort to make sure it's right, before releasing it to the public. It gives me time to save my Sth Pacific Pesos, & hope our little Aussie Battler's having a good week by the time you're ready to sell & I'm ready to buy.

After the second failure in less than 500 miles with my Alton's double gear I'm more than just interested! :cry:

Matt do not hurry this big project and I will buy. :wink:

Hi All

Matt suggested I put a little about the shop that will be making the electric start conversion. We are Special Tool Solutions in Jacksonville, Florida. A shop of 55 people and around $8 million a year in revenue (so I am not working out of my garage, not that there is anything wrong with working out of your garage. That is where my shop started 15 years ago) I bring up the size of the shop as an indicator as to our ability to make sure Matt will have "on demand" inventory. We have the capacity and manpower to produce in quantity.

We are also an ISO 9002 Quality Shop. So we have the training and procedures in place to produce repeatable parts and spares.

We run 9 mill/turn machines, 10 vertical mills (with 4 axis capability), 2 CNC gear shapers, and a nice tool room with precision and Blanchard grinding capability.

We operate state of the art CAD and CAM software which allows us to do complex soild machining in 4 axis's. We also do 3D design and printing work.

Our primary business is industrial tools. our secondary business is firearms (Be careful if you visit Matt, the CNW compound is protected by some of our products. Do not know if Matt can hit a target or not, but I know the guns work LOL)

Matt's design for the Electric Start Conversion will begin with scanned 3D models of the inner and out primary cases.

The kit will come with a belt drive system, and will run a dry primary. No Sprague clutches. The starter will be solenoid operated, and the starter gear will not stay engaged with the starter gear train after the cranking operation.

I wanted to put out some basics, without giving away the design. We should have a display unit available at Barber, with production models available shortly after. So Matt may be taking orders at Barber.

I will put some additional info up tomorrow. We will be making gear sets for CNW, and they will be available by the end of the year

Perhaps you should be making the new Norton 961s in that shop, never mind a starter for the old ones!

Glen

Looking forward to it... I'm on the waiting list and can't wait!!!

Hey,

So as you can see, we are in very good hands working with STS on this project (and more in the future). They have some amazing capabilities and we are fortunate that John is a big Norton fan since this will really help when it comes to understanding what we need to do to make this work on the Commando. John pointed out two important details in our design

- Belt drive included. We feel that rather than trying to make our system mate up with pre-existing parts, it will be so much better if we can provide as much as possible related to the system since that will ensure that everything will mesh together. As you know there are so many different primary drive systems out there that it just made sense to provide the belt drive with the kit. No issues matching something pre-existing with this new starter kit. What is also a big plus is that we will be making the belt drive in house as well. So any changes we need to make to have it operate with the starter kit better can be done to our specifications

- Starter engagement. John and I have talked about this at length and even though we haven't 100% decided what approach to take, we agreed that if possible, it will be better if we can have the starter disengage after turning the engine over. This way we wont have to worry about what will happen in case of a backfire etc. We will simply have two separate systems....one for the primary drive and one for the starter. STS has extensive experience with planetary drives and we wont have any issues turning over even a high compression engine

We will keep our heads down and move forward with this.

Matt / Colorado Norton Works

http://www.coloradonortonworks.com

Old dinosaur aircraft used cartridge starters to blow the piston down the bore. I read somewhere that the automotive industry were looking at starter-less car engines. I suppose just get the piston in the correct position, (just after TDC both valves closed) introduce a fuel air mix and light blue touch paper. Can't be difficult, can it? If it can kick back it can kick forward. Jim Comstock has a video of him starting his bike by hand.