Phil Lane's Dunstall 810

Nice article. @lcrken that isnt you in the background on your yellow bike, Riverside '73?

When I bought this one in 2001 the seller also had a mint yellow 810 Dunstall for $3000. I wanted to take both home, but only had room to transport one. The JPN was $5000.

gortnipper said:

Nice article. @lcrken that isnt you in the background on your yellow bike, Riverside '73?

Never Gonna Let You Go: Phil Lane’s Dunstall | The Vintagent

Few motorcyclists have owned their machine for half a Century, and of those, rarer still is an owned-since-new cafe racer. Phil Lane kept his for 50 years

thevintagent.com

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Fraid not. I was racing at Riverside in '73, but I was on a real PR at the time, not a Dunstall, although it was yellow. This is the earliest picture that I have of me on the PR. That was my first set of leathers, a two piece set made by a local outfit for dirt tracker racers. From the non-stock exhaust on the bike, and the triangular Dunlop race tires,I suspect the picture was later, maybe early '80s.



Ken

Ken, I believe he was asking if that was you on the other Norton, next to the Dunstall.
It's yellow, but with no fairing.

Sorry if my answer was confusing. Maybe I should have said that I was on a real PR, not a Dunstall or a Dunstall equipped Commando. The near bike is an original Dunstall, and the far bike has a Dunstall tank, but the other visible parts (exhausts, instruments, front controls, reflectors, front fender) are not PR, plus the frame is the wrong color, so I'm assuming it is just a standard Commando with some Dunstall parts.

This is a color shot of me on the bike in '82 at a Willow Springs race. My avatar is another shot from the same race. I raced in those leathers until '85, when I had a big crash, and the doctor destroyed them by cutting them off me at the hospital. Wish I had kept them for decoration in the shop, but I was pretty out of it at the time, so they just threw them in the trash.



Ken

lcrken said:

Fraid not. I was racing at Riverside in '73, but I was on a real PR at the time, not a Dunstall, although it was yellow. This is the earliest picture that I have of me on the PR. That was my first set of leathers, a two piece set made by a local outfit for dirt tracker racers. From the non-stock exhaust on the bike, and the triangular Dunlop race tires,I suspect the picture was later, maybe early '80s.

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Ken

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Wow, guess I should have gone to the track to see you. I was stationed at March AFB in 1973... nearly walking distance from the track. I was riding my first Commando then.

lcrken said:

Fraid not. I was racing at Riverside in '73, but I was on a real PR at the time, not a Dunstall, although it was yellow. This is the earliest picture that I have of me on the PR. That was my first set of leathers, a two piece set made by a local outfit for dirt tracker racers. From the non-stock exhaust on the bike, and the triangular Dunlop race tires,I suspect the picture was later, maybe early '80s.

View attachment 96092

Ken

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Where is the other front disc ? The Dunstalls in the photos both have two discs on the front. Anything less is not enough on a bike of that weight. You can only ride as fast as you can stop.

gortnipper said:

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I like the sound of that engine thanks to the piston-barrel combination designed for a 10.5:1 compression ratio.
Quite some shaking happening at start-up! The isolastics may have detoriated .....

- Knut

acotrel said:

Where is the other front disc ? The Dunstalls in the photos both have two discs on the front. Anything less is not enough on a bike of that weight. You can only ride as fast as you can stop.

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The PR came with a single 11.5 inch Norvil floating cast iron disk and Lockheed racing caliper, and it was more than enough for the bike with period bias ply race tires and maybe 60 rwhp after performance mods. The stock PR front brake was more than powerful enough to chirp the front tire, had great feedback feel, and never faded. Why would I have needed the extra weight of another disk? I didn't add a second Norvil disk to my PR until slick tires became available, and after I had taken it out to 920 cc.

The Dunstall had two small disks with much less pad area and poor cooling. It was nowhere near as good as the Norvil brake.

Ken

Just to dgrees on DISCS , there were LYSTER front disc's concurrent with Dunstalls .




1968 domi I.o.M. below . dual Disc . Early ?? Dunstall the caliper mounts were clamped to std. fork sliders ,





below ( page 5 here ) https://daveriley.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/mallory_park_16th_march_1969.pdf



Early P.R. type fork leg ! ? ( seen a Tri TLS scooped type predecessor advertised by Dunstall . Story was , I thingk , the Triumph factory
bought the patent from him ? ALSO the Factory 'TWIN 'race shop , was bought by Dunstall . so he had ALL THE "WORKS " RACE TWIN
DEVELOPMENTED componentry ( & presumably drawings & data ) as things were more brtherly & not so cut throat then , maybe ,
cross polination occured componentrallily !

Early Dunstall disk brake kit



Later Dunstall disk brake kit



Dunstall did use a Norvil style fork leg and caliper, but with a different disk conversion on the wheel, on his drainpipe racer, but I don't think he ever sold that as a retail kit.



He apparently also ran the drainpipe racer with the later disk conversion.



The most recent Dunstall drainpipe I've seen is the one he ran in the 1969 season, now owned by Jamie Waters. It had a Norton factory Production Racer front brake.




Ken