Production Racer Fairing Spacer (2012)

Well if its a Norvil as in Les Emery fairing would ask them , Its not advertised as being for track use only !

I don't have the norvil fairing. Mine is more like the late dunstall fairing, probably copied by GFTP. The stock swing of my '70 commando with 2.25" offset yokes was too great, so my hands would bump into the fairing. I ended up doing many different things to make it all work the way I wanted it to work with almost flat bars. I didn't want clip on handlebars because I didn't want to ride in that forward position so I did a number of things to the fairing bracket...

1) I welded 2 pieces of bar stock steel onto the faceplate of the steering head bracket, so they pertruded downward in front of the steering lock tabs on the head stock. These bars shorten the swing of my yokes, and also make it so my fairing mount bracket cant rotate in place on the steering head. This keeps my hands from banging into the fairing.

2) I rolled my handlebars downward slightly (probably not applicable to you if you're using clip ons)

3) I completely reworked the headstock bracket because it was a single arm originally with a "T" angle iron at the end of the arm to fix the 2 fairing mount bolts. It seemed like it would be ok if I was racing and didn't have a headlight, but the single arm interfered with the headlight shell, so I cut the main arm off and made it into a forked bracket with 2 arms so the headlight shell fell between the forked arms. Now, I can see my headlight shell ammeter and reach the lighting control switch in the headlight shell.

*** I also made a second bracket to support the arms of the lower fairing which I mounted on the frame downtubes with rubberized "U" clamps, because the original design is a piece of flat metal connecting the lower arms to "where ever the feck" they mount, which doesn't support the fairing very well. It leaves most of the support to the headstock bracket. I found the whole original fairing mount system lacking in elegance of design and strength, so I mounted the original bracket then made measurements off that mounting to compute the alterations I needed to make... Although our fairings are different, you may need to use that same method to diagnose your fairing issues and make your necessary adjustments.

In the end, I have less yoke travel because of the steering stops I added, but it doesn't take too long of riding around to understand that tight turns at very slow speeds are tricky without that extra yoke travel. "K" turns in parking lots are particularly effected too. But, when you are riding around at speed, you don't turn the yokes all that much to turn the bike, even on the tightest of sweepers, so you get used to the shorter yoke travel.

The only thing I would warn you about is lending your bike to someone who isn't used to your diminished yoke travel. Chances are they will be ok at speed, but that loss of steering range can mess up their expectations at slow speeds when the yokes wont turn... HTH

Good point oldmikew. I will send him an email. At the end of the day all my problems would be solved if I can locate the spacer to move everything 1/2 inch forward. You can see what I need if you can see the picture at the start of this thread. If you can't see it you can google "Norton proddy racer fairing spacer" and there is a clear photo of it. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

Rehosted the images from first post.

oldmikew said:

Well if its a Norvil as in Les Emery fairing would ask them , Its not advertised as being for track use only !

Click to expand...

I can’t even imagine the response from Les if you complain about the bracket being wrong.

As you can imagine I’m going to resurrect this thread for at least the third time. Scared the crap out of myself today. Probably been 5 years since I’d been on the bike with the bracket on.

Obviously the Andover bracket looks different and probably fits better. Not cheap. But if you can use the stock fork stops it’s worth it.

https://andover-norton.co.uk/en/shop-details/20536/front-fairing-bracket-andover-norvil

So I just tested out if you could pull the Norvil bracket out far enough and use the stock fork stops.

Nope.

Now if you move the bracket forward you may gain a bit of fork arc back.

I may need to spring for the Norvil (real one) from Andover.

Third times a charm, mate.

swooshdave said:

So I just tested out if you could pull the Norvil bracket out far enough and use the stock fork stops.

Nope.

Now if you move the bracket forward you may gain a bit of fork arc back.

I may need to spring for the Norvil (real one) from Andover.

Click to expand...

Give Les a call, I’m sure he’ll be very understanding and accommodating...

F E , you forgot the /sarc off

I’m still going to try a temporary 1 inch spacer just to see if I retain enough steering lock to make it usable.

With as many Proddy replicas as there are out there it’s hard to get any answers on this stuff.

I know we were joking about asking Les but on their site they show a Proddy replica they will build for you... with the spacer.



https://www.norvilmotorcycle.co.uk/race.htm

Maybe an email isn’t out of the question.

Are you trying to get the full range of travel out of the yokes or would narrowing the range of travel with a fixture be acceptable?

o0norton0o said:

Are you trying to get the full range of travel out of the yokes or would narrowing the range of travel with a fixture be acceptable?

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I really restricted my fork range so I wouldn’t hit the instruments. It’s really bad. So any improvements will be welcome.

There’s no way to get the full range with the Norvil (Les) bracket.

I hung the bracket and fairing, then measured where I really wanted the fairing to be positioned, brought it to my welder friend and cut it up and remade it. In my case, (and probably yours) the bracket was like a "T", where the arm was singular square tube, then had an angle iron welded on it's end to have two bolts to hold the fairing's upper member. I couldn't see the headlight shell with my lights, lamp switch and ammeter, so I had the welder make it into a "fork style" bracket. I had him tilt it forward to bring it out away from the yolks an inch too. I wasn't worried about height adjustment since that's adjustable by threading the stop nuts. The image below is what I started with.



And here is what I ended up with. it's hard to see the whole bracket, but you get the idea. It's not hard to modify the bracket. The way to do it is to hang the fairing and make your measurements between where it is, and where you want it to be, then go forward with your bracket modification. if you leave the bracket lower then you can use the adjusters to raise the fairing. If you leave it high, then you are cutting it again to lower the fairing if needed. As far as the stops go, I welded some 1/4" x 1/4" bar to the bracket faceplate which hung down in front of the steering stops. They shorten the yoke travel without welding on the frame. they also keep the fairing bracket from being able to twist on the steering head... I'm sure pictures would help, but its hard to take them once the fairing is mounted. If you want some, I'll see if I can get a picture of the bracket plate once I pull the bike out today...

I’ve got a pretty good idea what you did. I’m trying to keep the modifications to a minimum. I did email Norvil to ask them about the spacer. It’ll be interesting to see what they say. If it’s reasonable I’ll have them put it on the reset when I order in a week or so.

When I built my cafe racer I found that the only way I could get reasonable steering lock with the Production Racer fairing was to build a new mount with a single tube and mount the gauges on special made brackets attached to the fork bolts. Using adjustable Tomaselli clipons, I could maximize the clearance for the bars. It still wasn't a great deal of steering lock, but much better than the original bracket.

Ron L said:

When I built my cafe racer I found that the only way I could get reasonable steering lock with the Production Racer fairing was to build a new mount with a single tube and mount the gauges on special made brackets attached to the fork bolts. Using adjustable Tomaselli clipons, I could maximize the clearance for the bars. It still wasn't a great deal of steering lock, but much better than the original bracket.

Cafe racer

• Ron L
• Jul 28, 2019

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Thanks Ron. I’m not delusional about getting full steering lock but the setup that I have now is not practical. I can’t believe I rode it as much as I did.

Perhaps the poor steering lock is just how they were back in the day?

Race bikes don’t need much steering lock, and actually on a race bike it’s a good idea to deliberately limit the steering lock to the minimum that is required, this way, should the bike ever have a ‘tank slapper’ the limited lock can help to reduce the severity of the slapper.

With the bike actually being a ‘production racer’ maybe this was the case.

Anyway, whatever you do, please keep us in the loop regarding your replies from Les. I love watching Faulty Towers. This could be similar...

Andover probably have the tuning notes which show the original Norvil fairing and brackets.. The Les version is different .. the side brackets come off the front down tubes , the original off the side panel tubes.. Just to confuse matters there was the Dunstall fairing and i suspect this is what -judging by photo SwooshDave has fitted.. Mine had an Avon based on the one fitted to the Velo Thruxton.. And it has never needed lock stops. You can I think still get them for Velos , whether you can get the front bracket for a Norton or not I do not know.. But it is a superb fairing .