Production Racer Fairing Spacer (2012)

lcrken · Jul 29, 2019

Fast Eddie said:
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...

Exactly right. The original PR bracket limited the turning radius drastically, but was fine on the race track (and didn't let the forks hit the intruments). I used to ride mine on the street before it became race only, and it was a bit of a pain in tight spaces. I remember taking my license test ride on it, and one of the things the DMV guy required was that I make a continuous U-turn in residential street, curb to curb, with no stops. I told him ahead of time that it was impossible to do so without backing at least once, but he insisted. So I turned as far as I could, and rode over to the opposite curb, where I had to back up to complete the turn. He came running over to berate me, and I finally got him to hold the clip-ons and try to turn it. He was fine after that, and passed me for my m/c license.

Gets really confusing with the use of the term Norvil for modern repros that are a different design from the originals. The Norvil name originally belonged to Norton, and was commonly used in reference to the Production Racer and Racer Conversion kits, but after Les won his fight with Mick over the ownership of the name, and changed his company name from Fair Spares to Norvil Motorcycles, it really got confusing. I've seen something like four different "Norvil" fairing mounts, and none match the details of the originals.

Not that any of that has a lot of significance today, just interesting history.

Ken

swooshdave · Jul 29, 2019

lcrken said:
Exactly right. The original PR bracket limited the turning radius drastically, but was fine on the race track (and didn't let the forks hit the intruments). I used to ride mine on the street before it became race only, and it was a bit of a pain in tight spaces. I remember taking my license test ride on it, and one of the things the DMV guy required was that I make a continuous U-turn in residential street, curb to curb, with no stops. I told him ahead of time that it was impossible to do so without backing at least once, but he insisted. So I turned as far as I could, and rode over to the opposite curb, where I had to back up to complete the turn. He came running over to berate me, and I finally got him to hold the clip-ons and try to turn it. He was fine after that, and passed me for my m/c license.

Gets really confusing with the use of the term Norvil for modern repros that are a different design from the originals. The Norvil name originally belonged to Norton, and was commonly used in reference to the Production Racer and Racer Conversion kits, but after Les won his fight with Mick over the ownership of the name, and changed his company name from Fair Spares to Norvil Motorcycles, it really got confusing. I've seen something like four different "Norvil" fairing mounts, and none match the details of the originals.

Not that any of that has a lot of significance today, just interesting history.

Ken

On the Andover site there are what appears to be two different brackets shown. One in the original catalog picture and the one they sell.

lcrken · Jul 29, 2019

swooshdave said:
On the Andover site there are what appears to be two different brackets shown. One in the original catalog picture and the one they sell.

Yeah, I noticed that. The correct picture is, as you say, taken from the original '70s catalog, and shows what they looked like back then, but if you click on it, it takes you to a picture of the modified design they actually sell, listed under the original part number. I'm not knocking the change. It probably works better than the original. But for a purist, it's not a faithful repro of the original. I'm certainly not a purist, and I'm guilty of drastically modifying my PR back when I was racing. I just think it's unnecessarily confusing to mix up the old and new designs under the same, original part number.

But again, it's not terribly significant at this point.

Ken

swooshdave · Jul 29, 2019

I'm going to make a temporary spacer about an inch thick and try that. My previous testing just confirmed that no amount of change would allow full lock.

jan nelder · Jul 29, 2019

lcrken said:
Yeah, I noticed that. The correct picture is, as you say, taken from the original '70s catalog, and shows what they looked like back then, but if you click on it, it takes you to a picture of the modified design they actually sell, listed under the original part number. I'm not knocking the change. It probably works better than the original. But for a purist, it's not a faithful repro of the original. I'm certainly not a purist, and I'm guilty of drastically modifying my PR back when I was racing. I just think it's unnecessarily confusing to mix up the old and new designs under the same, original part number.

But again, it's not terribly significant at this point.

Ken

all sellers have to do is add an M for modified to end of number!

swooshdave · Aug 1, 2019

Ok, more testing last night. Better results. While I’ll never gain full lock I think it will be better. Ordering the spacer.

Paul · Aug 4, 2019

What about this ?

That's how Protar solved your problem.

swooshdave · Aug 4, 2019

I have that model somewhere. I can really tell from the picture.

Ron L · Aug 4, 2019

oldmikew said:
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..

Actually it the factory instructions for the Production Racer (quarter fairing) show the side brackets on the front down tubes. The brackets for the Formula 750 (full fairing) show the side brackets attached to the side panel tubes.

o0norton0o · Aug 4, 2019

I made my own downtube mounted lower bracket. I did a full size drawing on a piece of 1/4" plywood and brought the drawing and the material to my welder and he welded it up. I'll post a picture. I used long bolts though my dyna coil and gas tank support wings to bolt the top of the bracket's plate to hold it verticle. The vibration dampening U bolts grip the down tubes on the bottom of the bracket plate, so my fairing is solidly attached. I still have the full sized drawing if anyone is interested. (although the proddy fairing is a different fairing than mine, the basic design could be adapted)

The lower bracket I've seen used for my fairing was just a flat piece of metal that bolts under the fuel tank somewhere and it didn't give any support that I could see. I wasn't doing that...

oldmikew · Aug 6, 2019

Ron L said:
Actually it the factory instructions for the Production Racer (quarter fairing) show the side brackets on the front down tubes. The brackets for the Formula 750 (full fairing) show the side brackets attached to the side panel tubes.

Corrected.

swooshdave · Aug 8, 2019

So here’s the part number for the Norvil spacer. I’ll trial fit it tonight and figure out how long of bracket clamp bolts I’ll need.

swooshdave · Aug 10, 2019

Turning angle with the previous fork stops.

With the spacer. It may not seem like much but it should make a big difference.

A little more tweaking and I can start to fit the fairing and see what else hits. It's definitely a custom installation.

Production Racer Fairing Spacer (2012)

Similar threads