The birth of a Seeley Norton

storm42 · Jul 30, 2018

acotrel said:
I have a severe psychological problem which stops me from wanting to ride the Seeley on public roads. As soon as the motor starts, I am never going to crash again and I have to ride the bike fast.
What need is a race class which is BOTT for bikes with aircooled motors. But it is never going to happen. The fact that my Seeley is 60s bike is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the design is a good answer which has not been surpassed by many modern twin cylinder bikes with aircooled motors. With a torquey twin cylnder bike, the big tyres and large suspension travel which suit the wide line in corners, are pretty much un-necessary and don't achieve much. The Seeley is a different concept from a different era, however it actually works extremely well.
I have no problem racing against modern bikes of similar capacity, as long as they are not two-strokes or four-strokes with more than two air-cooled cylinders.

I am not sure what I would be racing against over here but it does sound like we have more interest in twins, BMWs are popular on the continent, some of them go well too, there are lots of triples as well so I am sure there will be a class that my bike would be competitive in.

A friend came round the other day and pointed out that one of the bikes I was out with at the Beezumph was this:

https://chrischapmanracing.weebly.com/bike-specifications.html

The rider wasn't Chris, he had leant the bike to a current young racer, mind you Chris would have probably have caught and passed the R1 and the KTM.

Anyway the point of this, if you go to 7:50 ish on my Beezumph vid you will see him pass me and the surprising thing for me was, up the next straight I was catching him so I know my bike is quick, I just need to sort out the bikes feeling and learn how to ride on a closed circuit and it should be game on

acotrel · Jul 30, 2018

When I first started racing a much older rider said to me 'you need a lot of racing miles under your belt and the bike must do something for you'. You have the bike. Practice and work up to the corners.

mudplugger · Feb 1, 2019

fantastic build, and a very clever guy. I built my first bike 2 years ago. I have now acquired wide line featherbed with paperwork and looking for ideas of what to build. engine choice needs to be sorted first, I do like Nortons and this build gives inspiration

acotrel · Feb 2, 2019

Bikes based on Featherbed and Seeley frames are usually easy builds. And Commando motors are excellent. When building any bike, the first things you need are the gearbox and the front brake. With those bits being good, it doesn't matter if the motor is slightly slow.

The birth of a Seeley Norton

storm42

acotrel

mudplugger

acotrel

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