The changes I made on the sunburst

Fast Eddie said:

Sounds like a good plan Yves. My only comment would be that I’d think twice about blast the frame for clear coat because it does make it look rough. I’d consider flatting it with wire wool instead.

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Hi Nigel,
First wish to finish my former replay:
It's more difficult to take the engine out from a mk2 frame.
I say sand blast, but soda blasting can be softer, but I will finish with wire wool anyway.
I have to change the tires also becouse they are old.
About my crash: a few weeks a go I was contacted by the two experts in charge to make a comun report about my healt situation now.
They agree that I will stay disabled to the end of my days.
When my lawer will receive the official report, she will make a financial proposal to the insurance from Calamity Jane, hope the insurance accept and that we don't need to go to the court.
I know a Kawa H2 750 for sale, a blue one, first model with only 3000 miles on the counter.
This is pure nostalgia: in the seventies I was working for the Kawasaki distributor here in Belgium, when the truck arrive with the first H2, I take the first crate out of the truck and put the bike on the road. I remember the brutality from the H2, I was the king of the road till the day I meet a friend with a Production Racer, I was not able to follow him on a twisty B road...
Yves

Hi Yves,
Great to see the bike still being developed, and that you're getting closer to restitution for your suffering.
I hanker after an H2 as well, but my 'fond memories' of my Z1R include too many tank-slapper moments! Still great motorcycle art though

My Mk 4 Seeley had been painted black, so I stripped it back, polished it and overcoated it with 2-pack clear.
It means inspection for cracks is easy and there's no worry about corrosion. Some obsessives would claim the weight increase to be unthinkable!

I just love that clear coated frame look !

Yves, you are a stalwart survivor, with one of the nicest of all bikes among this group.

I met Kenny C when I raced my little Bonneville a few years back, he was just starting a family. It was the first Commando I spotted in all the pits, MANY nice bikes, his was best.

I really hope you get the ray of sunshine in the form of the absolute maximum restitution for your horrible injuries and experience, and hope you are able to ride still for a very long time.

DON'T HURT YOURSELF ON THE H2!!!! They can hurt you without another vehicle involved!

B+Bogus said:

Hi Yves,
Great to see the bike still being developed, and that you're getting closer to restitution for your suffering.
I hanker after an H2 as well, but my 'fond memories' of my Z1R include too many tank-slapper moments! Still great motorcycle art though

My Mk 4 Seeley had been painted black, so I stripped it back, polished it and overcoated it with 2-pack clear.
It means inspection for cracks is easy and there's no worry about corrosion. Some obsessives would claim the weight increase to be unthinkable!

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Hi,
Thats the result I wish!
The Z1R Kawa was the worst bike ever made by Kawa, the frame was made with spaghetis.
My Boss Pierre Vigoni, belgiam distributor, order 60 of them, we sale maybe one or two pieces at the begining, after we change the geometry from the fork and frame, the result was good, not a Featerbed, but good, we receive bigger unpainted tanks from the factory.
We make a Turbo version: a lot of work, lowering the compression, making chicanes in oil pan and so on. we sale only a few of them.....
One day we receive a letter from the General from the "Gendarmerie Zairoise" (congolees police) They wish to buy 50 police bikes.
Of course they ask different brands to make a prototype bike and send it to Zaire.
This was the good oportunity to sale all the Z1R we have left!!!
Knowing that I was my first 10 years of my live in Congo, my boss ask me to do the prototype of the Police bike.
Knowing the taste from the Congolees, I make the Z1R bike with a lot of blue and red lights, a lot of horns and so on, when the bike was finish, it was more a Chrismas tree as a motorcycle!
I make also a board on the back wit "Gendarmerie Zairoise" on it. Beautifull!!
Before we ship the Bike to Zaire, my Boss ask me to do a test ride with the bike, I spend a whole day riding the bike, and of course the radar take me way over the speed limit.
The most difficult thing was to explain to the Court why a Police Bike from the"Gendarmerie Zairoise" was doing on a belgiam highway....
We ship the bike to Zaire, and we dont receive any feedback, after a lot of time, my boss call the General and he says that he plan to come to Belgium to finalise the contrac, but at the moment he was saving money to buy a BMW car.
I says to my Boss: buy him his BMW and include the price of the car in the price of the bikes. My boss says never!
Thats why the Gendarmerie Zairoise was riding on BMW bikes and the General on a BMW car.
At the end of the story we sale the Z1R to Greece, but this is another story...
Yves

grandpaul said:

Yves, you are a stalwart survivor, with one of the nicest of all bikes among this group.

I met Kenny C when I raced my little Bonneville a few years back, he was just starting a family. It was the first Commando I spotted in all the pits, MANY nice bikes, his was best.

I really hope you get the ray of sunshine in the form of the absolute maximum restitution for your horrible injuries and experience, and hope you are able to ride still for a very long time.

DON'T HURT YOURSELF ON THE H2!!!! They can hurt you without another vehicle involved!

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Hi Grandpaul,
Nietshe says "you must live dangerously"
Yves

Fatastic bike Yves, you must be righfully proud, good to see that you can ride it more as you recover from your accident.
btw, I love your story about the "Congolese" Kawa.

Fast Eddie said:

I just love that clear coated frame look !

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I start the works next week friend, I can not work more as 3 hours a day, but It will be better conditions as in 2019 when I was dismanteling the broken Big Spender and built the Sunburst in my weelchair.

Good to see you are on the way back to some normality.
An H2 of any year might be what you need for some yesteryear shenanigans (along with regular gas stops)

I started off on Kawasaki triples in 1977 (first H2 (B) in 1980 which I still have)
They are like many now, an expensive bike, the days of picking them up for $100's is long gone and still have a couple of A's bought in the 1990's for what is now peanuts.
Who would have thought.

Someone should have told Graeme Crosby the Z1R was dodgy.

yves norton seeley said:

I start the works next week friend, I can not work more as 3 hours a day, but It will be better conditions as in 2019 when I was dismanteling the broken Big Spender and built the Sunburst in my weelchair.

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Good to hear Yves.

Please do keep us posted on the progress. It’s a public service in these days to keep us all involved in your rebuild, reading the details and looking at the pictures might help to keep us all sane !

Re: the clear frame look, I always thought the Rickman bikes with their nickel-plated frames looked classy.
For some reason it seems to suit upright engines better imho but here's a pic of a Rickman Metisse Commando.



Well done Yves. Wishing you many more happy miles (kilometers) riding.
Andy

DevonNorton said:

Re: the clear frame look, I always thought the Rickman bikes with their nickel-plated frames looked classy.
For some reason it seems to suit upright engines better imho but here's a pic of a Rickman Metisse Commando.

View attachment 19973

Well done Yves. Wishing you many more happy miles (kilometers) riding.
Andy

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HI Andy,
This is a beautifull bike.
My former Seeley as a chromed frame, but I will not do it on the Sunburst, the chrome hide the fantastic color of the welding, and I wish to keep it.
Thanks
Yves

I keep coming back to this thread just to see the old man on a Norton.

maylar said:

I keep coming back to this thread just to see the old man on a Norton.

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Where do you see a old man?
You see a very lucky old man that fullfill almost all his dream in his life, not always easy but I did it.
I see so many unlucky persons around me.
I know a guy that was born with nine fingers, you will say: not a big deal, nobody see it.
Wel the guy was born with one finger on one hand and eigth on the other...
Yves

DevonNorton said:

Re: the clear frame look, I always thought the Rickman bikes with their nickel-plated frames looked classy.
For some reason it seems to suit upright engines better imho but here's a pic of a Rickman Metisse Commando.

View attachment 19973

Well done Yves. Wishing you many more happy miles (kilometers) riding.
Andy

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Not sure what you mean by 'For some reason it seems to suit upright engines better'....

But I hope Yves doesn't mind my deviation on his thread.... Rickman didn't actually make a Commando frame or chassis, every Norton twin product they sold was for the Atlas upright configuration. And the chassis all had discs front and rear!

The Rickman Commandos out there, that is those who have the engine inclined forward like a Commando, are the product of an individual customer build, either based on a Norton or Triumph configured frame, or a later MRD manufactured frame.

What I would be interested in seeing is a close up picture of the 'roseless' exhaust ports on this bike!

SteveA said:

What I would be interested in seeing is a close up picture of the 'roseless' exhaust ports on this bike!

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There looks to be no springs so perhaps it is still threaded but more compact to the head and tightened at the front face.

If you right click on pictures, Search Google for image will find the source if it is online elsewhere.

SteveA said:

Not sure what you mean by 'For some reason it seems to suit upright engines better'....

But I hope Yves doesn't mind my deviation on his thread.... Rickman didn't actually make a Commando frame or chassis, every Norton twin product they sold was for the Atlas upright configuration. And the chassis all had discs front and rear!

The Rickman Commandos out there, that is those who have the engine inclined forward like a Commando, are the product of an individual customer build, either based on a Norton or Triumph configured frame, or a later MRD manufactured frame.

What I would be interested in seeing is a close up picture of the 'roseless' exhaust ports on this bike!

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Hi Steve A
All I meant by the upright engines was that from my perspective they just look more 'right'. Just my view and highly subjective.
Thanks for the information about Rickman, I wondered why you don't see many Commando-engined ones. The pic I included therefore looks to be a customer bike with the engine inclined forward but not quite as inclined as a standard Commando.
This is the link that I grabbed the pick from https://www.classicsportbikesforsale.com/1968-rickman-metisse-roadracer-for-sale/
Not sure it helps with the exhaust ports.
Pics of some Triumphs with vertical engines here: https://www.classic-british-motorcycles.com/rickman-motorcycles.html
All imho
Andy

Maybe what throws it off, is that someone is using a Commando timing cover, resulting in "Norton" script appearing angled upwards instead of true horizontal...

They go faster when tiled forward , all Commando motors tile forward why I always say Commando/Featherbed when I talk about my bike as its not a Atlas motor but 2/3 of my build is Commando and 1/3 Featherbed. with a few improvements in between.

Ashley

Yves
Bring it up to 920cc again.
That should make you happy.