lcrken
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- Joined
- Mar 15, 2009
- Messages
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I thought I had already posted info on this bike, but I can't find it, so maybe it's another case of advancing senility. Anyway, this is what I know about this bike.
This Norton V-4 project was the brainchild of George Gjonovitch back in the '70s. Back then George owned a bike shop in Southern California, Horsepower International (HPI) in Garden Grove. George was a serious Norton innovator, and one of the first to sell big bore kits that sleeved 850 Norton cylinders out to 920 and 940 cc. He built and raced Norton drag racers, and built and worked on Norton road racers, flat trackers, and street bikes. He was also one of the first to sell a nitrous kit for Norton twins. I used to drop by and visit George pretty regularly in the '70s and '80s. He always had something interesting going on. George eventually became ill, and is no longer with us. He sold or closed the business many years ago. I originally saw the first castings for the V-4 crankcases at his home, but lost track of the project after that.
A decade or so later, I ran into the Greg Sanders, the current owner of the finished V-4 bike and the remaining spare parts. Greg was responsible for the patterns and castings for the crankcases. Greg contacted me about the alloy cylinders I was selling for Nortons. He was thinking about getting a couple for the V-4 to lose some weight on the engine. The bike was licensed, and Greg was riding it on the street at that time. I lost Greg's contact info years ago, but with the aid of the internet I was able to track him down again and find out the current status of the bike. Greg is alive and well in Long Beach, California. The V-4 is sitting in his garage, but he hasn’t ridden it for a couple years. Apparently the carburetors he was using on it didn’t work out, so he started on a manifold for a different set of carburetors. It is currently set up with a downdraft carburetor, but he feels he need to do a carburetor to feed each side. He as not done much on it for a while — like a lot of gearheads, he’s into other projects, and has been working on new ideas instead of an old bike.
He only did two sets of crankcase castings. He made the jigs and tooling to machine them, but only finished one set, the ones on the bike. The other cases still need to be machined. He had the crankshaft made to his specs from 4340 steel by a local shop (no longer in business). It has 3-main bearings and uses rods from a 429 Cadillac engine from 1964. A bushing is used in the small end, and the center main bearing is from a 350 Chevy. The drive side uses a self-aligning bearing, and the timing side using a regular Norton drive side setup. The design uses a Harley-Davidson frame and transmission. He says he has made the jig for the manifold.
Ken
This Norton V-4 project was the brainchild of George Gjonovitch back in the '70s. Back then George owned a bike shop in Southern California, Horsepower International (HPI) in Garden Grove. George was a serious Norton innovator, and one of the first to sell big bore kits that sleeved 850 Norton cylinders out to 920 and 940 cc. He built and raced Norton drag racers, and built and worked on Norton road racers, flat trackers, and street bikes. He was also one of the first to sell a nitrous kit for Norton twins. I used to drop by and visit George pretty regularly in the '70s and '80s. He always had something interesting going on. George eventually became ill, and is no longer with us. He sold or closed the business many years ago. I originally saw the first castings for the V-4 crankcases at his home, but lost track of the project after that.
A decade or so later, I ran into the Greg Sanders, the current owner of the finished V-4 bike and the remaining spare parts. Greg was responsible for the patterns and castings for the crankcases. Greg contacted me about the alloy cylinders I was selling for Nortons. He was thinking about getting a couple for the V-4 to lose some weight on the engine. The bike was licensed, and Greg was riding it on the street at that time. I lost Greg's contact info years ago, but with the aid of the internet I was able to track him down again and find out the current status of the bike. Greg is alive and well in Long Beach, California. The V-4 is sitting in his garage, but he hasn’t ridden it for a couple years. Apparently the carburetors he was using on it didn’t work out, so he started on a manifold for a different set of carburetors. It is currently set up with a downdraft carburetor, but he feels he need to do a carburetor to feed each side. He as not done much on it for a while — like a lot of gearheads, he’s into other projects, and has been working on new ideas instead of an old bike.
He only did two sets of crankcase castings. He made the jigs and tooling to machine them, but only finished one set, the ones on the bike. The other cases still need to be machined. He had the crankshaft made to his specs from 4340 steel by a local shop (no longer in business). It has 3-main bearings and uses rods from a 429 Cadillac engine from 1964. A bushing is used in the small end, and the center main bearing is from a 350 Chevy. The drive side uses a self-aligning bearing, and the timing side using a regular Norton drive side setup. The design uses a Harley-Davidson frame and transmission. He says he has made the jig for the manifold.
Ken
