What is the difference between slimline & featherbed frame?

I have read that the US market demanded bigger displacement and Norton repsonded with the Atlas.
That didn't work out so well as the bike was too much of a shaker. The 650SS bikes were more popular in the UK where Rider's knew what they were and that is were most of them are today. For the first few years of production they were built in Doug Hele's race shop which had a limited capacity. Production numbers were very small, sometimes less than 100 bikes per year.

Prices for the 650SS in the UK just keep going up and up. Recently I've seen a couple sell around the 12,000 GBP mark.

Cookie said:

That's very interesting, I wonder why they were not more popular then?

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Expensive, and Triumph's advertised speed was as fast as Norton's.

Perhaps a styling thing too? Even as a Norton nut i have never really warmed to the 650SS/Atlas look. A silver/grey Dommi 88 does make my knees go weak though.
Plus i believe there were a number of Featherbed rolling chassis on the market - Manx engines were used in a class of open wheel race car and from what i have read Norton would only sell complete bikes, giving the lesser makes a chance to upgrade with the leftover frame etc.

That's also what I've heard, imagine buying a Manx chassis brakes and all for cheap.

ntst8 said:

Perhaps a styling thing too? Even as a Norton nut i have never really warmed to the 650SS/Atlas look. A silver/grey Dommi 88 does make my knees go weak though.
Plus i believe there were a number of Featherbed rolling chassis on the market - Manx engines were used in a class of open wheel race car and from what i have read Norton would only sell complete bikes, giving the lesser makes a chance to upgrade with the leftover frame etc.

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I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder. I've always thought the 650SS and Atlas were some of the best looking bikes Norton ever built, I guess that is why I ended up with one.

I think Norton made a lot of nice looking bikes back then. My current Commando featherbed hybrid looks pretty decent to me but the P15, some G15, especially the CSR, and the Ranger were very pretty.