50 Years of Norton Design: Interview with Brian Slark and Mick Ofield

Yes, an interesting conversation with principles of the Commando era history. As an American Navy service veteran in 1971, I was all in on a Commando for $1430, with shipping to US for $100. Still own it today.
To those who have not been to the Barber museum, there's a track next to it where they have races and track days.
It sounds like a brand track day was going on during this recording, just wondering what brand, 'cause the engine
noise was very distinctive.
I was there while it was a Porsche track day and there was a Cobra in the mix. It was far more enjoyable to hear the Cobra come by at full throttle. American V8's, I guess :cool:
 
cliffa said:
Thanks for posting GN.

Interesting to finally find out why the Mk3 caliper was moved to the left and in front of the fork leg.
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Could you write that up, as I missed it skipping through video.
Pity they didn’t show older and newer switch gear they were discussing and the P76 drawing.
 
Manx Nortons do not look primitive to me. The trouble with Nortons is they tried to be something they were never going to be. A Manxman is an excellent motorcycle.
I also worked in conjuction with designers in engineering factories which had all of the old British structure. They were very self-defeating. I think the 961 might be OK - JUST !
ISO9000 was developed from BS4891 which the British developed during WW2. Deming took ISO9000 to Japan. The British need to take a leaf out of their own book. The problem is that industrial democracy has a role to play in continual improvement. Oligarchs hate unions, so we all become wage slaves.
 
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acotrel said:
Manx Nortons do not look primitive to me. The trouble with Nortons is they tried to be something they were never going to be. A Manxman is an excellent motorcycle.
I also worked in conjuction with designers in engineering factories which had all of the old British structure. They were very self-defeating. I think the 961 might be OK - JUST !
ISO9000 was developed from BS4891 which the British developed during WW2. Deming took ISO9000 to Japan. The British need to take a leaf out of their own book. The problem is that industrial democracy has a role to play in continual improvement. Oligarchs hate unions, so we all become wage slaves.
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You single out the Manxman as excellent.
Strange! To me it is a just a 650SS with a tank that is impractically small and a questionable colour scheme (yes - subjective!)
So why are the 88SS, 99SS or 650SS not excellent? ...or their base variants for that matter?
 
Annoying racetrack noise spoilt parts of the interview for me. Otherwise an interesting performance, especially listening to Mick Ofield.
The inside story about development work on the projected Mk4 Commando was very interesting.

- Knut
 
Mark Savage said:
I got why is was put in front of the fork leg, to deter braking lag in wet weather conditions as water would spout into the caliper on the rear, but missed why it was changed to the left. Possibly to ease casting set up at a guess?
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Yes, it was the cheapest option presumably. Keeping it on the right would have meant new caliper and fork slider castings. I think I'm right in saying that all they had to do was change the hub to a circlip bearing retainer, change the spoke lacing and remove the front stay. Some of the calipers have a steel wiper fitted to the leading edge as well. Not sure when that was introduced.

I don't think it's much of an issue with more modern pad friction materials though.
 
Water in the caliper was a major issue on my first disc brake bike, a CB750 Honda. In wet weather I had to increase my stopping distance by about double.
 
Thomasa said:
Water in the caliper was a major issue on my first disc brake bike, a CB750 Honda. In wet weather I had to increase my stopping distance by about double.
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Folks complain about the Norton brake, but the swinging Honda caliper was pretty dire when new and got progressively worse as the pivot seized. But back then the aquaplaning pads on all bikes were frightening for the first few seconds. The only good brakes (by comparison) were Guzzi and Ducati who's unplated rusty discs seemed to dissipate the water quickly.
 
Deming and the methods he introduced to Japan after WW2 around quality control were crucial to improvements in their industry. I doubt if many UK firms even now know much about some of those ideas, let alone implement them.
 
jan nelder said:
Deming and the methods he introduced to Japan after WW2 around quality control were crucial to improvements in their industry. I doubt if many UK firms even now know much about some of those ideas, let alone implement them.
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Not only the U.K.
It’s actually very interesting to go into big companies around the world and discover how little they know and use.
Most big companies are successful DESPITE and not BECAUSE OF their leadership.
Demming et al SHOULD have become irrelevant years ago. But in reality they are just as relevant, and almost as misunderstood, as ever!
 
Fast Eddie said:
Not only the U.K.
It’s actually very interesting to go into big companies around the world and discover how little they know and use.
Most big companies are successful DESPITE and not BECAUSE OF their leadership.
Demming et al SHOULD have become irrelevant years ago. But in reality they are just as relevant, and almost as misunderstood, as ever!
Click to expand...
THE basic principle of Deming was/is "listen to the operator" - something many major corporations of today continue to fail on.
 
They both promote the myth that the 750 was light and fast while MK3 was very heavy and slow.
I just weighed the MK3 and an Alton equipped 750 with the same scale. The difference was negligible, 5 pounds.
That's not going to slow things down by a measureable amount.
Then we ran the two bikes under full acceleration from about 10 mph to 110 mph. The 750 was given a head start which should allow it to romp away, but it did not until about 80 mph, where it pulled away slowly .
This particular 750 has some added oomph in the form of performance cam, bumped compression and a Comstock ported head including the D exhaust port modification. It is considerably faster than a stock 750.
The MK3 engine is stock and still runs all the same internals it had when it left the factory 47 years ago.

I think if we run the bikes again with the MK3 given the same lead this time, it will pull away over the whole distance.

So I guess it's the old thing where if something is stated enough times it becomes truth.

Glen
 
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The old hot-rodder's addage was "There's no substitute for cubic inches." That might apply here as well. You either run the pump faster or get a bigger pump to move more fluid. On a side note, one day at the Bonneville Salt Flats speed week I saw painted on the door of a fancy Perterbilt tow vehicle, "There's no substitute for cubic money."
 

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