Stormdancer's Norton - the restoration of a classic
Though the pictures don't look like it, this is a much loved old bike - my 1973 750 Norton Commando Interstate. Bought (already well-used) in the early 1980's from a friend going into the military. I just loved riding this beast, and it loved to be ridden, only giving me enough trouble to remind me of what a good thing it was. Yeah, it was a total rat bike, but I loved it. I re-did the horrid vestigial wiring to something far superior to the original Lucas (Prince of Darkness) electricals, which had a lot to do with making it a dependable ride.
Then I moved to Austin... a city where the cage drivers seem to go out of their way to make a biker's life miserable and terribly unsafe, and I stopped riding. Years went by, and the bike sat in storage at my parents' place in nearby Leander. Covered, but still exposed to the humidity of course. I'd kick it over every now and then, when I went to visit, but a few years of being unridden made it unrideable.
And then another move, to New Mexico. The bike followed with... at least it's a dryer climate! But by now the engine had siezed. That's where these top two pictures are from. I started seriously considering doing a rebuild, and began to realize I just didn't have the time, space, tools or patience anymore. Time for a professional.
So after almost 15 years of rusting and rotting, the great beast was dragged through about a foot of snow (which was an incredible amount of work!), and man-and-woman-handled up into the bed of our pickup (the trailer was too buried in snow to use). On February 3rd, 2001 the hulk was taken in to Southwest Cycles in Albuquerque.
Despite promising that it would be ready for riding that fall, it took them more than a year to even crack the engine - something that did not make me particularly happy. But on March 9, 2003 they actually had started taking the bike apart.
By October 24th of 2002, they had the engine & tranny rebuilt. The cylinders were in really good shape, so he only needed to bore them out 20 over - very small difference.
The extra-observant will notice a broken fin on the head... this is because it's not my original head. Mine had pretty gummed up valve guides, and (as happens so often) the exhaust threads were really munged.
In the name of getting it done, faster & cheaper, he just took a different head that was in better shape, and cleaned it up. I wound up getting a replacement head with all fins intact on eBay, and had them swap it out.
The next year continued along much like the last... with us going out every couple of weeks and kicking them in the nuts for having done jack-all the previous couple of weeks, and getting promises that there would be more done next time.
With the frame stripped I did substantial cleanup work on the frame and accessories. The rear fender wasn't original, and I wound up replacing it with one that fit better. Once all was sanded and filled as good as I was going to be able to do it, I had the whole thing powdercoated. I was after a nearly-black look with highlights of blue in the sunlight - sort of a raven's wing look. But the powdercoat folks put too much blue in the mix, so it came out more blue than black. As it turned out, this looks quite good, so I wasn't too upset.
We took them a cake on the 3rd anniversary of the bike going into the shop there, which they were quite chagrined by. By spring of 2004 they had the motor and tranny back in a rolling frame. Real progress at last!
In October of 2004 the bike was together and running, but needing much tuning. Again, a visit every couple of weeks produced excuses why nothing had happened the previous two weeks, and promises that it would be ready in a couple of weeks. This Time For Sure. But once again it's snowing, our roadway is a sheet of ice requiring 4WD to get up and down.
Is there a cake with 4 candles in their future?
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While waiting (and waiting (and waiting (and waiting))) for my Norton to be rebuilt, I picked up a 1982 Yamaha XZ550 Vision.
