RGM do some alloy ones. I have these on my Commando.
7 3/8" ALLOY YOKES COMPLETE WITH FASTENINGS FOR COMMANDO 2 13/16" OFFSET _(PAIR)
COMMANDO ALLOY YOKES 050705
www.rgmnorton.co.uk
F: Frame Norvin out of Dominator 88
- Thread starter Sebastian Huber
- Start date
True indeed! As an Ex British Colony, we follow a similar model. However, there are ways around it. My home constructed Egli replica has a frame number with K122 at the front. Norton owners may recognise that.
If I had enough life & money left to build another special I would start with a 750GT Ducati. I think Vincatis are great looking bikes. I rode a few Bevel Ducatis owned by friends when they were current, they have good quality 38mm forks,they steered and stopped well, just had unfortunate engines.
And, of course, they come with a frame number.
True indeed! As an Ex British Colony, we follow a similar model. However, there are ways around it. My home constructed Egli replica has a frame number with K122 at the front. Norton owners may recognise that.
If I had enough life & money left to build another special I would start with a 750GT Ducati. I think Vincatis are great looking bikes. I rode a few Bevel Ducatis owned by friends when they were current, they have good quality 38mm forks,they steered and stopped well, just had unfortunate engines.
And, of course, they come with a frame number.
I loved those engines. Had a GT and a 750S. I also loved the way they handled, but certainly different (with a 60+” wheelbase) from the sport bikes of today.
I've just bought a genuine 78 900 SS always a bike I wanted apart from the Vin's........Best sounding motorcycle engine ever in my opinion. Just striped it right to the bare crank......They have a million shims in them.......A sure sign of limited production numbers, not ideal really, very fiddly. They seem to have some weaknesses, like most race bred machines, but the electrical was probably the biggest bind with them.
I should have bought new ones, But I had mine welded and put a stainless strap round the out side,
Just in case .Norton Yokes !!.
Just in case .Norton Yokes !!.
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Congratulations Greg, welcome to a life of misery. Now strip the crank itself, you cant afford to pretend it is good. There is no bearing ring in the factory standard conrods, the rollers run on the hardened rod like a Jap two stroke. When they are heat treated the largest mass of material is the confluence of the rod shank & BE bore. It is the slowest to cool. If Luigi didnt get the heating & quenching absolutely perfect, they are soft in the area of greatest bearing load, most of them are doomed to fail. I know we all hear stories of 100,000 Km & even mile, Bevel Ducatis, we hear those stories because they are exceptional for Bevels, most of them die well before that mileage.
Then look at the gear shafts where the rollers run on the shafts, there is a high likelihood that the bearings have pitted the shafts & the bores of the gears. If they havent, you have got lucky. I have considered the possibility of replacing the rollers with hard, aluminium bronze bushes, floating, 1/2 thou clearance inside & out, with oil scrolls turned into them. It's a bodge we used on Morris Mini & 1100 Crab gearboxes back in the day with success.
Because the 900SS is such a high value bike it's worth restoring, then you have options, polish it & put in the lounge, or move it on & make it someone else's problem. The electrics are the least of your issues.
Better to buy a 750 or 860 GT and fit a Vincent motor into it, then you can have a relaible classic special.
I guess I missed the drama associated with those bikes. Only annoying thing that happened was a shift spring on the GT and a chunk of the tail light vibrated off the 750S. May have had something to do with the fact that they were both low mile at the time I acquired them and I lived in Winnipeg. Temperatures there can range from -40c to +40c, so sometimes the enthusiasm for riding doesn't manifest itself. The 750S is one of my all time favourites, but wouldn't recommend one for a road trip...... unless it was to find a road that actually had a bend in it.
This one was showing 88,000 km's, and the engine has had work done before. Looks like one of Brooke Henry's cranks in it. Highly polished crank throws, and much work done on the rod big ends and so on, plus there has been a couple of new gears installed in the gearbox. I will inspect the gearbox and shafts thoroughly, and fix/replace anything that might be suspect. The engines are definitely not as strong as a Vincent.
The 78 bike stripped some bevels as it crossed the line, Steve Wynne had some special ones made for 79. back in the early 90s a mate had a rear set chip and Steve let him have some from a spare engine, I have the bike now. They are quite different to look at and ring totally different if you tap them.