Norvin

[Real Rocker]

In 1978 for £900 I bought my dream machine, a Norvin. I now ride an Egli twin & a 500 wideline Featherbed Dominator. Both machines handle like true thoroughbreds. Put the vincent engine in a featherbed & you negate the virtues of both machines & end up with a dangerous mongrel that does not handle. My Norvin tried to kill me 2 or 3 times before I saw the light & invested another £500 in an Egli chassis. What a wonderfull contrivance. I only have to think where I want to go & it takes me there as does the Norton Dominator. The Norvin had to be wrestled round high speed bends & it was always liable to produce skidmarks in the wrong place. Fine if all you want to do is trailer the bike to shows or potter down to the ACE cafe[urrrgh, pass the sick bag mother] & collect admiring looks but for serious road riding it won`t work. You could cut the front down tubes out & pull the engine forward & lower which was done in the sixties when everything was cheap but why wreck a good frame. My Norvin EEM 580 E, was built in Liverpool in 1965 & utilised the standard top engine steady from the Norton twin & the sliding top mount from the Vincent which worked fine because it allowed for expansion. Think about it, I know John Surtees built & raced a Norvin but I challenge anyone to inform me of a Norvin that was raced with any great success. If they were any good, Egli`s would not exist. Dell Boy. P.S When I joined the club in`78 no-one would talk to me because I rode a Norvin. How times have changed, Norvin section & all. I don`t go to club do`s much nowadays because they still don`t talk to me. Perhaps a change of deoderant?

 

[ogrilp400]

The Norvin Challenge

"I challenge anyone to inform me of a Norvin that was raced with any great success"
It is well documented here that Eric Debenham raced the Corish Norvin with great success from 1964 to 1971, taking numerous lap records and coming within a hairs breath of being the only B grader to win an A grade unlimited race. He also mixed it very well with TZ Yamahas' in the later stages. After that he built another Norvin and went Classic Racing and dominated this class until his retirement in approximately 1984 at the age of "approximately 68".
I raced my road Norvin for some years and ended up the front of Division One so decided to build a replica of the Debenham bike and it too won its fair share of places for some years.
Ken Lucas then picked up the torch and won many classic races with his Norvins.
Colin Will has a web page that is documenting the outstanding success he is having with the resurrected Corish Norvin.
Enough?. I have seen all these bikes in action and not just winning but winning by huge margins.

 

[Les Thomson]

If you go to www.norvinracing.com and go to magazine articles,click on the bike book,look through photos and look at the one looking at the frame from the front you will see that the left hand down tube has been bent out to allow the motor to sit down lower= better handling.