A little something for a quiet Sunday morning...

[DarthRider]

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/60557741-O.jpg

Dave

[arkline]

Very nice photo. Are those the stock coils? I presume you didn't fall for the Volkswagen "hot spark" fix that was rampant in about '75?

Nice points cover. Do they cover a Boyer or some other magic box?

Love the colors. Just right. And the pinstiping is cracking cool too.

[Rchop]

Damn...I love that bike! Do you still have it Dave?

[DarthRider]

Ron -
The coils are hi-output Lucas. What were VW "hot starts"? Was that the K-Mart coils?
Yup, Boyer ignition.
The paint, striping & logo lettering, along with matching Bell 500 helmet were all done in 1984 by Frank Palmer in Arlington, Texas. Candy red over gold base ("warmer" than a silver base). I stole the paint scheme from a ~1934 Rudge. I designed the paint & striping scheme but it took a master to do it!
The engine is a low miles hot rod with lots of trick goodies.

Yeah Randy I still have it...for a little while! Like your killer BMW chopper, it's for sale.

Here's a couple pics of the whole thing:
http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/42143825-L.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/53542380-L.jpg

Dave

[Deans BMW]

And here is the old fart himself with his pride and joy.

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/15809769-M.jpg

That purdy bik shor makes him lok ugly......................................

[DarthRider]

One of the dykes at work told me my black flame shirt would have been really cool...in the 80's!
Be-ahtch.

Dave

[supermotoC]

Is that the little breakfast joint on the square in Glen Rose?

Oh, nice Norton, BTW.

Next time you see one of your dyke friends at work, ask her: "do they make those shoes for women, too?"

this technique works well when you see a guy you know (or don't know - be careful), and he's obviously proud of his new shirt/jacket/boots/car/bike/etc...
To burst his bubble, just ask him if they "make that ______ in MEN'S sizes (or for MEN, too)?"

[DarthRider]

Yep, that's the "Nutt House" on the town square in Granbury...on a First Gear & River Road (black leather) photo shoot last summer.

I'll try that with the dykes at work. If I get knocked out you'll owe me a beer!

Dave

[supermotoC]

If you get knocked up, I'll give you BOTH a beer.

Nutt House, indeed. Good pancakes there, mmmmm.

[arkline]

Dave,

Yup, cheap coils - KMart, VW, all that stuff. I tried it and it didna make any difference at all. One always hopes...

That is a clean machine. I especially like the non-AMAL carbs and sox. Very nice. I notice also the petcock isn't original (leaky) equipment. Your painter did an absolutely fantastic job. The whole bike says "labor of love". Many hours and probably a goodly sum of money too.

I know retirement looms, but I honestly don't know how you could think of parting with that bike. It is soooooooooo nice.

[Bones]

Something so elegant about all of the working parts out there for you to see, and so clean. Perfect.

Curious about your thinking regarding selling it, if you are interested in sharing those thoughts. It certainly is one of those jewels that could be coveted. Then, perhaps on the other hand, the fun part (bringing it to its current state of beauty) has been enjoyed and time to move to the next project? No longer interested in riding it if it can only go down hill from its current apex of conditon? Can you get enough for it to make it worth letting go of?

I am curious about these things because of a conversation with a local riding buddy here. He has a very nice condition 70's Goldwing that he is considering selling. When I found out you can only get about $1500 for those things, I thought, why bother, even if you only ride it twice a year? Then again, you have to worry about maintaining it.....the balancing issues.

I'd love to have a vintage bike to wrench back to beauty, but then again, if I wouldn't ride it, I would have misgivings.

So I am curious, if you are interested in sharing.

Jeff

[Wild Will]

SHIITE! That thing is gorgeous. If it didn't look so predatory, I'd want to sleep with it. When you go to your reward in about sixty years, it should be placed on a gold block inside the foyer of the Smithsonian Institution, but should NOT include the black shirt with the flames, which is the current fave garb at that celebrated San Fran bistro "Vaseline Alley". My '73 cafe Commando with rear sets and clip ons was one bad Mofo, especially if I had some Nipponese plastic-wrapped squids to embarrass. But it was just black and nasty, not the Holy Grail of techno perfection that this bike is.
I stand humbly in your shadow, aching with barely controlled envy and as I fight my tendency toward schadenfreude, I salute you, Dangerous Dave. No, I don't want to buy it even though it's not for sale, because my SO would never allow it to live beneath a massively thick glass plate that'd be my dining table, so I could see it intimately during each of my three squartes a day.
Shiite!!

[DarthRider]

Geeze Wild Will...I was hoping you'd *like* my Norton!
What's a "schadenfreude"?
Come to Texas and take it for a spin...well, a ride anyway. What's on the inside is cooler than what's on the outside!

Dave

[Wild Will]

is best explained, at least to my wood-burning mind, as

"It's not enough merely to succeed; one's friends also must fail"

Always good for a slightly bent guffaw, at least in my neck of the woods.

I'm a'comin' to Te- Jas, Dangerous!

[DarthRider]

"...I'm a'comin' to Te- Jas, Dangerous!..."

When Wild Will, when!?

Dangerous

PS - "Dangerous Dave" was my nickname when I raced Hare Scrambles...long story.
God, I miss those days!

[Sir Limpsalot]

Please stop posting those pic's of your Norton. Every time I see it I want it even more than the last time I saw it!
To get that bike I would row the Atlantic in an open topped boat and then hitch hike to Keller (where IS that anyway?).
Trouble is, and this is where my plan falls on it's arse, when I got there I'd have empty pockets:icon_redface:
Still maybe you'd give me a discount if I took the shirt as well????
Sod it, I need a pint!
Si

[DarthRider]

Bones said:
"...Curious about your thinking regarding selling it, if you are interested in sharing those thoughts. It certainly is one of those jewels that could be coveted. Then, perhaps on the other hand, the fun part (bringing it to its current state of beauty) has been enjoyed and time to move to the next project? No longer interested in riding it if it can only go down hill from its current apex of condition? Can you get enough for it to make it worth letting go of?..."

Jeff I'm not ignoring you, just thinking of how best to respond about my thoughts and all.
Selling a bike like this, at this level, after having "made love" to it since 1975 is an emotional experience. I gave this bike a big chunk of my life and myself. I've talked with a couple of magazines about writing a piece on this very subject...what it has been like to want a Norton since I was a little kid to the day I bought it and brought it home, through the various restorations & modifications, to turning it into a "player" in the national vintage bike scene, to competing in several & winning a few totally outrageous street "road races", to losing interest and "pickling" & storing the bike for several years, to getting it back on the road again and making the reluctant decision to sell it, to the day coming soon when I will see it disappear down my driveway.
I think the only way to answer your question is to wait until it's gone...and write that story.

If I hit the lottery I would send a sad sale withdrawal notice to an interested person and keep it until I am older even than Dean-O, then get it in a museum or something.

But retirement looms, money is very tight and it's time to do it. I won't get enough for it to make it worth letting it go but this bike was never about money and is still not. And other projects do await.

I hope this is not a total cop-out!

And Ron...the carbs *are* Amals. MkII "Square Barrels". They were made in Spain and the reason they look like the near-identical Mikunis is that Mikuni built them under license from Amal, and sold them under their own name.
None of the old Concentrics bad habits at all!

Glad you guys like it...I sure do!

Dave

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61127464-L.jpg

[Bones]

Darth,
Thanks. That is not a cop out at all. I appreciate the response. Having bought, traded and sold a buch of things over the years I really was happy with, I have experienced very different versions of letting things go, and was just curious. You have a ton of fantastic pics of that bike, too. That was one regret I have about some of the things I moved on from: not enough pics to recharge the memory of them.

Thanks.

Jeff

[arkline]

"The carbs *are* Amals. MkII "Square Barrels"."

Dave,

Never knew these things existed...I learn something new here almost every day.