Roadster Revival

FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS CLASSIC BRITISH TWIN ...

- Shanksie

Building a custom bike can sometimes become overwhelming, especially if you intend building it from the ground up. It’s these projects that can easily spiral out of control and common sense is overridden by desire. Unless of course, your ideas are well founded and you’ve got the technical knowledge to make most of the parts yourself, along with the unique ability to scrounge and swap bits and pieces to keep a meager budget intact.

That’s exactly what Les did!

My first look at this killer ’49 Norton was at a recent bike show, parked in the outside bike park with all the other daily rides some distance from the main show event.

I took a few snaps before setting off in search of the owner. I tracked him down and introduced myself, adding how I admired his bike and was interested in writing a yarn.

We exchanged numbers and I glanced down at his contact details then asked “Les?” He grinned and replied, “Les said the better”. Had I just met Les Norton, star of the famous Robert G Barrett novels? Nah, but it sounded good!

A few weeks later the story behind this impressive Norton began to unfold.

“I’d had a few Harleys over the years, Les began. But everyone has Harleys and I wanted something different. The idea of building a Norton has been in my mind since I was a teenager. I had a clear picture of what I wanted the bike to look like; I’d probably built it in my head about a million times over the years.”

In 2008 Les arrived home with an old Norton frame and a dismantled ’73 Norton 750 motor in the back of his ute. He knew the project would take some time to complete and throw up a few challenges. However, he never thought the finished vision would take over six years.

The original ’49 model Norton only ran a 500cc engine but Les wanted a bit more punch which is why he jumped at the 750cc engine when it was offered.