1921 advertisement

Sent by Alf. From The Motor Cycle, November 24th, 1921

Tony's 1921 Model 9 Norton

Sent by Martin

Hollowell on his 1921 Model 16H Norton

This is Billy Hollowell at the 1921 Isle of Man Senior TT in which he finished 12th. The motorcycle is a model 16H I guess. Billy lost his life in the 1925 Belgian GP in 1925.

Martin's 1921 Model 9 Norton

Another email from Martin in Scotland:

"I've always wanted a belt drive Norton since reading about them in Titch Allen's First Vintage Roadtest Journal in the 1970s. Despite restoring and riding many belt drivers since then, owning one was something I never thought possible until I came across some very rusty and damaged remains of a 1921 Model 9 in Australia in the mid 1990s. It's taken me 'till now to get the bits together for it, by which time my health is not so good and I may not be able to do justice to it once its a runner. However I decided early on to use a 20 inch belt rim which affords a lower gearing than originally used, so it should be more tractable at low speeds at the expense of top speed, so as they say, you never know till you try...

...and as this Model 9 is obviously a basket case, my pic shows the basket too!!

Cheers,
Martin"

Victor Horsman wins the 500 Miles Race for 500cc machines.

Victor Horsman and his 16H Norton after winning the 500 Miles Race at Brooklands, 2 july 1921; note that this 1921 machine has a gearbox and all-chain drive.

Horsman was one of the great tuner-riders of his time, winning races and breaking records, first on Norton and then on Triumph machines. He never did forget his Nortons though, see what Titch Allen writes about him in The Story of the Norton;

"After failing to get far with their Ricardo design, Triumph called in a practical tuner, Victor Horsman. Horsman, well versed in Brooklands lore and with an intimate knowledge of Nortons, had scrapped the Ricardo four-valve design and come up with a two-valve head. Already his reworked engines had gone very well at Brooklands, in fact they had put it across the Nortons. Which was not altogether surprising for the bottom end of the Horman Triumphs, as seen on Brooklands and in the Island, were remarkably like Nortons. There were unkind people who said they were Nortons but that was not fair although the idea of running the push rods straight down to the internal cam followers without intervening tappets was pure Norton."

From the rediculous to the sublime

Both these photographs depict Roy Reece. The Norton in the pic on top appears to be a Model 9, note the absense of gearbox and the belt drive. It's an early 1920s model I would guess. The norton in the bottom pic appears to be a 1924/25 model 16H.

Is the later model sublime and the older one rediculous? The older bike has a decently fast engine combined with an almost complete lack of brakes; probably the reason for the mangled front mudguard!