Woods' winner ON7170

By Simon

In 1926 Stanley Woods rode for Nortons for the first time and his mount for the Senior TT was a dry sump OHV machine fitted with pannier tanks.  As mentioned in the earlier blog, this was a development of the 1925 TT bikes, with various changes to both the engine and the cycle parts.  Stanley has recounted how well the bike went in practise – until a conrod breakage wrecked the engine.  A replacement engine was fitted, which however vibrated badly, and further work was done on it which obviously sorted the problem in that SW came home the winner at 67.54mph.  The bike had registration number ON7170 and here are a couple of photos – one a paddock shot (above) and one – well known (below) – showing a jubilant Stanley at the finish on, one assumes, the same bike.

It is not, as far as I know, recorded exactly when or how but this particular machine became Stanley’s property.  It may have been given to him by a grateful management or he may have bought it. Whatever, it seems he loaned it to fellow Irishman  B G D’Olier for some events in 1927.  B G D’Olier, I have been told, lived and farmed in South Africa but returned to his homeland from time to time. On a recent visit to Dublin I noticed a large 19th century block in the city centre called D’Olier Building from which I assume his family was reasonably well off.  Be that as it may, he must have been friendly with Stanley to be loaned his Norton. However, in 1928 Stanley sold ON7170 to leading Yorkshire clubman Bill Milner. Stanley had become friendly with the Milner family and in his early days at Nortons (he was issued with a sidecar outfit and travelled the country as a sales rep.) stayed with them at regular intervals.

How did I become interested in these events?  Some fifty years back, I bought a pannier tanked flat-tank OHV Norton - albeit with a standard, not dry sump, engine. This had registration number OX1619 and I set about trying to find out about it. I spoke to Geoff Davison, former Lightweight TT winner and by then publisher of the TT Special and member of the Vintage Club. Geoff said he knew nothing about it but suggested I contacted Bill Milner as he felt sure Bill had owned the ex-Woods bike at some stage. A letter to Bill brought forth a prompt reply (below) along with a subsequent screed.  Note the name of Bill’s house – Norton Woods!  Bill rode the bike in the ’28 Amateur (he retired with rocker problems after other mechanical problems in practise) and his comments are interesting even though he is not quite right in saying no pannier tanked bikes were sold.  As he recounts, he sold most of the bike to Ernie Jackson of York, with, he told me in a subsequent conversation, the frame going to Ernie too but at a later date. Ernie was an inveterate builder of specials and it seems from subsequent articles about him that the original frame MAY have been modified to have rear springing on it.  The net result seems to have been that a machine containing the TT engine from ON7170 became one of several Jackson Specials.

Then the trail goes cold until a small advert appeared in the VMCC magazine in February1968.  It read: “1926 Norton Model 18. This machine is rough, dismantled, incomplete and has been fitted with rear springing but is undoubtedly a Works TT machine reputed to be Stanley Woods’ winner.  Special dry sump motor, large pannier tanks, special frame. Some spares including 1927 TT Replica engine.” And the price for this desirable package ... eat your hearts out, chaps ... £20.00 or near offer!

Who actually bought it, I am not wholly sure but move on to 1980 and an ad. appeared in Motor Cycle Sport reading: “1926/8 OHV Norton. Authenticated 1926 TT winner’s log book. “ I forget the price but in any event, at the time, I was involved in a new job and a new house and felt I had to be content with what Nortons I already had, to say nothing of my ex Brooklands Flying Eight Coventry Eagle. So, after a short interval I rang the advertiser, a Mr C W G Chandler, for a chat about his – by then ex – bike.  He told me that it was not a flat tanker but was a 1929-ish frame with a 1926 Dry Sump TT engine fitted – first registered in 1936 as the Jackson Special AVY 64 -  and that when he bought it, it was entirely dismantled and included a pair of pannier tanks, which he had sold separately.  He had assembled a bike from what was there and as a result it had a later ‘top half’ and Norton forks/front wheel.

After a couple more owners, the Jackson Special in this form (above) finished up with a good friend – sadly he died a few years back – and is still owned by his family. What became of the original frame is anyone’s guess.

A final word on this convoluted tale – the despatch books list the 1926 TT machines and against one of them – in faint pencil – is written ‘on loan S Woods’.  Was this ON7170? Quite likely.  However the engine now in the Jackson Special has number 30589 – not the number of the ‘on loan’ bike. And although this number appears in the list there are no details shown against it of any sort. Whether it was a number allocated to one of the spare TT engines, fitted to ON7170 after the original practise blow-up, can only be assumed. It is all too easy to draw conclusions from unsupported snippets of information (a trap many authors of motor cycle related books  and articles fall into ) but all I can confirm with certainty is that the bottom end of  30589 shows the main sign of being a TT  engine in that it has 1” mainshafts as opposed to the smaller 22mm shafts fitted to all of the rest of the range at the time (including, when they became available, the Model 25s).....

Postscript: Our eagle eyed contributor Roger has suggested that the Keig paddock photo of Stanley on the bike with reg. number ON7170 may NOT actually be the bike on which he won the '26 Senior. He points out that the steering damper knob is mounted a different way up and also that the handlebar grips differ (albeit the photos are taken from opposite sides).  He also considers that the magneto stay support lug on the front down tube is in a slightly different place on the two machines shown.  He may be right about their identities even though it does not really seem to alter what Bill Milner has related.  At this point in time, it's difficult to be 100% sure.

Stanley on the 1926 senior TT winning Norton

By Simon

The recent ITV4 programme covering Formula One commentator Murray Walker's reminiscences provided tantalising viewing of a few seconds' duration of the admirable Stanley Woods on his 1926 TT winner.  It would be good to see more - if it exists.  The twin of his bike was pictured earlier on the blog, a pannier tanked dry sump OHV machine with registration number ON6793.  Until recently, I had never seen an actual, as opposed to publicity, photograph of this particular machine but here it is in 1926 with H H Moller (nattily dressed with wing collar) aboard. Moller was the Manager of the Norton distributors in Wellington, New Zealand and retired in the Senior event. So what became of Stanley's actual bike, which had registration number ON7170?  Watch this space for the further story!

Stanley on the 1926 senior TT winning Norton

Not yet the Model 25 but already incorporating the dry sump lubrication which would be visible if the label was not exactly at the lower end of the timing chest! Read this blog entry by Simon for more info about this Norton.

...and below find a similar picture (sent by Martin) probably taken within seconds of the one above and now without the label over the timing chest!

1927 Model 25 Norton replica

This Norton was sold several years ago by Yesterdays; who knows more about it? The engine is an early unit, note that the cam chest is still split in two at the height of the oilpump. A striking feature is the large sprint-type petrol tank; originally it may have been fitted with a flat tank fitted in between the upper frame tubes. It may have been a racer, note the Sturmey Archer 'box without a kickstart.

Not that easy to explain is the left-hand crankcase half marked 79x120 which would identify the engine as a 588cc unit; did Norton ever make 588cc versions of the Model 25? Further, M25s usually had a framelug carrying the magneto support bracket that wraps fully around the frametube; this one looks like the Model 18 type to me.

A very nice bike that looks quite a bit like this 1926 TT racer; is it an original or was it pieced together from parts laying around; and does it matter?

Simon: "Almost certainly built up by Stefan Knittell several years ago.  The tanks are replica 1926 TT pannier tanks" 

Roger: "It has the wrong oil tank mounts, for the M25 they should be brazed rather than clamped to the downtube. Pat Driscoll's 1925 TT 588cc engine had the integral oil pump"

Nortons win the 1929 Brooklands sidecar race

Sent by Wim

A very nice 1929 poster celebrating Norton victories. Tucker seems to be riding a dry sump Norton in the 600cc class.

Bennett's 1925 TT Norton again

Another picture of Alec Bennett on his 1925 TT Norton.

Early Model 25 engine?

Another Norton that used to belong to Ko Konijn, and much more interesting than you may think at first glance.

Simon: "The crankcase is almost certainly Model 25 or Model 21 though there is a very slim chance it could be one of the earliest ES2s (before they were called ES2s) which had a two piece timing cover like the M25s. The timing cover now on the engine is actually Model 18/16H or whatever - you can see it does not meet the lower cover over the drysump oil pump housing. The Best and Lloyd pump is feeding the inlet union of the dry sump pump - but perhaps there was no actual pump in there and it was internally set up so that it fed the big end etc via the usual dry sump quill...Who knows!!"

Bennett's 1925 TT Norton again

By Roger

I have found a picture (above) of Bennett and his Norton at the end of the 1925 TT which shows the braced Webbs that he used in the race. I wanted to confirm that he did use the braced ones as I had read elsewhere that they were so still that they caused frame breakages on the sidecar outfits. I am most interested in the design as the brace appears to be in line with the fork's front tube rather than midway between as on the Druids. I think that the 1925 TT was the first time that braced Webbs were used and this may also be true for the Druids because of comments in The Motor Cycle; developments tended to be "shared".

Bennett's 1925 TT Norton again

By Roger

The attached pictures are of interest in the discussion about the 1925 Bennett TT Norton as the main picture shows it (above, on the right, number 11) as part of a group photograph. The registration number can be seen as can the braced Webb forks. Interestingly all of the sidecar outfits were equipped with braced forks but these were all side sprung Druids (see second illustration below). Both Bennett and Woods won TT races on Nortons which had been supplied by the works but I believe that their status was different to the exclusive team contracts that we know today. Bennett had won the previous year so was likely to have been given the machine which is why he registered it through his dealership. He is likely to have received a retainer for the ride together with a bonus for finishing. Certainly a couple of years later he offered to ride a Velocette in the Junior on the basis of a handsome bonus if he won which he did easily. The reason for this approach was that, like the other riders, he was contracted to suppliers (tyres, chains, oil, fuel, magnetos, plugs and so on) which might conflict with the standard Norton supplier. In this way he would benefit from both the Norton and all of the other bonuses.

The team picture is interesting as Mick Woollett in his book disparagingly describes it as the Norton camp and hangers-on as he only identified Walter Moore, Joe Craig, George Tucker and Alec Bennett. I believe it is a picture of the whole Norton team in both the Senior and Sidecar races. The ones I can identify are from the left: Pat Driscoll, Tommy Simister, Bert Taylor (second in Sidecar race), ???, George Grinton (third in Sidecar race), Joe Craig, Walter Moore (Team Manager), Ralph Crauford, ???, Joaquim Vidal, George Tucker, ???, Cliff Juggins (Pat's "hanger-on"), ???, Alec Bennett, ???.

The other riders were: Ignacio Macaya, Billy McVitty, JA Stuart and Ernie Searle and the hangers-on:
G Hammond (George Tucker's passenger), CR Hurst (Bert Taylor's passenger), AW Kinrade (George Grinton's passenger). Jimmie Simpson finished fifth in the Sidecar race on a 350 AJS with George Rowley as his passenger!

Bennett's 1925 TT Norton ?

From "The Classic Motorcycle, July 1991, pp 53-57''. Sent by Hans. Click the images for a full-page version. Refer to this blog entry for more info on this bike.

...and Simon's comments. From "The Classic Motorcycle, August 1991, p 26". More comments in this blog entry.

1927 Model 25 Norton

This Model 25 was photographed by Martin at the famous Hesket Newmarket rally in Cumbria some years ago. It was supplied in May 1927 to a chap in London and from new had the Binks carburettor and standard CS gearbox. The present crankcases have no number - perhaps the result of a blow-up at some time. Note the split timing chest, heavy duty TT Webbs and Enfield front brake. The short brake arm on the rear brake lever spindle is upside down. The present owner informed us that when he and his father found it, it was in a hen house and covered in chicken shit!!...and there is that little fellow again on the front mudguard!

Nystrom on a c1926 racing Norton

By Simon

Here's another of Per Nystrom - perhaps with the same bike. It comes from a 1927 edition of the Swedish magazine Motornyheterna and the caption probably says 'Per Nystrom with his factory Norton. The cycle parts are probably from a 1926 model'. OP1853 is a Birmingham registration number. 

The front brake is not connected and there is no oil tank atall! But look carefully and you'll see the manual oil pump fitted in the petrol tank - just below his right hand. Perhaps he was using the bike for sprints - or something similar - and was not using the automatic oil pump in the crank case. The tank would need to be from an earlier OHV bike ('23-ish?) where no separate oil tank was fitted. This would also explain use of the Dance grips on a strap. These were made by the John Bull Rubber company and one could buy them with the strap - or to go on the more usual mounting plates on the tank.

Although the picture is only a photocopy and lacking clarity, it looks as if the bike still has beaded edge rims which would be likely if it was a Model 25 but less likely if it was one of the 1926 Works bikes which sported 21 x 3 wired on tyres back and front. Compared to the other Nystrom photo, the carb. looks different but the Dance knee grips seem to be the same. You will notice the hand written comments....... who's got it now??

Nystrom on a c1926 racing Norton

By Simon

Here's another photo from Sweden. It shows Per Nystrom on board what seems to be a 1926/7 racing machine - sadly the photographer has concentrated on the photogenic Mr Nystrom rather than the lower half of the bike! However one can see TT Webb forks and just behind the carburettor, part of the oil tank lug as fitted to Model 25s and works bikes with large oil tanks. He must have fitted a smaller tank for some reason. I guess the photo was taken in '28 as there is an ES2 in the background.

I suspect it is a Model 25 but cannot be too sure. The only indication is that little bit of oil tank support lug one can see. But those lugs were fitted to ordinary frames as well if the customer wanted the large oil tank fitted. Nystroms seem to have had a very good relationship with the factory and had various cast-off racing bikes over the years which they used in local events to very good effect.

1927 Model 25 Norton

By Simon

Here's a catalogue illustration of the Model 25 used for publicity purposes in 1927 by the factory. This shows evidence of a clever man with an airbrush (or whatever technique was used at the time) and there seem to be a few variations from the state in which most of them were sent out. The carb. seems to be a TT Amac, and the so-called pneumatic footrests are in evidence. Also the rear wheel is a 'non-detatchable' brake drum type.... interesting, none the less.

Roger: "The technique used in this illustration is most interesting. The image is a photograph using the technique of a (sometimes grubby) white sheet as the background which is agitated so that its movement removes any blemishes and creases during the relatively long exposure (like in this photo). What is unusual about this picture is that it is taken in a studio with frontal illumination on both sides. The shadows form a cross behind the machine whereas outside pictures taken around midday give a direct overhead light with shadow underneath.

Retouching and masking was done on the negative, not difficult as the pictures were taken on a large format plate camera - hence the small aperture for good depth of field and crispness of the image. Masking was done with a white masking fluid which could be washed off . There is a lovely image of George Tucker on a kneeler sidecar outfit in the mid 20s which was published in Motor Cycle. Years later a journalist removed the background mask to reveal that the location was the Little Paddock sheds at Brooklands and the detail of the cars in the background was stunning."

1925 Works Norton

By Simon

Further to the previous blog entry: I have seen this photo before (there is a copy of it in a war-time issue of Motor Cycle/Cycling) and it shows a 1925 Works Norton as used by Bennett, Shaw, Craig and others at the time.

The prints above show a slightly retouched 1925 works bike and the other - rather less doctored - the 1926 version. Both seem to have been used for publicity purposes by Nortons at the time. Note the '25 machine has a non-standard front brake and forks, while the '26 machine is extremely similar to Woods' winning bike (but not it!).

I actually owned one of the 1925 engines during my mis-spent late youth (my wife will tell you I am still in it!). It was installed in a 1928 frame and was, after a long spell in the Murray Motor Museum in the IOM, nicely rebuilt about twenty years back and lavishly described in the Classic Motorcycle as 'Bennett's 1925 TT Winner.' The only parts which came from Bennett's machine are the crankcase and oil pump. These parts literally seem to be all that is left of the 1925 Works bikes of which several were built and all listed in the records. 

The records show the 500s as simply OHV. No less than 18 machines were put together for the TT and sidecar TT, some of which are shown as spare bikes. There is little detail by way of the specification. All but one machine were fitted with B and B carbs. The exception was the solo on loan to the Spanish rider Macaya which was fitted with an Amac. All were fitted with C.A.V magnetos. New pattern brakes and oil (pump) pedal are also mentioned. The new pattern brakes refer - I suspect - to the different front brake. There are no comments about the dry sump system. 

Incidentally, I still have the very standard head, and the sole racing cam that was still in it (marked TTG). The flywheels in it when I had it were modified ES2 steel ones. The barrel was destroyed in a con rod fracture incident at Brands Hatch....but as usual, I am wandering from the point.

I would not describe the 1925 Works OHV Nortons as Model 18s due to the incorporation of the then new dry sump system but I guess, equally, they were not yet Model 25s. No one has yet been able to tell me if the flywheels were steel in these engines or cast iron: by the time of the 1926 TT they were certainly steel and the dry sump arrangement changed and simplified. However, the mainshafts of the '26 works engines were 1 inch whereas the 1925 versions were still 22mm. When Nortons produced the Model 25 for the 1927 season it, too, had steel wheels but, as is so often the case, there were slight cost cutting changes in that the mainshafts reverted to 22mm and racing cams were not fitted as standard. Further, the majority of the Model 25s sold were fitted with standard CS gearboxes rather than no kick-start racing LS boxes. A bit like a twenties version of the Gold Star.... 

The 1925 Works bikes had a footrest and brake pedal set up like the standard Model 18s of the day - the lot mounted on a short vertical tube located below and to the front of the gearbox lug. If you dropped the plot onto a footrest, the whole lot could twist round and jam the clutch.... By 1926, the Works bikes had a different and more user friendly set-up, the footrests and pedal being mounted on a supplementary pair of plates - see the picture above, which is not in fact a very good sketch. The pedal itself was changed and was virtually the same as that used later on the '29/30 Model 18s/16Hs etc although with a different length spindle. Model 25s also seem to have been fitted with this pedal rather than the standard type in use in 1927.

The outfit Driscoll was loaned for the '25 sidecar TT was a four speeder so bore very little resemblance to the three speed TT bikes. It did of course have a 588 dry sump engine in it, with which Driscoll was singularly dis-satisfied at the time - hence fitting one of his own Brooklands engines for the event itself. The records show the machine loaned to Driscoll simply as 588 OHV.

1925 Norton racer

This is Jimmy Shaw at the 1925 Ulster Grand Prix on his OHV Norton; note the strange combination of an early dry-sump lubrication and the cable-operated handpump, just visible above his knee. The (rather poor) photo below shows Jimmy on the same motorcycle leading Alec Bennett on a similar Norton. Of particular interest to me, note the underside of the petrol tanks! This looks very similar to the extension as fitted to the tank of my 1927 racer project.

Roger's comments: "This picture is quite a find. The (dry sump) Model 25 was the production version of the 1926 TT winning machine so I don't think that you can call the Norton in the picture a Model 25. The Model 25 also had a different arrangement for footrest and rear brake mounting. The real significance is that the picture shows one of the "Model 18/19s" prepared for the 1925 TT.

Pat Driscoll was loaned one of the 588cc versions by the works for the sidecar race. He subsequently bought it and converted it to the wet sump system that he favoured. Looking at the pictures of his outfit and the Norton team at the TT I can't see the extension to the tank. The angles make it difficult to be absolutely sure in all cases but one of Pat's outfit shows no sign of it. This means that it was likely to have been fitted for the Ulster as a special tank making it more likely that they would have remained in Northern Ireland hence the Jimmy Shaw connection with at least one part of your 1927 flat tank Norton."

Tony's 1927 Model 25 Norton

Tony from the UK sent these photo's of his stunningly beautiful 1927 Model 25 Norton. The M25 ranks amongst the most desirable flat tank Nortons. It has a highly tuned engine and is equipped with a 'semi-dry sump' lubrication. Note the chamber under the timing chest that contains the oilpump.

"I bought the bike in 1969 from its second owner. The bike was supplied new from Freddie Dixon of Middlesbrough. The first owner only used the bike for a fortnight before having a minor accident with a lady crossing the road on the seafront at Redcar. Dixon took the Norton back and the chap I bought it from owned it from then onwards. The outdoor photos were taken in about 1973 just after I'd restored the bike. The other photo was taken around 10 years ago and currently the Norton is in pieces having some work done but I hope to have it reassembled later this year."