Hill climbing 1909

 

-SG- Before WW1, serious speed events in UK were limited by the lack of circuits - Brooklands and the Isle of Man being the only ones which spring to mind. Competitive events comprised long distance trials and speed hill climbs, in both of which period belt driven Nortons were popular mounts.  J.L.Norton himself competed in such events and Alan has recently sent me a photo of the ACU Bronze award won by Norton at the Sutton Bank Hillclimb in Yorkshire.  This is in the Mannin Collection in the IOM and Alan says it is well worth a visit for those interested in TT history.  Thanks Alan!

Pitcher Bros catalogue

-JdK- Reece in New Zealand sent a copy from Pitcher Brothers (from Christchurch, New Zealand) catalogue of about 1909-1910. Click this link for all pages.

1907? Surely not!

-SG- Back in the distant past I took two books out of the local library by L R Higgins 'Private Owner' (quite a good read) and 'Britain's Racing Motorcycles'. A couple of weeks back, I happened to see the latter at an autojumble and bought it for slightly too much money, bearing in mind its mediocre condition. Considering when it came out (1952) it's not a bad overview of the subject. However, just to show that errors in printed matter cropped up then as well as now, I attach a scan from it of an early Norton engine. It is incorrectly labelled as Fowler's 1907 engine, when it has NORTON cast into the crankcase as well as a magneto chain cover and as I understand it, dates from 1908/9. It is usually described as Norton's version of the Peugeot vee twin.

c1909 Model 3 1/2 HP Norton

-JdK- From George's book, a picture of a c1909 Model 3 1/2 HP Norton at Brooklands.

-George- The picture was taken at the easter meeting at Brooklands in 1909. From left to right: Pratt on a Norton, Godfrey on a Rex and Femi on a TT Triumph. The number plate on the Norton (O164) was the same as on Pa Norton's Big 4 combination!

-Roger- I can find no trace of a Norton racing at Brooklands before 1910 and I am not convinced that this was taken at a race meeting. The lack of spectators in the spectators' enclosure on the other side of the track supports this. In 1909 the BARC official events would have used colours for the identification of riders but all of the riders are wearing the same clothing. The Norton has the 1904 registration O164 which indicates that it was a works machine and it was in use by the factory for a long time.

-John- The Rex has been modified for use at Brooklands as the front forks are solid with no springing at all from a c1904 machine, even though the machine in the picture is either 1909 or 1910.