Jo’s Diary: Norton Commanded

Introduced in 1950 and designed by Belfast engineer Rex McCandless, the Featherbed frame came to replace the more upright, old fashioned ‘Garden Gate’ frame. The main difference was that the Featherbed featured a twin-loop tubular steel design, which wrapped around the engine and provided better torsional stiffness and lower, more settled mass, resulting in a motorbike that was more predictable to ride and could handle braking, acceleration and road surface changes in a much more controlled manner. The name came from the rider Harold Daniell, who after his first test ride was surprised by how composed and comfortable the bike felt and compared the experience to riding a feather mattress bed.

This frame suited the single-cylinder 500cc perfectly. Riding the Nortons felt less like a wrestling match and more of a dance with a familiar partner, making it the perfect machine for tackling the bumpy roads of the Isle of Man TT at 100mph. Rival manufacturers took notice and quickly began copying the same principles, and to this day the Featherbed frame is still regarded as one of the most elegant and effective motorcycle chassis designs ever created.

The Goodwood circuit was active when the Norton 30M was in its prime. Riders like Harold himself, or Artie Bell, raced Nortons around the circuit, which makes seeing these bikes going around there these days even more special. The Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy is no recreation, it is real racing, and the work that Works Racing is doing is carrying this legacy into the future.

Which takes me back to Michael. Michael is certainly one of those lunatics I have mentioned at the beginning, having been racing for over 30 years both in cars and on bikes, much of it influenced by his dad, who raced and professionally tinkered with motorbikes for Suzuki, and a love he has instilled in his daughter, with whom he shares a racing MGB. He also owns his own Works Racing Norton 30M, one he often races with fellow riders Michael Rutter and Emanuele Pirro – if the names sound familiar, it’s because they are.

Michael and Emanuele have shared not only the Norton 30M, but also a Austin Healey 3000 over the same weekend, with Signor Pirro being the first person to bag a trophy on both two wheels and four over the course of the same Goodwood Revival event, a milestone that escaped Michael by only seconds, and about which he is not in the least bit sore. Honest.

If that were not proof enough that he really has very little control of his senses, more irrefutable proof came when he offered me his own 30M to test. It had only ever been ridden by five people previously, and from our conversation I quickly inferred that I would be not only the sixth, but also the least qualified.

At least I did not have to ride it around Goodwood with a swarm of other classic bikes around me. But, we had a sunny day and the Bicester Motion track, which meant I could just fully savour the experience. My first impression was how thumpy the engine felt. I had to keep my right hand carefully controlling the throttle to avoid stalling it, something I will neither confirm nor deny might have happened when I tried to release the clutch for the first time. It is common with racing machines: with bikes as with cars they are designed to go fast and the faster they go, the easier they are to handle.

On track, I was amazed by how light and agile the 30M felt as it moved under me. It weighs around 145 to 150kg and it feels incredibly nimble around the corners. The engine uses magnesium alloy components to reduce weight, something that was very advanced for 1950s engineering, and it gives the engine case a slightly rougher, more organic-looking appearance than were it made from conventional aluminium. Confidence builds quickly with every passing lap. The 30M feels so characterfully analogue and alive. Its tyres look worryingly thin, but you’d not believe the grip they provide. It takes a while to properly dial yourself into such a machine, but once you do what you find is a machine so incredibly responsive to turning inputs you reach a point where you can even kid yourself you have some idea of what you’re doing,

The engine sounds great too, the twin-cam unit whining and screaming on the straight, as I went up through the gears. This bike is a 1962-specification 30M, featuring a shorter 85.9mm stroke than earlier 100mm pre-1953 models, providing freer revving and greater urgency as peak power arrives, somewhere north of 7000rpm. The noise and vibration reverberates inside my helmet, my whole body attuned and alive with the machine below. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like madness any more, it just feels intoxicating. The only thing breaking the illusion is the lack of muscle memory poking at my brain to remind myself of the reverse shift pattern.

In the end, I did not want to return Michael’s machine but, honestly, he will make a lot better use of it than me. Works Racing is doing a spectacular job of not only keeping the legacy of the Norton 30M and 40M alive, but also creating new memories on these fabulous bikes. Their machines are built to order, with all final machining and assembly completed in-house by Tula Precision, who are known for making and building all things Bugatti. And they retain the same principle of the original – production racing bikes, available to privateers.

If racing is not for you, they also create road going versions for customers to enjoy at their leisure. Which is tempting, even if you are not a lunatic.