NoRtorious Customization

I am sure you have seen this bike in countless websites, forums and blogs and after a minute of 'nice!' you go ahead. Then you read it somewhere that it is a Roger Goldammer creation and you are like 'Ok...' but but Goldammer makes those awesome stunning designs which always gets the top spot on custom design contests and this is rather plain, isn't it? Then you read it somewhere that this particular model made it to the 9th place in the World Championships. Okay, now you take a second look. That is exactly what I have done. Then when I saw the engine with a detailed eye, My-O-My! That looks like a Manx!!!

A little bit of googling told me that this model is named 'NORTORIOUS' and is based on a featherbed style frame (not a featherbed, but styled like it) with a single engine displaying 965cc. Although the Nortorious looks simple and plain, the Goldammer stamp is very visual. For instance, you dont see any wiring and hydraulic lines as they run inside the frame with nothing visible anywhere. Again, look at the wheels. Its drum brakes. No! It has hidden disc brakes, but it wouldn't have gone with the retro looks, so there...
When you think Custom, the first thing that comes into mind is Choppers, right! This is where Roger is different and thats why he is truly the master of custom bike championships. For instance, take a look at another of his products, the TROUBLE. The fisrt glance wont give away what the bike actually holds. Well, lets not divert here from the Nortorious here. We all know this man and here are a list of achievements if you really want the details.

Now, getting back to the bike, this British Columbia Canadian native is a different breed. His 'custom' Nortorious is neither a chopper nor an 'old school' product. Can you really bracket it?
Friend, mentor and master machinist Bert Kuckelkorn and Roger makes bikes that are truly innovative in styling and mechanics or you can say 'on the cutting edge of technology'. the Nortorious is a step higher in the rouble direction, which was also a single cylinder masterpiece.

For the record, TROUBLE won him the top World Championship honors. The Nortorious is a tribute to the Manx and there is ofcourse a visual similarity although its hard to pinpoint exactly what. The engine is a 2006 Harley hybrid single cylinder Roger built from the ground up. The 965CC engine features a lower end consisting of Merch cases with the heads customized from Engenuity and the pistons from Ross and Jims. The cam is custom designed and manufactured by Roger inhouse. The rear head is used on the front cylinder, allowing the induction system to be positioned above the head and cylinder with the angle cut back 15-degrees.

Of course you know its a pushrod engine, which are angled to accommodate this change. And here is the mantra! In place of the rear cylinder he uses a Rotrex Supercharger that spins at 120,000 RPM . This produces 83 rear wheel horse power at 6400 rpm. The bike is completely measurable in current mechanics standard with a fuel injection which uses a 54mm Zippers utilized throttle body and a special Thunder Heart ECM and an extreamly high volume single injector. Roger has also developed a fuel pump mapping program to provide correct air / fuel ratios. The gear is a 6-speed.

The oil system features a modified S&S oil pump and two distinct oil tanks, both cleverly hidden from view, one for engine and the other for supercharger oil. See, thats Roger, he doesn't just do a chasis and framework custom with a readymade engine, he works on the engine like a pro, on the electricals like a pro, its just like a complete new bike with a complete new engine and all. He works on the transmission meaning on the drive, sprocket, everything.

The frame is also made inhouse. The 29.5 degrees rake and 3 inches de-streched gives it the featherbed style. The concealed disc brakes are an ingenious 4-piston disc set up both front and rear. The rear rim is put together by fabricating from two different Kosman rims for the 18-inch x 6-inch tire. The front is a 18-inch x 3.5 inch.

Imagine the ammount of mind numbling he has gone through. Just reading it makes me dizzy and to think about how he actually designed everything... Wow! If you think thats all, wait...
Look at the body and the fenders. There is no welding involved! Really! Roger had hand hammered the aluminum skins! With such precision, he can create probably a Rolex with his hands and available tools. There is only a clear coat over the raw material and the paint used.. is only for lettering. Now, what do you say?

Like a true Cafe Racer, the handlebars are clip-ons with a single rear view mirror on the left bar weight. There are those two beautiful pods housing the Speedometer and gauges and the traditional single round headlamp. Interestingly, Roger used the lens and bezel from a vintage Volkswagen Beetle. Yes, there are tail lights. They are incorporated in the rear of the bikes frame and utilize LED lights. The brake light is also an LED set up hidden in the rear of the seat rail. Look athe photo below closely. There is not one visible wire on the bike except the front disc brake.

Its hard to say why the judges didn't find it as an outright winner in the world championships, but ask any biker, he or she will definitely sing the Duran Duran hit... 'Lay your seedy judgements. Who says they're part of our lives? You pay the prophets to justify your reasons. I heard your promise, but I don't believe it. That's why I've done it again. No-no-Notorious'. Make that NoRtorious!!!
All information and photos are sourced from Bikernet, except the first photo which is a 1600 x 1200.

Carberry Enfield - Recreating Magic

New Age Retro is the 'in' thing in motorcycling in this new century. From a Honda to a Harley to a Ducati to a Guzzi to a Triumph, everybody has a new-age retro in their stables. Then there are some companies which are also new-age and also retro, but not exactly 'new-age-retro. Not that I can give many examples, but our India's Royal Enfield surely fits the bill. Yes, it has a new unit construction engine with a EFI soon coming out, but the basis is very very retro, it still has the 50s vibration and oil leaks, the brakes are not really confidence-inspiring, not that it's speed with take you offthe seat, nonetheless, it somehow doesn't fit the tag of 'new-age-retro' dont you agree?Yet, there are suckers like me who swear by its thump, who swear by its presence. Its really hard to say, what, but there is something in these age old Bullets that draws us bikers like moth to a (Yes.. Yes..) Then again there are some guys who love this brand so much that regardless what the parent company does, they takeit own their own to stand up this iconic cult bike with the modern generation. One such duo are Ian Drysdale and Paul Carberry.

That Drysdale is crazy, you know it if you have read another post in this blog. So who is Paul Carberry? Close to 50, Paul Carberry is an Australian businessman who has been INTO bikes since 13. It seems at 13 he fitted his bicycle with a lawn mower engine. His website states that by 16 he had fitted a 250 Honda MX motor into a 125 Hodaka frame which he raced successfully in the local Motocross competition. Basically he started with a Triumph repair workshop for 10 years before moving to Indonesia to set up to import and distribute Royal Enfield motorcycles. There! And you know he was in love.

By the way Drysdale, tell you what... he made the one and only street legal four camshaft, 32-valve V8 sports bike which means you can actually buy that bike. Dont believe me. Visit his website 22000rpm. Drysdale said he found it challenging enough to work on something low-tech. He meant the V-Twin 1000cc air cooled Royal Enfield. When Paul approached Ian for the V-Twin push rod Royal Enfield project, there was a definite 'Why-would-you-want-to-do-that?' moment, but the thing is Paul is in love with Enfields. the only thing he wants to improve on it is its size. He says its a small LOVELY bike, but small and his ideal motorcycle is a V-Twin. Small as in lean in power, so adding another engine is the trick. Ian did try saying 'No' to Paul, but with no success. So they thought it will ba a basic engine with maximum Enfield parts because another company, NorCroft tried the same thing with extensive modifications on the engine and they were not successful.

The engine is an overhead-valve 55 degree, V-twin, dry sump four stroke motor, with pushrod operation of the two valves per cylinder with a 60% balance factor, achieved by heavy metal weights plugged into the crank flywheels. The crankcases were designed by Grysdale to accomodate a pair of Enfield 500 cast iron cylinders surmounted by complete cylinder head assemblies with all originals. Although a natural 4-speed, gearing has been raised by four teeth on the engine sprocket (25T to 29T), but the future bikes for customers will be having the 5-speed gearbox. Currently belting out 50 bhp, the 5-speed with tuning should give upto 80 bhp assumes the duo. (But wait, according to Carberry's website, the bike is NOW AVAILABLE in 5-speed gear.) The timing has been a nightmare, no doubt.Also at the time when the initial prototype was made, there was no factory made electric starter from REML, so they used a local one from an Indonesian made Toyota car! But at a compression ratio of 6.5:1, the kickstart should not be hard either because the spark is from a HD Sportster CDI.

The best part of this machine is that those legendary vibrations of the Enfield... thanks to the V-Twin, they are all gone! Now I wonder why doesn't REML try that? Of course, its not supposed to be a sports bike with a 200kg beast pushed by a 50bhp engine, but a cruiser... well its more than just that. But still calling it a 'New-Age Retro' wont be appropiate. The testers said that while finding the nueutral on stand is quite difficult, you will get it easily and a lot of times while riding it. But then they also did mention that with the 5 speed gaerbox, this issue of the close bottom three ratios would be easily sorted out. As a prototype, it has been very nicely executed and it will only get better. See the vision was to give a powerful enough status to an iconic brand and the duo of Drysdale and Carberry are in the very right track. Initially Paul thought of supplying engine kits to his friends and the Chennai, India factory. But with China showing a strong interest in this low-cost V-Twin, things are changing rapidly. Now what would low cost mean? The donor Bullet would range in between $4,200to $5,500 with the price of modification of $11,100, which means between $15,300 and $16,600, you will be riding an ultra smooth piece of history. You can also order only the motor and frame kit for $8,500. Here is the enquiry form. Botttomline, why a age old V-Twin from Royal Enfield? Well Paul has this to say "Why do you need a double overhead-cam V-Twin roadster with four valves per cylinder that will accelerate faster and has a higher top speed than you will ever use - and will cost you a lot more in fuel consumption and servicing costs, than the two-valve ushrod motor in a Harley?" No arguments on that, now if only REML honchos take a heed to this!

Read more of this stunning custom bike in Paul Carberry's website as well as Ian Drysdale's website.
Engine: 1000cc - 55 degree air cooled V twin pushrod.

Bore and stroke: 84 x 90mm

Electronic Ignition with Electric start

Hydraulic lifters and Roller big-end crank

High-pressure/high flow oil system with Spin-on oil filter

Power: 50 hp @ 4800 rpm

4 or 5 speed gearbox

In The News - New Bikes from KTM, BMW & TRIUMPH

KTM has confirmed that it will be launching the Venom at the Milan show in November. the Venom was previously shown as a concept machine way back in 2004. KTM confirmed that they are entering the Superbike market with an upgraded version of the RC8, called the RC8 'R'. According to reports the naked venom will be a 999cc 75 degree V-Twin engine producing an impressive 135 bhp @ 9600 rpm.

Now you dont have to wait for BMW to launch the F800R. Klostermier BMW, an exclusive dealer in BMW motorcycles in Augsburg, Germany has launched the 'supposed' F800R. They have removed the F800S fairing and replaced it with twin headlights which has actually totally altered the look of the machine.

This may be old news to some, nonetheless, for the less informed like muah, Triumph is launching a monster cruiser with no less than 1600cc named the Thunderbird. This is the second Thunderbird series from Triumph although I cant find any resemblance to the original 1949 model. The parallel twin-cylinder liquid-cooled cruiser has been derived from the Rocket III although its not longitudinally like the Rocket III. The other change from the Rocket is the use of belt drive in place of shaft drive. Scheduled to be launched at Intermot show at Cologne in October.

Source - Motorcycle USA

Come home to VARDENCHI Choppers

There is something about Choppers that catches the imagination of bike lovers worldwide. Whether its the US of A in the west or India in the east, it has always been a cherished possesion of bike affanidos. And yet, no big time manufacturer has ever rolled out a Chopper from its factory, I guess Chopper means exclusivity. Those thick rear tyres, wide and raised handlebars are marks of a chopper. With a lot more than these as common factors, yet hardly 2 choppers have ever looked similar. Such is the craftsman of these builders.

While in the eastern world, Larry or OCC enjoys rockstar celebrity status, here in India, although the 'Chopper' thing is pretty old, builders specializing only in choppers are relatively new. But there are quite a few talent who are very exciting. And I mean very very exciting. Specially because if you look at the resources, they are very minimal.

Now back in the US, when you say Chopper, the first thing is the big American V-Twin that comes into the picture. Now when you say Chopper in India, replace that V-Twin by the good'ol Royal Enfield Bullet. In fact dont just replace the engine, replace everything... What I mean is that the ingredient of almost all choppers in India is basically the Bullet. Although the Bullet isa 50 years old technology machine, the good thing is that the entire bike is like an assembled one.

You have the chassis, right? Now you have the seat on two adjustable iron bolts. Keeping the plate of the seat, you can design any kind of seat you want to. And the same goes for the mudguards, handle, tank and anything you can see on the bike. It really is a glorified assembled bike. And thats why it is easy to customize and of course being British, it gives a status of its own. Oh! how can you forget the legendary exhaust!

So, as we were talking, The Royal Enfield, for its easy customization forms the bone of majority of choppers in India. Initially these used to be personal customization with minimal changes but nonetheless noteworthy which used to get into the magazine covers. Recently there has been quite a few groups who have taken this into another level, who are pros like the OCC and yes, thanks to OCC and Discovery Channel, finally in India, you dont have to hit your head with the hammer to figure out how to get the chassis extended. Akshay will do it for you. Varde! Akshay Varde, the lead in the 'Brotherhood' of Vardenchi. According to the website, he was not very happy with his earlier line of work and when he switched profession, it was more like coming home as now he gets paid for what he LOVES doing. I believe it cannot be always rosy, but which true blue biker wont like to live in a world full of bikes, and not just bikes, customized one-of-a-kind bikes surrounding you, oil and gas burning, the smell of fresh paint... ah!

Anyway, Akshay had a 'done up' Bullet which actually started all these. The bike you see in orange with the brown seat was the first bike he worked upon. That he is so damn talented can be evident from the first product itself. Slowly the brotherhood increased to now 7 members, all young, hungry and talented. In fact, they had made a lookalike Ghost Rider chopper to promote then film and their brand of art. Of course the look alike was only a dummy model, but they also had a 'rideable' one on the lines of the Ghost Rider which was given away as a contest price winner.

Probably the best part of their work is that with simple changes they can give you customized bikes which will stand out even from each of their products. If you look closely, you will notice that most of the bikes have a formula - extended chassis, single seater on a hiden monoshock with the customized tank, customized handlebars and headlight. Simple, isn't it? But then think again, it would have been so simple if they actually followed the formula, in fact there would have been Vardenchis all over India.

And its here when Akshay and his gang scores heavily. They just know how slim and streamlined or how elongated the tank needs to be to get 'that' look, that exact height of the seat, that exact handlebar to match the overall look, it seems every product they have landed their hand on just looks perfect. Even those various silencers just looks so complimenting to the bike feel. I am sure they must do a lot of homework before getting the final product. as a customer, you need to tell them exactly what you want and rest assured, they will give you a product which will exceed your expectations.

The trump card (which I feel) although lies in their paint scheme and job. You will see that there are a lot of blue bikes here, but they are different by a pole. If one has a black mudguard with black alloys to compliment the body colour, the other has a similar body colour with mudgurads but with white alloys. The paint scheme is what makes these choppers stand out. I am sure you will agree. And the finish is of course of the highest quality, so the asking price may look a bit steep, but then this aint no just a regular customized bike. This is a Vardenchi product and it is an established name now in India. Although Royal Enfield Bullet is their preferred base of work, you will also find some other models like an erstwhile Kawasaki Eliminator or like a V-Twin they had featured on their blog. Both the 350cc and 500 cc models of the Enfield has played donors in various bikes.

Its not only bikes, you can also order various accessories like handle bars, tail lights, etc from them. They even have ready made kits for your Enfield. now how can you top that? So, next time you in India and you are thinking of covering the huge corners of the country on an Enfield, whu not get all the attention? I just told you how! Go check out their website (even the website is customized) or do drop a line on their blog. Pictures courtesy their blog. First two pictures courtesy Flickr.

Commando - The Schwarzeneggerian NORTON

Which bike has won the five successive "Machine of the Year" competition? Well, that was easy. The Commando won the MCN Machine of the Year from 1968-1972. That was interesting since the Commando itseld has only a 10 years history from its first production in 1967 to the last production in 1977... until it was later resurrected again in 2005.
From the time of its launch on one fine day at the Earls Court show, it mesmerized bikers and critics alike. Some say it was the swansong of the British Motorcycle factories. It was used for touring, road racing, endurance racing, you name it, it has done it all. It was known for its superb handling just as all Nortons do. And reliability? That was why Commando became 'the' Commando.

Imagine a 800cc twin British bike in endurance races! The heart of all Commandos is traditionally British... a big air-cooled, push-rod Twin. Based. Based on the 1975 original 497cc Hopwood-designed Dominator engine, Norton launched it in 1967 when the Japs were already on full rampage and Norton had the guts to release the Commando with a 'Kick Starter', seperate gear box and gears on the right! Did I mention the word 'traditional'? But Norton was sure that this IS the bike. And they were right. Until Norton launched the MKIII Commando which had a left-hand gearshift and an electric starter. The thing is if you bore a 497 cc engine into almost double its size at 828cc, how much power can actually be traslated?

Initially Norton wanted to rival the Japs, but the motorcycle was more like a cruiser than a racer. Critics however say that like a true Norton, it did everything quite satisfactorily and more such as the gear box... bikers still maintain that it was a flawless piece of engineering till date. Even the original brakes from Lockheed were exceptional. We will go its history a little later, but let me finish off one trivia before I forget to put it here. The last Commando was released from the showrooms in 1079, but the last Commando to comeout from its factory was 1976. The Villiers factory in Wolverhampton stopped production due to some ownership issues in 1976 when around 1500 Commandos were in the process of being built. Dennis Poore, previousy owner of the Norton brand declared that he would buy off the remaining Commandos as soon as the bikes are ready and he did it too except for the last 25. People knew that the Commando was coming to an end and so Norton retained the last 25 bikes and sold them directly at a much higher price.

Among the bikes featured in this post, the silver coloured one (pictures courtesy Motorcycle USA) was the last bike to roll out of the Norton showroom. It was sold in a formal ceremony where Ray Petty, the Norton tuner handed the keys to the customer. But there is another piece of interesting history. John Pedley, the Norton works manager actually built another one for himself and so it can be said that he actually had the last laugh, I mean Norton!

Well that was then. But now thankfully Norton is back and they knew the Commando was too good a model just to keep it in history books and so in 2005, the Commando was back. If you are interested, you can read here about the stunning new gen Commando.

Okay History period - The origins of the Norton Commando can be traced back to the late 1940s Norton Model 7 Twin which had the 497cc engine , designed by Bert Hopwood and so known as the Hopwood engine. Cubic capacity was increased to 650 cc when the Dominator came out followed by a further increase to 750cc with the Atlas. The same 750cc was later launched as the 750 cc Commando in 1967. So what was different from the Atlas? The frame! Yes, the classic hallowed Norton featherbed frame was replaced! The new frame was developed by Dr. Stefan Bauer (former Rolls Royce engineer) who believed the classic Norton Featherbed frame design went against all engineering principles!!! The new frame was designed around a single 2.25 inch top tube. Now vibrations were common among all British bikes, but for the Norton it was more evident as the same frame which hostled a 500cc was now holding a 750cc. So it was decided that the engine, gearbox and swing-arm assembly were to be bolted together and isolated from the frame by special rubber mountings to eliminate extreme vibration.

The new frame was named 'Isolastic anti-vibration system'. The first model of Commando was the MK1 750cc. The original model, called the 'Fastback' was joined by the production racer 'S Type' featuring an OHV tuned engine. The funny thing was that these bikes was 'assembled'. You see the engines were produced in Wolverhampton, frames in Manchester, components and final assembly was at Plumstead. Frame manufacturing was later transferred from Mancester to Wolverhampton, where production capacity was 80 per week. Anyway, the S version also called the 'Roadster' had low-level exhaust, upward angled silencers and reverse cones, by which we now familarize Norton. In 1970, came the MK2 which had alloy levers with modified stands and chain guards and by '71, Norton had the ‘Fastback Long Range’ with increased petrol tank capacity. 1972 saw the introduction of the ‘Combat’ in the MK4, an updated version of the ‘Roadster’ and the ‘750 Interstate’. The ‘Combat’ delivered 65 b.h.p. at 6500 r.p.m. with a 10.0: 1 compression ratio, but the engine was very unrelaible which also had quality control problems. The 'Combat' was stopped immediately and thas why we never hear of a Norton Combat. By 1972 NVT was formed (Norton Villiers Triumph) as the UK Govt. decided to merge the BSA - Triumph comapny with Norton Villiers as BSA Triumph group were in serious financial trouble.

The MK5 came in '73, but the Long Range was stopped. This was the 828cc engine which also found place in the ‘Roadster’, ‘Hi Rider’ and the ‘Interstate’.

But 1973 also saw a major uproar by the NVT workers union and work was stopped and NVT reported to have lost over £3 million. But the Commando was never stopped and in '74, the 'JPN Replica' was released. '75 saw the 850cc MK3 which had the distinction of having an 'Electric Starter'. Not only that, at previously mentioned, it had left gear shift, right foot brake and also a rear disc to meet US norms as US was a huge export market for Norton. Although the engine was bored out, other specs remained the same which means the engine was less stretched. That continued till the last model of Commando.

The Commando also made an impact in racing events. 2 Commandos finished in top 4 positions in the '69 Isle of Mann TT. The same year Commando won the Hutchinson 100 Production. In 1973, Peter WIllaims won the Formula 750 Isle of Man TT on his Commando. After the mid 70s, Norton finally closed down and then started the war... of trademarks.

The legal battle over the name Norton was fought not between companies, but countries - Germany, Canada & U.S. Then there were big companies like Norvil (U.K), CNW & Vintage Rebuilds. All 3 are still very very active. Mr Kenny Dreer of Vintage Rebuilds showed off a 'new' Commando based Norton VR880 Sprint Special in 1999 but has again run into legal suits.
Photo Source - E-Bay, Motorcycle USA