Norton / Harley Ironhead Cafe Project.. Build thread

I don't care what the purists say, the Ironhead motor looks best in that frame. My vote for DTT bike of the year.
 
DrJ said:
I don't care what the purists say, the Ironhead motor looks best in that frame. My vote for DTT bike of the year.

I have to concur, so much detail in there. :)
 
100% aqgree on BOTY. I do love a good sportster, and this is one of the best I've seen come to fruition.
 
I saw your bike on "Inazuma Cafe Racer" Looks great there too. I also must say, I concur with the Iron Head in the Featherbed looks very comfy, it belongs there.
Cheers, 50gary
 
A quick update on how its going..

I haven't had chance to ride it hard yet, and it still needs to go on the dyno to tune the jetting and ignition. But first impressions are

1) It handles well, feels light and agile (glad I swapped to a narrower front tyre), lots of ground clearance. Reminds me of my old 78 Ducati 900ss Desmo, but with slightly quicker steering. Its stable too, no head shakes while cornering on bumpy roads.

2) Riding position is ok, the clip ons aren't as uncomfortable as I'd feared look, though I don't plan on touring on it. I'll need a break after a couple of hours.

3) The suspension is 'unbalanced', in that the forks are firm, perhaps a touch too firm, while the rear shocks are well damped, but the springs are too soft. I'll probably fit firmer and 1 inch longer rear shocks, I'll get a pair custom made for me by Maxton when I can afford it. They build the shocks to suite your own riding style, weight etc.
http://www.maxtonsuspension.co.uk/files/home.htm

4) Its pretty loud, sounds great, but don't think my neighbours will be too impressed. The reverse cone Megaphones are called 'Bofors' for good reason.

5) The alloy tank marks easily, its going to be a never ending job to keep it polished and looking good. A painted tank would've been easier to live with, something I may consider later.

6) Engine feels like it has enough power to be fun, the 4 speed gearbox is a bit clunky, and there's a big gap in ratios between 2nd and third gear. Need to get used to it I guess. I'd always planned to tune the motor once the bike was on the road and debugged. But now I may not bother, other than making a pair of alloy barrels someday.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It took longer to build than I had expected, partly due to being on a tight budget and partly because I wanted to do as much as possible myself, rather than farming the tricky work out to the experts as I'd usually do.
 
Ditto on that beautiful bike comment. Not sure why those Harley engines look so right in an English frame, but it is a marriage that obviously works beautifully.
 
AgentX said:
Have you considered trying Shark Hide on the tank?

No, as its not easily available in the UK. The bike's now tucked up in the garage until spring, sprayed plenty of anti corrosion FS365 on it to protect it from the damp. When my new project is finished, I'll do some more updates on the Norley.
 
Apologies for bringing this old thread back to life, its because when I was bored stuck indoors being ill recently, I put together a step by step build video of my Norley, a lot of the photos I've posted here, its about ten minutes long, let me know what you think.. be kind, its my first attempt ..

https://youtu.be/dn-VGHidxzs
 
Very nice slide show, good job all around. I may have mentioned this before but the Net weight is quite impressive 415# and for using that HD motor it's really light weight.
Cheers, 50gary
 
50gary said:
Very nice slide show, good job all around. I may have mentioned this before but the Net weight is quite impressive 415# and using that HD motor it's really light weight.
Cheers, 50gary

The Ironhead engine is around 188lbs, which is pretty hefty for an air cooled V twin. A later Evo sportster version is 10lbs or so lighter, using one of them and modern lightweight 17 inch wheels would get a Norley down below 400lbs no problem.
 
Bevelheadmhr said:
The Ironhead engine is around 188lbs, which is pretty hefty for an air cooled V twin. A later Evo sportster version is 10lbs or so lighter, using one of them and modern lightweight 17 inch wheels would get a Norley down below 400lbs no problem.
That is the correct weight number I came up with, actually I didn't come up with it, it's in the manual. I was able to take 50lbs off my motor. Aluminum cylinders and heads are are right at half the weight of the iron ones (12lbs/13lbs, aluminum ones are 6 and 6.5), tossed the generator regulator for another 13+lbs, light flywheels drop some more, no kickstart hardware at all.
That 188lb number is for the IronHead XLCH, the XL and XLH models were 204lbs. The latter is most likely what you would be working with. My bike weighs in a 332lbs dry.
 
They say custom bikes are never really finished, as there's always something that could be improved or changed in the light of riding the thing. So it is with my Norley. Before I start on my next big project I want to fix a couple of issues, the main one being the heavy clutch.

The clutch activation is a one off hydraulic system, using a master cylinder from a Honda VTR1000 and slave cylinder from a Ducati 900 Monster, with a custom billet housing. When we made it, I knew it was an experiment and there was a good chance the ratio of Master to Slave wouldn't be perfect when used on an old Harley engine. Sure enough it turned out to be very heavy, too heavy for me, particularly if I was ever caught in slow moving traffic for more than a short time. Also the bleed nipple was part of the banjo bolt fitting, which made bleeding the system very difficult, unless I could somehow tip the bike on its side, which I couldn't.

Time to make a Mark 2 version..

The Ducati Slave is 26mm in diameter, so to make an lighter clutch, it would need to be replaced with a bigger diameter slave. How much bigger ? No idea ! So I went with a Honda 36mm Slave cylinder to match the Honda master. For this Mark 2 version I wanted to avoid making a completely unique slave body, because if it failed/wore it would be a lot of work to make a new one. Much better if I could use the standard Honda part and just make some kind of adaptor to fit it to the Harley.

So that's what we're doing, the adaptor is on the large size, now I've just done a test fit for the first time, so when I take it back to Jeff's workshop I'll try to shape it to match the profile of the slave cylinder, which should hopefully make it a look a little better.
 

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Just watched your vid. :) Really cool seeing it all come together like that. Beautiful machine you've turned out over there.
 
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