Since it's too damn cold outside, the normal "On The Bench" postings, will be switched to "In The House", until the weather gets warm enough to be back outside for any length of time. Shown here is my recent addition to the Norton wideline 650 project; a Genuine Manx Norton rear brake / hub / wheel. Ever since I started building this project, I've envisioned having this exact brake on the bike. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's nearly impossible to find discarded Manx parts. They simply just don't come up for sale that often, and for good reason. I could have opted for either the common BSA conical rear brake or even a replica, but if you've followed along, or know me at all, than it comes as no surprise that's just not good enough.
As you can see, it's got the standard amount of patina and the sprocket is entirely too big for road work. It's also got a steel rim, which won't be correct for what I'm building, but rest assured that I'm about as happy as can be, to find this thing, so I'm not complaining at all.
I'll admit that even with the steel wheel, I was very surprised as to how light this set up is. And of course the fact that it's complete, will make the rebuild / restoration of it, pretty straightforward.
So far I've disassembled most of it, and I'm very please that everything has come apart nicely. None of the threads are buggered up and it doesn't have any corrosion at all. Even the grease nipple came out easily. I've cleaned everything and inspected the whole kit. I need to remove the spokes and pull the bearings, but other than that, it's ready to go.
Of course it'll get the following treatment:
New bearings
New Paint
Smaller sprocket
New brake pads
Borrani shouldered alloy rim
A brake arm return spring
New brake arm
And then of course I'll skim the drum surface and cut the pads to fit so that I get the best braking possible.
Since I'm not running a speedometer on this bike, I'll just make some spacers to take up the space between the swing arm and I'll be all set.
Anyone that's ever built a bike, knows what a big deal it is to get wheels. It's that big step closer to having a rolling chassis. I'll report back with photos once this beautiful piece of kit is all restored and ready to mount.
