Chasing the Ghost

It’s been a little over five years since I took a pretty big chance, and sent a large sum of money to a perfect stranger, an ocean away, to purchase an original, new old stock, Ray Petty roadster frame kit. It’s the sort of motorbike, that you have to be pretty far down the rabbit hole, to even know exists. One of only a dozen frame kits made, in 1969, by the legendary racer, become tuner, and it’s truly a work of art. The frame kit includes a high tensile steel tubing lowboy frame, alloy petrol tank, alloy oil tank, nickel plated swingarm, nickel plated cross brace and nickel plated foot controls. Originally, it would have come with Girling shocks, but those were missing from this one. The tanks are hand hammered units, made by Lyta, baffled internally and feature Enots flip up caps, and were an option at the time. Petty produced these frame kits and intended to sell them to customers wanting the advantages of his Manx Norton, but for use on the road. The kit is identical to his very successful Manx racers, but has additional tubing on both sides, to mount the exhaust of a twin motor, and were to built up with a customers Norton, Triumph, BSA or Velocette motor. He built just one machine, which was unveiled at the motorcycle show in 1969, powered by a Triumph Bonneville motor and earning an article in the December issue of Motorcycle News the following year.

1970 Motorcycle News article

The original sales brochure for the Ray Petty frame kit

Petty didn't pursue these kits much further, and went back to focusing on his racing efforts. It's unclear if he completed any other roadsters, or where the remaining frame kits are these days. Which is just the sort of hurdle that makes it difficult to build a bike like this. Quite simply, there just isn't much information to be found, or too many people that know much about it. Ray passed away in the 1980's, and my dream is, to complete this machine, in his honor and as close to his original vision as possible. I'll be using a Norton power plant, but building it to match up nearly identical to machine No. 001.

Progress on the build, varies from time to time and is mostly dependent on locating difficult to find parts and having the money to afford them. Like most people, I earn a modest living and work a 9-5 job, so spare cash comes second in line to the obligations of living a normal life. But these old bikes are worth it, and I put every spare dollar I have into them. It somehow feels rewarding and important. There's a value in old motorbikes thats far greater than what they cost. It's satisfying to coax something back to life with your own hands. It's a fairly cliche notion, that feels shallow to say out loud, but it's still worth saying. 

The day it arrived from the UK

A couple of photos of current progress

I'm only sharing a few basic photos, as this post isn't a complete journal of the build, and its not nearly done yet. And while I've done a mountain of work already, there's still a long way to go. I've promised the previous owner of the frame kit, that once it's complete, I'll fly him over from the UK, to have a go at it. It's fitting that after many years of being the steward of it, he get the opportunity to enjoy it as well. We've become friends over the years and been able to help each other out with various projects and acquiring parts. 

My biggest saving grace with this project, is that I've been around old Norton's for a long time now, and built a few of them for myself, so I'm confident in building most of the bits. Some of the biggest challenges, are getting the engine to sit properly in the frame. My kit, came with engine plates to mount a Commando motor, which leans forward, but since I'm using a 650ss Dominator motor, it sits vertically in the frame, so I'm having to fabricate engine plates from scratch. It's a real trial and error task, but I'm nearly finished with it. Once that happens, there's a lot of other things that can be mocked into place, and some significant progress to be had.

Over the years, I've managed to obtain nearly all the right parts for this project and even some genuine Ray Petty parts, like his PGT gearbox. I'd still love to find some more of the things he produced, like an original seat unit and one of his lower fork yokes. If anyone out there has any of these parts, please contact me. Additionally, if you've got any information or old photos of these bikes, I'd truly appreciate seeing those as well.

Projects like these, aren't just about turning wrenches, and they entail a lot of research and digging thru old magazines, brochures and having conversations with as many people in the world that might have some knowledge of it. Studying photos from different angles, to figure out just how every bracket was made, or what sort of adjusters were used. It's like unravelling the history of something that wasn't intended to be a secret, but obscurely became one. Like chasing the ghost...

Special thanks to my dear friend, Rob Collins for the photos.