Interesting 650 Norton prototype

The Unified Norton is back and running much better. Quieter than a 650Ss and with similar power to that . Not a featherbed so handles diferently , a bit like the desert racers . Plenty of zip when given 1/3throttle. Norton type braking and suspension . Cant say what the high speed handling is ,not enough miles . Likely will be at the Ardingly show East Sussex along with the featherbed version . Intention is to ride them there.

I really like the Unified 650 Paul worked on, i was looking at an old stack of 'Real Classic' magazine and saw there had been a few articles back in 2016 on this very bike. Its certainly different!

It's clearly a 1958-59 design, influenced by the design of the small twins, and still featuring a single strand primary chain (even though the twins had a duplex chain!) as well as a chain driven camshaft. Yuk! Norton Bracebridge could have taken innovation a bit further! For instance, by putting the countershaft at the timing side and allowing for a much better mainshaft support and a short shaft cantilever for the clutch). British traditional thinking is hard to change, eh ?

- Knut