{"id":28774,"date":"2024-12-25T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T08:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=28774"},"modified":"2024-12-25T06:48:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T14:48:00","slug":"whoda-thunk-one-up-and-three-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/12\/25\/whoda-thunk-one-up-and-three-down\/","title":{"rendered":"One Up, Three Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of you who subscribe to Motorcycle Classics<\/em> magazine may have seen my article on good buddy Andrew\u2019s Norton P11.\u00a0 I was very proud of that piece and its photos, until I found out that I got a few things wrong.\u00a0 The most significant faux pas was my description of the shift pattern, which I mistakenly assumed was the same as a Triumph\u2019s.\u00a0 All my \u201860s and \u201870s Triumphs were one down, a half click up for neutral, and all the rest up (just like on most of today\u2019s motorcycles).\u00a0 BSA was the same way.\u00a0 When I rode good buddy Steve\u2019s Norton Commando of the same era it was one down and three up.\u00a0 That\u2019s the natural order of things, right?<\/p>\n

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The shift lever on the right side of Andrew’s P11A. It’s one up and three down. They even stamped it for me at the factory, and I still got it wrong. Andrew owns British Motorcycle Gear<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ah, not so fast.\u00a0 Norton did it differently.\u00a0 On a Norton, it\u2019s one up and three down.\u00a0 Just like it’s marked on the transmission.\u00a0 Just like my photo above shows.<\/p>\n

So why did I get it wrong in the MC<\/em> article?\u00a0 Chalk it up to old age and carelessness, I guess.\u00a0 I sure am embarrassed about it.\u00a0 I should stick to things that are harder to get wrong (maybe I should be a presidential election pollster for the New York Times<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Steve’s Norton Commando in the San Gabriel Mountains. It’s one down and three up, as God intended.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might be wondering:\u00a0 What about Steve\u2019s Norton Commando, which had the conventional one down and three up shift pattern?\u00a0 As it turns out, more than a few Norton owners reversed the shift pattern on their bikes to make them like the rest of the world, which can be accomplished by installing a mirror image cam plate in the Norton’s AMC gearbox.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s evidently what happened to Steve\u2019s bike way before he owned it, and way before I rode it.<\/p>\n

Guys who have the original Norton gearbox pattern write that it\u2019s the more natural of the two shift patterns.\u00a0\u00a0 When you want to go faster, you push down on the shift lever.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like stepping on the gas, I guess.\u00a0 Foot down, go faster.\u00a0\u00a0 Thinking about it, it makes sense.<\/p>\n

You know, I didn\u2019t think too much about the Norton\u2019s controls layout when I wrote the P11 article (and obviously, what little thinking I did was not enough).\u00a0 I wrote another MC<\/em> story about a 1913 Thor several issues back, and if I would have made a mistake, I would have thought it would be in that article.\u00a0 On that one, I had to study my photographs and think about what each lever, pedal, valve, and twist grip did (and there were a lot of each); there was no one to explain it all.\u00a0 After I had done that, I actually found a guy who owned a 1914 Thor (how many of them can there be?) and he told me I had it right.\u00a0 But on that Norton\u2026I\u2019ve ridden a Norton, I\u2019ve owned a bunch of Triumphs and one BSA, and I just never thought I\u2019d get it wrong. But I did.\u00a0 Mea culpa.<\/p>\n

Oh, two more things:<\/p>\n

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      1. Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah.\u00a0 They’re both on the same day this year, which is very unusual.<\/li>\n
      2. That photo at the top of this blog?\u00a0 That’s the P11A, Andrew (on the left), and good buddy Harry (aka the Norton Whisperer).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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