Brad Lackey's 1967 Norton P11 !!SOLD!! Startup and Bike Discussion
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- čas přidán 13. 01. 2023
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!!!!BIKE IS SOLD AS OF MARCH 2023!!!!!
For vintage motorcycle inquiries, please email me at bill@wheelhousegarage.co (not .com) or call me at (925) 420-4680.
Instagram: @wheelhouse_garage
#norton #vintagemotorcycle #dirtbike - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Owned the low pipe version of the P11 in 1969 after I got back from Vietnam. I found it for sale in a crate in Los Angeles and assembled it - but I had to find a left-hand Amal carb by going from motorcycle shop to shop until I finally found one and installed it. It was a very strong bike but not a great fit for me: I had a bad right leg from my lost argument with a VC machine gun and the beast required a strong right leg for starting and every few starts, it would backfire and try to throw me over the handlebars. I used it for commuting to college and then to work at Lockheed Aircraft every day for a couple of years and it was a strong accelerator, easily beating anydamnthing that chose to challenge me (sorry about that, Porsche 911 owner). But the electrics never worked - I used a flashlight battery system to run the headlights at night - and parts would vibrate off fairly often and finding Whitworth bolts to replace them was a challenge. While I am mentioning the vibration, It vibrated so hard, you could never see anything in the mirrors while you were moving down the road!
It was a tall bike and apparently designed by the British "TLAR" method ("That Looks About Right") and if I took a steep lean during a turn, it would immediately switch ends and I'd end up pointing the wrong way, facing traffic!
Very fine-looking bike but I was sure that it would kill me, so I sold it and bought a nice, dependable Honda - with an electric starter.
Beautiful bike
Gotta drink it room temp. Also you should do an episode on "Monobloc vs Concentric" carburetors
That's a nice looking bike. If someone tells me they have an old motorcycle in their garage that belonged to their father and they wanna get rid of, I'm there that day. Sure, 99 percent of the time it'll be something I'm not interesting in... but there's always a chance of finding something cool...like an old Norton P11.
Brad Lackey, legendary icon from (not) long ago ;-). What a great priviledge to spend time with Brad and talk about this cool motorcycle. $omebody out there is a new lucky owner. Excellent interview, excellent channel!
So fun hanging and talking bikes with Brad... especially when it's a P11!
Brad was a childhood hero. great opportunity here for someone to own a gorgeous bike.
Awsome bike, plus the Brad Lackey credence. Quite an opportunity for someone.
Strangely they were not so popular in the UK in their day, making them rare here now and very valuable.
Great episode, thanks 👍
Thanks for the kind words!
"Not so popular in the UK" because we didn`t actually get any of them--they were all exported.
Brad always inspired me back in the day. Great bike too
Right on!
Hey Brad! I met you at Lake Sugar Tree in Virginia back in 77 when you had the Husky ride! You were a great racer! Gary Bailey really made a wonderful track! Loved racing there!👍
Very cool!
Looks to be running lean with those header pipes as blued as that... Dominator motors didn't usually blue their pipes to that degree. These parts-bin Matchless-Norton bikes sold badly here and finally ended up getting sold off for a song. Heavy off-road bikes really didn't exist here. They tended to be four stroke singles from most of the main factories or two strokes for lightweight faster stuff like scrambles or slower competitions like trials. One in particular was a machine by Greeves, an oddball brew of a bike with a cast aluminium front down member and a Villiers Starmaker 250cc single cylinder motor that was a potent power unit for its time, coupling light weight and impressive power. That Starmaker engine was highly tuned and in later forms produced up to 32bhp on the brake, no small attainment for a single cylinder piston ported stroker.
The pictured bike's 750cc Atlas engine was a major shaker, in a family of bikes known for vibration that could - and did- cause front mudguards to suddenly become two-piece items. If I mind right the Atlas has the same BHP rating as the 650ss (49bhp) but is far harder to live with as built by the factory. Balancing the internals will help here, but there was a very good reason that the 750cc Commando had its power train isolated from the rest of the bike by being hung on hefty rubber bushes. The bigger they stretched the vertical twin, the worse it shook. The sweetest rides of any Brit vertical twins were invariably the 500cc versions. The 600cc versions were less smooth but mostly livable-with, AJS did one, as did Norton. Taking them to 650cc made the shakes worse. If you can, try to ride a nicely standard BSA A7ss Shooting Star. Smooth but perhaps a little staid for some. One factory that did it all differently was Royal Enfield. Their twins were the 500cc Meteor Minor, the bigger version bypassed competitors' bikes by having a bigger jump - to 700cc in the Super Meteor and Constellation models, with a final upshift to 750cc with the Interceptor. These were quite a departure from all the other designs on sale, as the lubrication system was a wet sump type, so no scavenge pump was needed for the lube system. I rode a proper Norton Atlas once for maybe 15 minutes and my hands were numb after that short time. There was good reason these bikes get sold off cheap. As delivered, they were pretty awful. (There's vibration, then there's VIBRATION....)
Wonderful looking bike
We agree!
I was about four or five years old when I saw my dad building the Norton P-11 out of his shop in Grass valley California. He was a mechanic and a Sales distributor for motorcycle sales and service in Grass Valley California. They assembled and sold Triumphs, Ducatis and Nortons. The only Norton my dad sold was to himself and it was a Norton P-11. My dad passed away and i sold the bike in 2008 for $3,000 and I threw in a trailer. I miss the bike even though I rarely rode the dam thing. Just like moms Emerson Square grand piano, it is just family history.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Bad Brad!!!
I looked up to Brad as a little 12 year old brat, and enjoyed watching him own the World.
Glat to see he is still kickin and celebrating life.
He sure does!
One of the best looking best sounding bikes ever made.
Agreed!
I saw Brad racing a 500 cc Honda at Matchams motocross raceway in Dorset, England in 1976. He was great. One of the best days of my life. Graham Noyce aboard a CCM made the earth below it tremble. Roger DeCoster and Gerrit Wolsink rode for Suzuki. Classic. Sweet!
Such a cool memory! Thanks for sharing.
Are you sure it was a Honda? In 1976 he rode for Husqvarna...he joined Honda in 1977.
What a bike !👍
It sure is! Thanks for watching.
Great video
Thanks Alex!
The British bikes of that era looked so damn good, so masculine. If only they didn't vibrate like paint-can shakers on the highway, and leak oil everywhere. I hate the 'transformers' styling of so many modern bikes.
They look sooo good!!
Never mind today's street scramblers, THIS IS THE REAL McCOY!!
Oh yeah!
Plumstead Pony I thought?
Ah yes
$20,000 he's asking.