Norton Featherbed

The featherbed frame was a motorcycle frame invented by the McCandless brothers and offered to the British Norton motorcycle company to improve the performance of their racing motorcycles in 1950. It was considered revolutionary at the time,"''As opposition companies strove to develop completely new machines with multi-cylinder engines, far more powerful than the Norton single, Bracebridge Street was content to find new speed in 1950 with a revolutionary new frame which steered and handled so superbly that it immediately earned the now forever-famous tag Featherbed''". Sixty Years of Speed, 1967 a ''Motorcycle News'' publication, pp.41-42 Accessed 26 January 2018Motorcycle handling and chassis design: the art and science by Tony Foale. 2006 and the best handling frame that a racer could have."''Introduced in 1950, the featherbed Norton frame, designed by Rex McCandless, of Belfast, became, and still is, the standard by which handling and steering of all racing machines is judged''". Sixty Years of Speed, 1967 a ''Motorcycle News'' publication, p.41 Accessed 26 January 2018 Later adopted for Norton production motorcycles, it was also widely used by builders of custom hybrids such as the Triton, becoming legendary and remaining influential to this day. ''Motor Cycle'', 23 April 1964, pp.494-497 ''Norton Featherbed Twins'' by John Ebrell. "''The famous featherbed frame, beloved of specials builders. Its absolute rigidity makes a big contribution to the legendary Norton roadholding''". Accessed and added 4 February 2018''Do not mourn the Featherbed! Motorcycle Sport'', August 1978, p.218 "''The Featherbed Nortons were some of the all time greats, but to ascribe to the shape of the frame some magic properties is to detract from the design of the whole bicycle, its weight distribution and geometry and to give to the frame's progenitors some of the credit due to the likes of Ken Sprayson, who knows a thing or three about its development.''" Accessed 10 January 2018

The Featherbed inspired other frame builders who based their own products on similar principles, including the 1960s heavyweight Münch Mammut, ''Motor Cycle'', 3 February 1966, pp.142-143 ''On the Four Winds'' by 'Nitor'. "''Engine is from the NSU Prinz car and may be specified in 43 or 52 bhp trim. In my picture you can see how well it fits into a featherbed-style frame''". Accessed and added 2014-09-28. Re-accessed and quotation added 8 September 2018 a lightweight version for a 250 cc BSA C15 engine, and the 1970-conceived ''Dresda'' frame.

The Featherbed was replaced by the Norton Isolastic frame in 1967 for the then newly developed Norton Commando which used a rubber-mounted engine and gearbox, although Norton continued to offer the ''Mercury'' with a Featherbed frame until production ceased by 1970. Replicas of the frame continue to be produced by specialist companies.

Origins

In 1949 brothers Rex and Cromie McCandless offered Norton a new frame to support their successful 500cc race single. Rex McCandless was a self-taught Belfast motorcycle engineer and raced competitively with his brother on a Triumph Tiger 100. He had made several improvements to the Triumph, notably an innovative new frame with a swinging arm fitted with vertical hydraulic shock absorbers from a Citroen car. BSA bought several of his converted motorcycles but Norton saw the real opportunity and contracted him to work exclusively for them from 1949. The Norton Motorcycle Company were concerned at the reliability of their plunger (or "Garden Gate") frame, as several had broken through the stress of racing. Norton engineer Joe Craig solved the problems by making the frames heavier but handling suffered as a consequence.

Norton commissioned the McCandless brothers to design a complete frame, incorporating a swinging arm. McCandless' finished design was expensive, as it required over forty feet of the best Reynolds steel tubing. It was a welded twin loop with a swinging arm fitted with their own design of shock absorbers, with a heavily braced cross-over headstock. In two months a prototype motorcycle with the new frame was on the test track and it was tested on the Isle of Man in the winter of 1949. It performed well and Norton decided that the Norton works team would have motorcycles with the new frames. The Norton works was not well equipped so the sif-bronze welding was undertaken by the McCandless brothers who produced the eight frames for the racing team by hand. Production featherbed frames were made under Ken Sprayson's direction at Reynolds, who became known as 'The Frame man'''Do not mourn the Featherbed! Motorcycle Sport'', August 1978, p.218 "''No one would argue that there was a better roadholding bike in the 50s than the Norton. That it was capable of taking more power than the Dommie engine could give was proved not only on the race track by the Manx version and the Domiracer but also on the road by those who put Triumph engines in them.''" Accessed 10 January 2018

The patent

Norton applied for a patent for the design on 13 October 1949 and it was granted as reference 664,667 but the completed specification was not published until 9 January 1952. The Featherbed frame was simply constructed:

This invention relates to a new or improved frame for a motorcycle which comprises two substantially parallel rectangular loops each formed from a single length of tubing, and the ends of the tube forming each loop cross and are welded to each other at the top front corner of the loop, the free ends of the tube which extend beyond the crossing point being welded to the side of an inclined head tube adjacent to the top and bottom thereof. The assembled frame is extremely strong for its weight and designed to provide the maximum resistance to any stresses applied to the frame by road shocks or by the driving torque of the power unit.

The Featherbed name

Harold Daniell was a successful Isle of Man TT racer with three victories and several placings in the Tourist Trophy races and the Manx Grand Prix. After testing the new Norton frame in 1950 he declared that it was like "riding on a featherbed" compared with riding the "garden gate"—and it has been called the featherbed frame ever since.

The term feather bed was used in the 1933 to 1938 Brough Superior catalogues in their press section. As printed in the 1933 Brough Superior catalog:

The "Brough Superior" Rear Spring Frame, to quote "Castor" of "Motor Cycling," renders "pitching or wobble non-existent, impossible. A feather bed could scarcely be safer"—and this in relating his experience on a Special "Brough Superior" S.S. 100, on which he did 106 m.p.h. in second gear on the road !

Racing success

Further testing took place at Montlhery race track with four motorcycles running flat-out for two days. The new frame stood up well to tests and saw its UK launch at Blandford Camp in Dorset in April 1950. Geoff Duke had won the Senior Clubmans TT and the Senior Manx Grand Prix in 1949 on the earlier type Nortons, so was a clear choice for Norton to really put the new Featherbed-framed race bikes to the test. Duke won the race on the new design and several racing successes followed with Norton winning first three places in the 1950 Senior and Junior TT's. In the Friday Senior TT Duke set a new lap record of 93.33 mph and also broke the overall race record, finishing in two hours, 51 minutes and 45 seconds; he had previously finished second to Artie Bell (Norton) in Monday's Junior TT. (Harold Daniell's Norton was third.) When it came to the bends on the twisting Island course the new frame gave the Nortons a distinct advantage.

Featherbed frames were also successfully modified for use in off-road racing or motorcycle scrambling. In the 1950s, Ron Hankin designed a featherbed-inspired Moto Cross frame for Les Archer junior, having curved downtubes to allow for greater front suspension movement without fouling the wheel on the frame, and with heavy bracing around the steering head tube. The frame was used with Manx Norton engines prepared by tuner Ray Petty, and also with a 500 cc Norton Dominator engine.

Featherbed variants

Manx racer in Reynolds 531

Weight and strength were key factors in the design of the featherbed frame for the Norton racing team's Manx. 16-gauge Reynolds 531, a high-tensile manganese-molybdenum steel alloy, was used as it allowed the frame tubes to be made thinner for the same strength, as well as making for a more responsive frame. All the joints were Sifbronze welded, – a relatively low-temperature flame-braze – except for the sub frame which was initially bolted-on but welded in later versions.

Norton International

In 1953 the Norton International was relaunched with a new version of the Featherbed frame made from grade A mild steel.

Domiracer 'Lowboy'

In 1956, Norton development engineer Doug Hele was tasked with creating a 500 cc overhead valve road-based racing machine to challenge the larger-displacement side valve 750 Harley Davidsons run in the same class at AMA-organised Daytona 200 races. Initially unsuccessful, the project was turned into creating a road-based race engine as a replacement for the ageing Manx Norton racer engine. Hele designed a lighter-weight, lower frame with slightly shorter wheelbase, based on Featherbed principles having slightly altered frame runs and shortened telescopic front forks which became known as ''Lowboy''. The project was named ''Domiracer'', and one was successfully raced to third-place by Tom Phillis in the 1961 Senior TT race.Story of the Domiracer, ''Classic Racer'', Autumn 1988, pp.52-57 Accessed 4 February 2018 In 1962 the factory developed a Lowboy with a 350 cc Manx Norton single-cylinder engine and a 650 cc version using the Dominator 650SS engine but with a full-height Manx frame, both as tried by Derek Minter.

In 1962 the race shop closed and was sold to Paul Dunstall, who had already developed his own Norton Dominator-engined race machine campaigned by Fred Neville (deceased 1961) and Dave Downer (deceased 1963). Dunstall successfully developed 500, 650 and 750 versions, later producing a Lowboy frame kits sold to the general public. After the Dunstall organisation closed in the early 1980s, other specialists offered the Lowboy frame.The Minter Line ''Motor Cycle'', 4 October 1962 pp.406-409. Accessed 28 January 2018

Single and Twin cylinder roadsters in Featherbeds

Having earlier installed the Dominator twin-cylinder engine of 500 cc and 600 cc, in 1959 Norton put the old single cylinder Model 50 (350 cc) and the ES2 (500 cc) into the Featherbed frame to rationalise production. Using grade A mild steel, the size of this engine determined the space between the top and bottom rails of the full duplex cradle. In 1960 the top rails were installed at the rear of the tank. Riders complained that these ''wideline'' Featherbed frames were uncomfortably wide at but it was not until 1960 that the top runs of the frame were narrowed towards the front of the seat, with corresponding overall styling changes including tank and seat to create the ''slimline'' frame.

The slimline was used until the last of the vertical twin cylinder models in the late 1960s, the Norton Mercury, a limited-production run of single carburettor 650 cc machines based on the Dominator; ''Motorcycle Mechanics'', May 1969, p.63 SHOWTIME. ''Show scene '69. "Last of the traditional Nortons is the 647 cc Mercury. This machine has the Commando type cylinder head and single carburettor, producing 47 bhp. A rev counter and stainless steel mudguards are available as extras"''. Accessed 3 January 2016 the Norton Commando with its new frame design and angled-forward engine having been launched at the Earls Court show in 1967 took over as the 750 cc range-topper, later enlarged to 830 cc, but badged as '850'.

Dresda

Dave Degens created his first hybrid motorcycle of a Triumph engine/Norton rolling chassis in 1961 when working for former racer and motorcycle race shop owner Geoff Monty, using a racing Manx Norton with a blown engine. The bike was sold before it was finished, and realising there was a potential business, in 1963 Degens bought into ''Dresda Autos'', a small scooter shop in South London together with business partner Richard 'Dickie' Boon, keeping the existing name.

Degens created what he termed as ''Dresda Triton'' from 1963, with the ''Motorcycle Mechanics road test of June 1964 stating "The firm has sold well over fifty to date ...", naming two mechanics/bike builders in addition to Degens, who was a regular short-circuit road racer, having ridden for Monty and Paul Dunstall on his ex-works 500 cc Norton Domiracer with lowboy frame designed by Doug Hele in the 1963 and 1964 Manx Grands Prix. ''Motorcycle Mechanics'', June 1964, pp.28-29, and 58 "''MM's fastest road test! The fabulous 126 mph Dresda Triton''". Accessed 16 January 2018

In 1970, racer and bike shop owner Dave Degens produced his first bespoke ''Dresda'' frame, after his business name ''Dresda Autos''. Based on the geometry of the smaller-capacity (250 cc/350 cc) Aermacchis he had previously raced, the new frame had tube runs and layout based on the Featherbed, but with upscaled proportions to allow for the use of taller, heavier, more-powerful 650 cc parallel twin cylinder engines, similar to his 1965 Barcelona 24-hour endurance race-winning ''Dresda Triton''. The new bike used Degens' later development of a unit construction race-prepared Triumph engine, unlike the earlier models having a separate engine and gearbox.

The new configuration won the 1970 Barcelona 24-hour race, reprising Degens' 1965 win. After this success, French motorcycle dealer Japauto commissioned Degens to build a bespoke race-frame for the still-new Honda CB750 four-cylinder engine that had been specially enlarged for racing to 900 cc. This machine won the 1972 Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance race.

Degens subsequently offered frame kits for self-builders using Triumph and Honda engines, and also produced complete machines for road-use, named ''Dresda Triumph'' and ''Dresda Honda''. ''Motorcycle Mechanics'', October 1970, pp.48-50. ''The Resurrection Man''. Accessed and added 9 November 2017 ''Bike'', December 1984, pp.48-51. Accessed and added 9 November 2017

Special hybrids

In addition to the better-known Triumph-Norton and Vincent-Norton, ''Motorcycle Mechanics'', July 1964, p.13 Next Month: What's coming in the August issue. Build a Triton. ''"We get hundreds of requests for information on how to build a Triumph/Norton hybrid. So next month we'll tell you how—...''". Accessed 8 February 2018 a small number of other hybrid motorcycles,A hybrid motorcycle consists of one manufacturer's major part(s) conjoined with other manufacturers' major components, in this case a Norton Featherbed frame basis, powered by a Triumph engine (Triton) or Vincent engine ( Norvin) or other more-obscure engines, including two-strokes sourced from boats or Saab cars sometimes known as 'specials', have been created using the featherbed frame, mostly with associated Norton-sourced, matching running gear:
* Noriel – Norton featherbed frame with Ariel Square Four engine. ''Motor Cycle'', 5 November 1964, pp.792-793 ''Featherbed Four'' – Dick Wright's four-pipe model, by David Dixon. "''No disrespect to Ariels, but there have always been enthusiastic Square Four owners who yearned for race-bred steering and roadholding. If only the 997 cc four-cylinder unit could be shoehorned into a Norton Featherbed frame...''". Accessed and added 7 February 2018 ''Motor Cycle'', 17 February 1966, Classified advertising, p.12 (supplement iv) ''Specials'' – "''1965 Noriel 1,000cc 4...£245''". E.S. Longstaff Ltd., 68 New Rd., Edmonton, London, N.9. Accessed and added 18 February 2018
* NorBSA – Norton featherbed frame with BSA 500 or 650 twin cylinder engine, or Gold Star 350 or 500 single cylinder engine. ''Motorcycle Mechanics'', July 1964, p.17 "''Can We Help You? Q. Is it possible to fit a BSA 650cc Super Rocket engine into my 1958 Norton Dominator 88 frame?...A. ...We would suggest you do not go ahead with a conversion such as this unless you have engineering experience and first-class workshop facilities. ...''". Accessed 8 February 2018
* Norley – Norton featherbed frame with Harley Davidson V-twin engine.Mecum to Auction Norley Cafe Racer Motorcycle at Original Spring Classic Event
''Motorcyclist'' online, 4 May 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2018

Notes

References

Further reading

*40 Years of the Featherbed Norton, Peter Kneale, 1990 Isle of Man TT Official Souvenir Programme, pp. 15–17

External links

Picture of Rex McCandless





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