Phone us on : 01235 537539
Email us at : nortonraceparts@yahoo.co.uk
Email us at : nortonraceparts@yahoo.co.uk
We have decided to introduce a new addition to our business this year under the name of Featherbed Motorcycles England. This service will be available from March 2024. We will be offering revamporations. In other words not restorations to original specification, but restoring and revamping classics into café racers for our customers.
We design all of our parts to a very high standard. All welded parts are welded by a coded welder, and machining is carried out on the latest high tech Hurco CNC machinery. With over 40 years of professional experience as a time served mechanic, and tyre fitter, including working as a fabricator/welder & machining engineer for the TWR racing team, we have a good in depth knowledge and experience in many fields. All of our fabrication, machining, welding, paint spraying, seat upholstery & mechanical work is carried out in house with our specialist team of experts.
We will be specialising in Wideline & Slimline framed café racers housing classic Norton and Triumph engines, as well as 883 & 1200 Sportsters. We have already prototyped a 1200S Sportster, prices will be available soon for the Sportster conversion. If you are interested in us building a café racer for you, please contact us on the email or number above.
We design all of our parts to a very high standard. All welded parts are welded by a coded welder, and machining is carried out on the latest high tech Hurco CNC machinery. With over 40 years of professional experience as a time served mechanic, and tyre fitter, including working as a fabricator/welder & machining engineer for the TWR racing team, we have a good in depth knowledge and experience in many fields. All of our fabrication, machining, welding, paint spraying, seat upholstery & mechanical work is carried out in house with our specialist team of experts.
We will be specialising in Wideline & Slimline framed café racers housing classic Norton and Triumph engines, as well as 883 & 1200 Sportsters. We have already prototyped a 1200S Sportster, prices will be available soon for the Sportster conversion. If you are interested in us building a café racer for you, please contact us on the email or number above.
Harley 1200S Sportster Café Racer
We have found that a number of our customers are finding it difficult to kick start their Classic Café Racers. We will be offering a new service for complete Café Racer bike builds. We have prototyped, tested and built our Harley Davidson 1200 S Sportster for our customers who want a classic 60's looking Café Racer with electric start, easy starting & reliability, along with modern brakes and indicators.
The Sportster is a well proven engine that returns very high mileage when looked after properly. Not only do they sound awesome, they cost less to build than a Norvin. Standard & tuning parts are readily available and they have more horsepower and torque to boot.
All of the parts we have designed & manufactured are specifically for a Sportster, the petrol tank, seat & everything else is not a universal version adapted, it is purpose built solely for a Sportster by us.
Below is a very short video of the Sportsters initial start up. We will be making more walk around, and riding videos this year to show the full potential and delight of this epic Café Racer. Below are the before & after pictures and below that is an explanation of what we do when we build a bike for a customer.
Click the link below to see our new Sportster Café Racer on it's initial start up.
https://youtu.be/CJLT44gl0kQ
We have found that a number of our customers are finding it difficult to kick start their Classic Café Racers. We will be offering a new service for complete Café Racer bike builds. We have prototyped, tested and built our Harley Davidson 1200 S Sportster for our customers who want a classic 60's looking Café Racer with electric start, easy starting & reliability, along with modern brakes and indicators.
The Sportster is a well proven engine that returns very high mileage when looked after properly. Not only do they sound awesome, they cost less to build than a Norvin. Standard & tuning parts are readily available and they have more horsepower and torque to boot.
All of the parts we have designed & manufactured are specifically for a Sportster, the petrol tank, seat & everything else is not a universal version adapted, it is purpose built solely for a Sportster by us.
Below is a very short video of the Sportsters initial start up. We will be making more walk around, and riding videos this year to show the full potential and delight of this epic Café Racer. Below are the before & after pictures and below that is an explanation of what we do when we build a bike for a customer.
Click the link below to see our new Sportster Café Racer on it's initial start up.
https://youtu.be/CJLT44gl0kQ
Before & After Pictures of the Sportster
Harley 1200 S Café Racer Conversion (carb model)
The customer supplies a motorcycle to be converted into a café racer. Work carried out would be as follows.
We manufacture and supply the following new parts and carry out all of the mechanical work needed to complete the build. Parts are as follows:
Mechanical work carried out:
Other work can be carried out as optional extras, i.e. polishing front forks, yokes, alloy wheels, calipers, or any other parts. Tyre fitting, brake pad renewal etc.
We are currently calculating a price for the work listed above. Due to us being able to reduce our overheads we think we may be able to produce a bike like this at a very competetive price. We anticipate the build to take around three months. We would be able to invoice a third of the bill per month, or invoice it in two parts so the customer does not have the full outlay in one payment; sadly we would need paying for each instalment of the build as the work is carried out. This would be necessary due to the length of time we would need to complete the build. We could not work for 3 months without any income.
We will of course supply an estimate before the build starts. This would need to be agreed by the customer. We charge £25.00 per hour for our mechanical labour. All the parts we make and fit will have a 12 month warranty safe guard if they were to fail or not function for the purpose they were intended. We will rectify the fault if we are responsible for the failure.
Special notes:
- Road test the donor bike to make sure everything functions and operates as it should. Make the customer aware of any faults and correct if agreed. Any faults rectified would cost extra and would not be included in the build.
- Remove front mudguard, handlebars and riser assembly, front & rear indicators and brackets, front brake hose(s), Front brake master cylinder and clutch lever assembly, throttle twist grip and throttle cables, mirrors, clock(s), headlamp assembly and top shroud, petrol tank, air filter assembly complete, entire exhaust system with rear silencer mounting bracket, rear master cylinder, front and pillion footrests, seat & sissy bar, rear mudguard & hugger.
- Original parts that the owner would get back would be the front mudguard, front brake hoses, headlamp assembly and shroud, handlebars and risers, indicators and brackets, mirrors, petrol tank, entire exhaust system and mounting bracket except for the front pipe collars and head clamps, entire air filter assembly, front and rear footrests, seat & sissy bar, rear mudguard, rear light and number plate holder and rear brake pedal.
We manufacture and supply the following new parts and carry out all of the mechanical work needed to complete the build. Parts are as follows:
- Front alloy mudguard sprayed a single colour or polished.
- Front alloy ‘Y’ brackets, polished and fitted with stainless fasteners plus stainless rubber lined ‘P’ clips to secure front brake hoses.
- Stainless braided and covered front brake hoses, certified & tested to 3000 psi with all stainless banjos and bolts.
- Alloy billet machined anodised black clip-ons, machined to accept the wiring inside the handle bar.
- Harley Breakout CVO black mirrors.
- Alloy headlamp brackets and stainless fasteners with alloy spacers.
- Lucas 7” chrome plain shell headlamp.
- Cat’s eye front indicators with powder coated black steel indicator brackets, polished alloy spacers and stainless fasteners which are bottom yoke clamp bolts. Top yoke clamp bolts replaced with stainless fasteners.
- Alloy clock carrier, polished, which will accept the relocated ignition switch from it’s original position.
- 4 gallon alloy fuel tank, with 2” Monza cap, sprayed a single colour with pin stripe lines and Harley decals or polished with Harley decals. Original petrol tap will be used in the tank.
- Stainless faux tank strap.
- Petrol tank fitting kit, and vent pipe.
- Carburettor velocity stack with stainless 3mm gauze and air filter foam.
- Stainless front - front pipe & rear front pipe & 2 into 1 collector. We purge weld all of the joints and then linish the welds. The pipes are polished to a mirror finish.
- Chrome rear silencer, reverse cone mega or short Norton peashooter, both are silenced.
- Alloy polished right hand rearset mounting bracket with stainless fasteners.
- Steel (powder coated black) left hand Rearset mounting bracket with stainless fasteners & polished alloy bracket bolted on to match the other side.
- Indexable alloy rearsets which can be adjusted by 8.54 degrees to suit rider’s feet position on the toe pegs. Stainless actuator arm on the gear change pedal with correct fulcrum length of 100mm for accurate gear changing travel on the Rearset gear change pedal. The original gear change pedal is used with the toe peg removed. The gear change rod is polished stainless with special polished alloy solid clevises with lube holes and stainless set bolts that act as pivots.
- 3mm heavy duty alloy seat unit, sprayed single colour, pinstriped with NRP decal (customer’s choice) or polished and pinstriped. Comes with polished stainless number plate bracket, polished alloy indicator bracket, Miller rear light unit, cat’s eye indicators & stainless fasteners. Upholstery in 4 way stretch black vinyl. Other colours are available on request. Leather can be used at an additional cost.
- Seat fitting kit, comes with stainless fasteners, bespoke indicator relay bracket, steel, powder coated black.
- 3mm rubber hugger for under seat and frame protection.
Mechanical work carried out:
- Road test and remove all the parts listed in the first section.
- Remove battery.
- Fit all of the new parts listed above.
- Other work needed is some modification to the wiring. The front headlamp wiring block connectors are removed, then the wiring is fed through the clip-ons, then covered with shrink wrap to stop water ingress into the handle bars. The headlamp wiring connectors are refitted in the headlamp and connected to the appropriate bulbs etc. This applies to both sides of the handlebars
- Re-route the clutch cable.
- The front brake lines are fitted and the brakes are re-bled with DOT 5 brake fluid.
- Remove the throttle inner cables and replace with new inner cable. Shorten outer throttle conduit to suit clip-ons, new nipples soldered in. Fit throttle cables and check operation.
- Relocate ignition switch to clock carrier position, extend the wiring loom to suit and protect with shrink wrap tubing.
- Remove and modify coil mounting bracket and re-fit to allow correct fitment of petrol tank. Drill and tap frame back bone and Loctite one M8 mounting stud for the front tank mount and faux tank strap. Fit petrol tank rubber mounting kit. Drill and tap M6 hole in seat mounting bracket for the rear tank mount and tank strap.
- Remove rear drive engine cover and fit rearset right hand mounting bracket, rear brake master cylinder, original rear brake hose and right hand rearset. Bleed rear brake with DOT 5 brake fluid.
- Fit exhaust system and silencer with polished alloy mounting bracket.
- Cut off rear sub frame mudguard mounting brackets, prime and spray the cut surface of the frame.
- Fit indicator relay bracket under the seat, fit petrol tank, faux tank strap, seat mounting kit and the seat.
- Modify rear wiring harness, using Landrover super seal connectors (will not allow water ingress up to 1 metre in water!). Fit wiring to cable clips under the seat hump.
- Remove lower rear engine mount bolts and fit left hand rearset mounting bracket with stainless fasteners.
- Fit left hand rearsets and check operation.
- Re-fit battery and test lighting, brake lights, indicators, horn, ignition etc.
- Fuel bike and test start. Warm the engine up to working temperature and carry out CO content (carbon monoxide content) exhaust emission reading with the gas analyser. Correct mixture if needed.
- Road test motorcycle, check for leaks, and the function of all parts etc. Correct if necessary.
- MOT’s can be carried out if necessary.
Other work can be carried out as optional extras, i.e. polishing front forks, yokes, alloy wheels, calipers, or any other parts. Tyre fitting, brake pad renewal etc.
We are currently calculating a price for the work listed above. Due to us being able to reduce our overheads we think we may be able to produce a bike like this at a very competetive price. We anticipate the build to take around three months. We would be able to invoice a third of the bill per month, or invoice it in two parts so the customer does not have the full outlay in one payment; sadly we would need paying for each instalment of the build as the work is carried out. This would be necessary due to the length of time we would need to complete the build. We could not work for 3 months without any income.
We will of course supply an estimate before the build starts. This would need to be agreed by the customer. We charge £25.00 per hour for our mechanical labour. All the parts we make and fit will have a 12 month warranty safe guard if they were to fail or not function for the purpose they were intended. We will rectify the fault if we are responsible for the failure.
Special notes:
- The rear sub-frame mudguard mounting brackets are cut off the frame. This means the frame would no longer be able to mount the original rear mudguard as there would be no support for it.
- Due to the amount of hardware removed there will be a significant weight reduction to the motorcycle. We weighed every part we removed, against any replacements that were fitted and found that we had reduced the weight by a staggering 22 kilos that’s 48.5 lbs, (3.46 stone). In context, a Slimline frame weighs 18 kilos.