1962 Norton 650/SS

A few clips of Chuck's lovely 1962 Norton 650/SS Manxman. It's such an elegant, classic looking bike and one of my favorites in the club. It's always a pleasure to see it and hear it run.

My Norton Story
Introducing oNe member, Chuck Risser

By Mike Roberts
My best friend Jim Pieper, always had a knack for finding nuggets in the classifieds. He found this 1962 Norton 650 Manxman/ 650SS in a barn in Eastern Oregon in the mid-seventies. It ran but looked like it had seen a lot of off-road work around the farm. Jim always intended to restore it, but never got around to it and it ended up languishing in his dirt basement for 15 years. I talked
him into selling it to me in 1991. I restored it and was able to show it to him before he was killed in an industrial accident a few years later.

Bob Dart of Portland did a complete frame up restoration including bodywork and paint. All the chrome bits had to be redone. It kicked over okay, but needed to be re- bored out to .060 over with new pistons and rings. The Amals were stuck but fixable. The forks needed new seals. The competition magneto had a strong spark after a good cleaning and a new set of points was added. The gearbox was in bad shape; several gears had to be replaced. The lower end got new bearings, as did the wheels. New Primary and drive chains were installed.

The seat was recovered as close to original as possible by Bright Auto Upholstery in southeast Portland. We decided on silver and black as these were the original English colors. Models imported to the US were painted several different colors. Mine was originally a robins-egg blue throughout.

The bike was 90% there when I bought it with a big box of extra parts. Most of the various parts like switch gear, springs, gears, valves, air cleaner parts, cables, lamps, grips, bearings, etc. that we needed came from the Sandy Bandit along with a lot of good advice. I still need the original flat bars, rubber tank knee pads, two passenger pegs with rubbers and the Norton will be finished.
Riding the bike is a trip as it’s a definite head turner. It’s really long-legged; slow off the line, but comes into it’s own at high rpm. Handling has a real solid feel through corners and the brakes seem adequate. It starts easy, usually two kicks. There is no choke. I seized the motor last summer at the Pacific Rim Rally, and replaced the two domed pistons with flat 8.9 to 1 pistons. It runs a heck of a lot better and the pinging disappeared. With today’s lousy gas, I would definitely recommend the low-compression pistons.

My Norton Currently has 14,000 original miles on it. I have been a member of the Norton Club since 1994.

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