745cc twin-cylinder Norton P11 for the North American market with AMC frame, chancase, and hubs
When Norton and AMC joined forces they produced some bad bikes and some were absolutely wicked, but most of these went to the states.
It is one of life's jolly features that in order to go out with a bang, you must, in fact, go out … The history of the Associated Motorcycles group of companies in the 60's was a history of decline. From a healthy profit of £219,000 if the 1960 trading year, their balance sheet showed an almost unbelievable loss of £350,000 at the end of 1961; a situation which plainly called for immediate remedial action!
Contrary to the popular conception that the management of the larger motorcycle concerns of the day was lethargic and complacent, the researcher finds a fair amount of evidence which suggests that blame fore the collapse of our favorite industry is no quite so easy to apportion. The decisions which were taken may not have been the correct ones, viewed with customary gifted hindsight, but that decisions were taken is plain to see. The conclusion reached by the AMC board which concerns us here is that the way to survive was to rationalize. And so they did.
To the continuing melancholy of Norton fanatics, AMC decided to close the ancient home of the marquis and transfer production of the entire Norton range from Birmingham's Bracebridge Street to the larger Woolwich home of AJS and Matchless. As sales had declined, so had the utilisation of the Woolwich site and with it the profitability of the parent company. Idle machines cost factory owners dearly and the relocation of Norton production was inevitable. Anguished bleating from 'Bracebridge is Best' Zealots cannot disguise the fact that the management of the parent company wished to survive; the fate of the subsidiaries was secondary. Anyone who has been through a company takeover will realise the truth of this!
The next stage of the inexorable process of rationalisation was the often-criticised incorporation of bits of Norton motorcycles into the AJS/Matchless range. Those who complain often conveniently forget that the excellent AMC gearbox found its way into the Norton models from 1957 … We will not concern ourselves here with the various permutations of parts that emerged from Woolwich from 1963 onwards, but will swing instead to the appearance in that year of the Norton Atlas Scrambler. This bike, with its Norton Atlas power plant and AMC cycle parts formed the basis of the forthcoming series of 'hybrid' machines.
Instead of the justifiably famous featherbed frame, the Norton Atlas Scrambler mounted its Atlas 745cc twin carb power unit in the duplex frame that was in current use in the AJS and Matchless range of twins and heavyweight singles. The engine drive the gearbox, which was already common to all three marquis, via an AMC-type cast aluminum chaincase, which had two enormous advantages over the pressed Norton effort. Firstly, it looked nice, and secondly, and slightly more importantly, it actually held in oil … Other Norton parts incorporated into this British device included the wheels and front forks, the 'Roadholders' being extended a little (compared to the units on the Dominator range) to provide at least a hint of ground clearance - the bike was called a 'scrambler' after all. Those friendly folks at Hy-Cam, whose passion for the hybrids is surely known world-wide, have uncovered the strangest fact that the 'Roadholders', as used oon the Atlas Scrambler, contained a set of internals lifted directly from the 'Telehydraulic' forks of the Matchless G80CS scramblers, which were, of course, still listed at the time. You do odd things when you're desperate …
Sadly for all of us fans of British bikes at their brutal best, the Atlas Scrambler was produced for export markets only. Why? I cannot imagine, unless AMC sales people really did think that the home market was interested only in staid tourers and café racers. If they did, who could blame them? Re-reading the press of the day supports this idea, and anyway, the trend in scramblers was towards lighter, top end performers, line the BSAs build for John Banks and the plethora of two strokes, rather than lumbering giants like the original Atlas Scrambler. Whatever, the originators of the hybrid line was not sold over here, and this writer has never seen one, more's the pity.
The launch of the 750 hybrid onto the home market waited until the appearance of the Matchless G15 Mk2 in 1964. Before you ask, the reason for the 'Mk2' designation is that there had been a short-lives G15 Matchless in 1963, which was propelled (usually briefly) by a severely overstretched AMC twin engine, developed (if that's the correct word) from the 650cc G12. Although this earlier machine allowed AMC to list a 750 in their Matchless range, it needed to be so softly tuned to avoid disaster that it was little, if at all, faster than the G12. Hence the G15 Mk2. This was a different device altogether, and for some strange reason, AMC appeared to aim is at the fast-disappearing sidecar pilot!
The AJS/Matchless range of twins for the 1964 season differed considerably from the '63 models, and incorporated an increasing number of 'Norton' components. The famous 'Teledraulic' front forks disappeared and had been replaced by a lengthened 'Road-holder' as seen a year earlier on the Atlas Scrambler. The wheels, which had shrunk from 19 inch to 18 inch a year earlier, lost their AMC pattern hubs and acquired the eight inch Norton hubs and brakes (which was no bad thing, as the Norton brake, properly set up, is a decent stopper). The G15 Mk2 also featured the Atlas engine, with its twin Monobloc carbs, magneto ignition and the ugliest tachometer driver ever seen on a motorcycle. If ever a bike didn't require a rev counter, this was it! So AMC fitted one, mounted on a functional steel bracket, next to the speedo, and driven by a cable from the outside of the timing chest. This was so prominent that it was necessary to use an armoured drive cable to prevent it burning through the right hand exhaust pipe, against which it wearily rested on its twisted path to the instrument. On a sports machine, this may have been acceptable, macho even, but on a tourer?
The pedestrian intent of the 750 was confirmed by a pair of chromed mudguards of generous dimensions, forward-mounted foot-rests and the fitting of the amazingly gripless Dunlop K70 tyres to both wheels (Dunlop did, in fact, use a rear view of the G15 in their publicity material for the K70, a tyre for which this rider has no one fond memory).
The press and public were suitably unimpressed and the road test in Motorcycle Mechanics was couched in such dull terms that I can't really understand why they bothered to ride it! Describing any machine as 'a good honest performer' and waffling on about how much better it would be if it were hitched to a chair is hardly likely to fire the acquisition urge in your average solo motorcyclist, is it? This odd approach to road testing possibly explains why any G15 appearing on the market today is likely to be a CSR variant, as it happily ignores the fact that the G15 Mk2 provides everything likely to be needed by most road riders. Judging by the small number which survive, sales were less than brilliant, although the G15 Mk2 was listed, with only detail changes (Concentric carbs appeared late in '66), until 1967, by which time the Woolwich works was producing the rather more modern Norton Commando.
Predictably, the CSR version of the biggest Matchless appeared a year later, in 1965, and appealed to the sporting chaps rather more than it unloved elder sibling. Well, it was bound to, wasn't it? Skimpy alloy mudguards, swept back exhausts, rearset footrests and drop bars reduced the practical nature of the beast as much as they increased its eye appeal! The big engine was unchanged, but the gearing was lowered slightly to improve the already impressive accelleration. Finished in a vivid metallic red, with acres of polished chrome and alloy, the G15CSR is unquestionably one beautiful motorcycle, and provided a real alternative to the BSA Spitfires and Bonnevilles of the day, both in terms of its style and its performance, which was excellent. For once, the road testers of the time were appropriately euphoric, with The Motorcycle waxing particularly enthusiastic. It was a remarkable feature of the G15CSR that its performance appeared to be considerably improved over its less glamorous Mk2 stable mate by the simple addition of the above goodies! AMC, and their successors, Norton Villiers, admitted their sales literature that both power units (compression ration of 7.6:1) and weight (426lb) were the same for both models; some additional brightwork and a heroic riding position work subtle magic indeed!
The G15CSR was listed for sale until 1968. By which time manufacture of the Commando was established and the Plumstead plant was devoted almost entirely to the production of this one model, albeit in many guises.
This may be an appropriate point at which you should be reminded of the USA … Not content with being the sole recipients of the original, and now very rare Atlas Scrambler, the American cousins were treated to their very own version of the G15CSR, which featured the scrambler styling they preferred. This machine, which is very rare indeed in this country, only a few models being offered for sale when export orders cancelled in the debacle of the final AMC crash, wore a chrome and two red gallon petrol tank like the G80CS scrambler, and a pair of high, wide and handsome (to coin a contemporary phrase) handlebars. It may not have been perfectly proportioned, unlike the home market version, but it was undeniably striking …
These US spec CSRs would appear to have been available in the UK in small numbers, when they were listed as the C15CS (or N15CS), if you preferred a Norton to a Matchless, and riding one can be a something of a sobering experience. Motorcycle Mechanics roadtested one such, which was fitted with Domiracer style silencers, rather that the open pipes favoured by our American cousins, and were plainly baffled by the beast. Their comments reflected their obvious enthusiasm for the amount of go, stop, and general machismo of the big machine, but the references to the lightweight-style handling fail to disguise their worries about its steering. A road test of one of these monsters should follow in a later edition, but this writer's brief encounter with a G15CS have been memorable indeed - mainly because of the urgent need to search out the straight bits of road. If bend-swinging is your aim, the G15CSR is by far the better bet.
The Americans, in the shape of their major importer, Joe Berliner, were able to dictate a substantial part of the AMC design and development effort. It was the US demand for more cubes which resulted in the adoption of the 750cc capacity - until the advent of the motorway network, the UK roads really didn't require 50bhp to get about smartly - and the US demand for off-road styling which pushed AMC into producing the most radical and final twitch in their fight for survival.
One of the branches of motorcycle sport which, for obvious reasons, in uncommon in the UK, is the truly heroic pastime known as desert racing. As America has a couple of decent deserts, it follows that Americans, all of whom seem to be extremely competitive, will want to race across them, and so they did, and indeed do.
One of the top bikes for this wild pursuit in the early sixties was the Matchless G86CS, the final development of the long line of AMC scramblers. In addition the well known, all alloy 50cc single power unit, with its phenomenal 12.5:1 compression ration (!), this machine held it wheels together with a beautiful lightweight frame, which was built from chrome-molybdenum steel tubing; a material which provides, at some expense, great strength and light weight. As this machine lost its competitive edge to the twin cylindered opposition, Joe Berliner (or so the story goes) persuaded Bob Blair of ZDS Motors to combine the G15 power train with the lightweight G85CS chassis to produce the final, and most sought-after hybrid - the Norton P11/P11A/Ranger 750 series. As Joe Berliner was by far and away the biggest customer for AMC machinery, the factory lost little time in accommodating his demand for factory-built machines to this specification, and the Norton (or Matchless, according to one sales brochure) P11 was made available for export for 1967 and the early part of '68.
By this time, sadly, the once great Associated Motorcycles concern had passes on to the great breakers in the sky, and the Plumstead factory wasunder the control of Denis Poore's Manganese Bronze company, being called Norton-Villers or Norton-Matchless, depending upon which material you read. While the new management recognised that the AMC (Matchless/AJS) 650 twin engine had reached the limits of its development, they soldiered on with the Dominator engine, in its current Atlas/G15 guise, while development of the Commando range was completed, and as they were traditionally desperate for cash - and especially Dollars - Joe Berliner received his final, and beautiful, hybrids. That the P11 series was viewed by the factory as a stopgap method of utilising the Plumstead production lines can be shown by the number of changes which the bike went through in its short life. Anthony Curzon, who supplied much of the information for this article, reckons that in less than two years, the P11/P11A and Ranger 750 series used no less than four types of oil tanks (two alloy, two steel); two petrol tanks (3.6 and 2.2 gallons), two types of handlebars; two types of fork internals ('desert' and 'road'); three different frames; two sets of hubs (some finned, some not); two ignition systems and two cylinder heads - late models carry Norton Commando castings. This can either be viewed as evidence of dedicated factory development engines continuously refining their bikes or as a new management clearing out all the obsolete parts of the ailing AMC concern. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Whatever the reasoning which dictated its production, few could argue that in the Norton P11, an ultimate of some kind had been achieved. Only the Royal Enfield Mk2 Interceptor offered a comparable amount of sheer brute beauty, and that was a rather less purposeful offering than Plumstead's final fling. There are so few motorcycles which bear a realistic comparison to the big Norton, that it is hard to describe just how impressive a cycle it actually is. It is tall, with a 33 inch high seat, but it is very narrow and extremely light at a quoted 381lbs (stripped down 'TT' Bonneville would weigh in at around 350lb), and the wide, braced bars supplied ensure that this bike fulfills it role as the supreme street scrambler of its day. In fact, it makes a truly mean street tool now, twenty years on. In the late sixties, in the States, it just did what it was supposed to do - it won the desert races for which it was designed, and it provided all of the lean good looks which were required by street poseurs who pretended, then as always, that they were powerful as the bikes they rode. In the UK, Motorcycle Sports acquired one for a road test and decreed that it might be just the ideal weapon for the Lands End Trial. It's hard to argue with that.
And do, it can truly be said that AMC bowed out, not without a whimper, but with a final flourish in the form of much-maligned hybrids, before the Atlas power unit was tamed and civilised in the Norton Commando, with its emphasis not on muscle but on smooth power. If you can find a hybrid, buy it - you will not be disappointed!
Someone once told me that they had spotted a P12 at a rally in Canada
Anyone developing a yen for one of the AMC/Norton hybrids should contact Paul Morin or Anthony Curzon at Hy-Cam HQ, as they will happily provide the information necessary to establish the authenticity of your find. With P11 prices now well into the thousands of pounds category, people have been known to heave any old Dominator lump into any old AMC chassis and advertise the resulting horror as a G15, and would-be owners should be careful. With a total production run of less than 5,000, 2,000 of which were P11's, and with the vast majority of them going to the states, they are rare beasts - you have been warned!
Hy-Cam can be found at 5 Frederick Close, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 2HY
Webmaster note: I apopogize for the image quality. The source material had been photo copied and was not in good shape.