@flip flop, I know exactly where you're coming from. To make matters worse, with this blasted pandemic, it's been over a year since I've seen my last road race.
@@Noke28, some advice from a 55yr old biker to a 19yr old biker. I've had lots of bike accidents and broke many bones, had many friends killed off bikes and all mainly due to driving too fast but luckily, I lived to tell the tale. Bikes are great fun and I absolutely love them but know your limitations as a rider, you might think your Marc Marquez but those guys do it on a track where it's safe. Keep your bike in good condition, your life could depend on it and don't take unnecessary chances on the road coz there's too many morons out there who don't know how to drive and will kill you. The more experience you get, the better rider you'll be.
@@emmams5 thank you very much for your advice! Fortunately I'm not born with an adrenaline addiction so I'm a moderate rider considering speed and I enjoy a relaxing cruise far more than high speed racing. I'm always cautious and keep the risk in mind and I only ride with a maximum of like 30% of my ability. Thank you very much again!
The sound...........beautiful. The bike was known as a bit of a handful but he was throwing t around nicely there through the twistys. Great to see these clips and hope to see many more 🙏
I think the Japanese manufactures felt a bit threatened by this bike. That’s why they all threatened to withdraw from WSB series if this bike was declared eligible, omg it was fast , thanks for the good times jps Norton
@@donniebunkerboi9975 Donnie I have been heavily involved in motorcycles for the past 50 years , there was a time when it was only Norton on the podium, and it took many years for the Japanese manufacturers to fill the podium , they really didn't want Norton to make a comeback , and they did all threaten to withdraw from wsb which started In 1988 , and was a huge success , so without the Japanese it would be a single manufacturers series , Norton only , so they had to disqualify the Norton before the end of the season so none of points would count for the championship , it's all true Donnie
I remember seeing these at Cadwell, and asking for Robert Dunlops autograph. I would only have been about 8 years old. 😁 Will never forget it. Fantastic times.
Remember seeing Trevor Nation at Brands hatch , the bike certainly had a different sound to the rest of the field and couldn’t believe how tall Trevor Nation was either .
These were a joy to watch. You could see a red glow up the pipe as they wheelied up the straight at knockhill they produced so much heat. The later ones had to have twin shocks cos the pipe cooked the single shocker in the middle. Genius stuff.
That isn't the reason why some of the race bikes had twin shocks. It was nothing to do with the exhaust overheating of the monoshock but all about controlling the rear wheel better. The twin shock system was always Brian Crighton's preferred suspension system.
I met one of these in Scotland, in the back of a garage. I went nuts. My mate thought I was nuts enough, but saw me flip out over seeing this. He didnt know, and the owner I never met. Enigmatic!
Walking in the paddocks of Francorchamps, I had heard a very particular sound, so I looked for where it could well come from, and there, here is the beast that appears...Wow, The rotary Norton, I had never seen it nor heard! What music, once on the magnificent circuit of Francorchamps, what delight I still have the hairs that stand up to hear it on my computer. Too bad that for gloomy pretexts of displacement it has disappeared from the circuits... Thanks for the extract
Big Trevor Nation and Robert Dunlop on the rotary Nortons is something I will always remember. I watched them at the NW200 and UGP during their era. Although I always liked to see Joey beating them on the RC30. 😄
At the IOM TT 1992 saw Steve Hislop on the Norton rotary beat Carl Fogarty in the Senior race. First time in yonks that a Brit on a Brit bike had won it! Great spectacle great sound!!🏍😃
Development riders use to pop into the car park at the holy bush in Little Hay. Beautiful. First time i ever saw motorbike mirrors that did not shake and vibrate at idle.
I remember seeing them around Burntwood. The Motorway Police (remember them) station in Brownhills was also a great place to spot development road bikes.
Centrifugal forces from the twin rotors made them a handful but the power used to rip them past the opposition,used to rip the gearboxes up, and spray oil. But what a bike 😱😱 I have been there at the T.T. Steve spray, Robert Dunlop Trevor nation 👍👍
We see them at Snetterton going like fook past everything on the straight, but when they where at Cadwell going into Hall bends throwing flames out of the exhaust was something else. Steve Spray and Trevor Nation👊👊
Was amazing Steve spray bought the bike to New Zealand where I live in the mid 2000s maybe 2010 or something to the classic festival at one of our race tracks. He was a lovely chap and rode the bike amazingly despite it coming straight out of the museum to come to the race meeting ! Man did it scream and was amazing performance
Yes, especially when he hit the less than perfect tarmac. Folks tend to forget that this is called "road racing" for a reason. Those men are not riding on a smooth, purpose built racing surface. Tricky business right there.
A brilliant engine only let down by bad handling but the young Dunlop and Nation truly tried to tame the beast in absolutely epic style these men had balls of Titanium 💯🔥💯🏁
As an engine freak I just loved to see the underdogs wooping everything, true engineering genius from Brian Crighton, then the sound in the Isle of Man OMG, well the bug got me and I ended up finding a Hercules W2000 with a perfect low miles rotor. Its not fast but its so much fun how it goes and sounds. The owners DKW gave up after 2,000 bikes and sold the tooling to?.................Norton! So I ended up with 1/2 a Norton as the Norton doubled up the Hercs 294cc single rotor to make the 588cc.
First bikes to hit 200mph at the NW200! But lordy, do I love 2 strokes.... Listen to the Mazda Rotary GP car at full tilt boozo wicked sounding. Love these Duke Vids.
Felix Wankel was a genius! Todays great minds have improved on the engine and you can have an ultra reliable 1000hp rotary engine in a daily driven car....if you can afford it!
@@franktechmaniac7488 well who the fuck wasn't a nazi in pre-WWII Germany? Get over the nazi thing dude. Everybody was one. Very few were not. Just like you would've been had you lived in Germany in the 1930s.
@@plantfeeder6677 Like in any dictatorship, the Nazi party NSDAP took the people as hostages and killed the ones daring to contradict their ideology. Does your stereotyped mind recognize any similarities to other countries ruled by dictators? Are all North Korean fanatic communists?
@@franktechmaniac7488 95% are. How could you possibly profess to know what the German people thought unless YOU WERE THERE. History books don't tell the truth from the German perspective. They lost. The loser NEVER writes history. It is you who stereotypes history. I'm not here to defend but to put in perspective. In Germany 95% of the people were happy Hitler came to be. The other 5% were running for their lives.
I remember these animals when they came out!! Stupidly fast! Hears a bit of a (possibly) oddball question; Having never ridden an RE5 even though my friend had one in high school, does a rotary engine provide compression braking?
The RE-5 was what we might call a 500 cc Thumper. My RE-5 provided plenty of compression braking. In the last years, when my starters had blown up, I had to kick-start the beast. Ugh!!!
@@charleswilson2134 we managed to flatten the battery on the Re5 and i had to kick start it and your right it was like a 500cc single, (i could stand on lever) lol i had to start it a few times but i don't really remember much in the way of engine breaking nice bike and underrated classic
@@creepingjesus5106 The RE5 was a joke, these beasts have more in common with the Mazda engine, it was Mazda who sorted their main problems out, the Suzuki RE5 was a joke bike at best.
@@georgebarnes8163 You're absolutely right, and I picked the Suzuki over Mazda on a whim. Of all the firms to develop rotaries, only Mazda and Norton made a decent go at it, and to production. Merc and Citroen thought better of it, but to my knowledge only Suzuki made such an arse of it.
They were wankel rotary engines in a Yamaha Fzr 750 or 1000 frames. Not much to do with Norton parts wise except for assembling and making them race ready etc. Great bikes though
@@Welderady the entire frames were Spondon units not Yamaha, the wheels were manufactured by Dymag and engines were manufactured by Norton and based on their road going police rotary. Wankel is the name of the German who invented the engine and he never made a single engine yet.
I remember asking John mcguinness what is the TT like he said come and see I did now I have the bug seeing I live in Morecambe home to the Morecambe missile
2 interesting facts of the era, Norton tried to bring the bikes to Bike mecca Matlock Bath but was refused by the council, as it could encourage smoking. Team sponsored by a tobacco company.. Second fact, Matlock police had 2 Norton rotary patrol bikes..
Wankel Rotary: The red-headed stepchild of internal combustion engines. Brilliant concept, for sure. But it's too loud, too thirsty, too dirty, makes too much exhaust heat, and makes too little low-RPM torque to be of much practical use. Pretty much EVERY engine manufacturer made prototypes in the early 70s, almost NONE of which ever saw the light of day. Like the turbine Indy Car engine, it was a technical dead-end for motor companies. This Norton was predestined to get banned.
I was an older teen at that time, and the noise of those Nortons just makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up to this day!!!
For 3 minutes I was 25 again, ah well, back to being 58......
@flip flop, I know exactly where you're coming from. To make matters worse, with this blasted pandemic, it's been over a year since I've seen my last road race.
@@emmams5 just remember what the great ogri said, "stuff everything I've always got me bike ! " plus pubs are open soon !!
I'm 19 and just got my first Motorcycle last year! I have a whole life on 2 wheels before me! Best hobby in the world!
@@Noke28, some advice from a 55yr old biker to a 19yr old biker. I've had lots of bike accidents and broke many bones, had many friends killed off bikes and all mainly due to driving too fast but luckily, I lived to tell the tale. Bikes are great fun and I absolutely love them but know your limitations as a rider, you might think your Marc Marquez but those guys do it on a track where it's safe. Keep your bike in good condition, your life could depend on it and don't take unnecessary chances on the road coz there's too many morons out there who don't know how to drive and will kill you. The more experience you get, the better rider you'll be.
@@emmams5 thank you very much for your advice! Fortunately I'm not born with an adrenaline addiction so I'm a moderate rider considering speed and I enjoy a relaxing cruise far more than high speed racing.
I'm always cautious and keep the risk in mind and I only ride with a maximum of like 30% of my ability.
Thank you very much again!
I remember watching the TT when Hislop won on that thing...couldnt believe it. thanks for the post. rip Steve
@Uncle Gilbert Hizzy was from Scotland...and I dont think he ever wrote an article about anything. Ian on the other hand...are you high btw? lol
Maybe the best IOM race ever cheers
The sound...........beautiful. The bike was known as a bit of a handful but he was throwing t around nicely there through the twistys. Great to see these clips and hope to see many more 🙏
I think the Japanese manufactures felt a bit threatened by this bike. That’s why they all threatened to withdraw from WSB series if this bike was declared eligible, omg it was fast , thanks for the good times jps Norton
Yeah if you can't beat them make them illegal.
@@donniebunkerboi9975 No? Look at the turbine Indy car from the sixties, no one could touch it so they banned it.🙄
@@donniebunkerboi9975 Donnie I have been heavily involved in motorcycles for the past 50 years , there was a time when it was only Norton on the podium, and it took many years for the Japanese manufacturers to fill the podium , they really didn't want Norton to make a comeback , and they did all threaten to withdraw from wsb which started In 1988 , and was a huge success , so without the Japanese it would be a single manufacturers series , Norton only , so they had to disqualify the Norton before the end of the season so none of points would count for the championship , it's all true Donnie
@@donniebunkerboi9975 yes
@@donniebunkerboi9975 yes. Even satan himself agrees.
30 YEARS AGO !!! Where has the time gone!
They sound like a cross between a 2 stroke and a 4 stroke.
Such a marvelous screem...... 🧡🏍🏁
Scream
I remember the Nortons well at the North West. Awesome sound and flames from the pipe when they lifted off the throttle.
They looked and sounded so good, plus i love trevor nations all action style
I remember seeing these at Cadwell, and asking for Robert Dunlops autograph. I would only have been about 8 years old. 😁 Will never forget it. Fantastic times.
used to see Steve Spray, Trevor Nation race these at Truxton in Hants , what a noise ! wish Norton could make something like these now .
Remember seeing Trevor Nation at Brands hatch , the bike certainly had a different sound to the rest of the field and couldn’t believe how tall Trevor Nation was either .
A special time in road racing cheers
Them Nortons were fantastic. I was there as a kid with my dad and it brings back memories. Hopefully the North West will be on next year.
Nice video.
that norton was quite a handfull, great racing
These were a joy to watch. You could see a red glow up the pipe as they wheelied up the straight at knockhill they produced so much heat. The later ones had to have twin shocks cos the pipe cooked the single shocker in the middle. Genius stuff.
I had a rotary powered RX7. The owners manual said to avoid dry fields as they risk seating them on fire. The exhaust gas from a rotary is really hot!
I'm glad you posted that as I thought I had dreamt the orange glow up the exhaust!
That isn't the reason why some of the race bikes had twin shocks. It was nothing to do with the exhaust overheating of the monoshock but all about controlling the rear wheel better. The twin shock system was always Brian Crighton's preferred suspension system.
The Great Sound from Rotary Motorbike 🏍️🏁🇩🇪
I met one of these in Scotland, in the back of a garage. I went nuts. My mate thought I was nuts enough, but saw me flip out over seeing this. He didnt know, and the owner I never met. Enigmatic!
What an amazing sound. So unique.
Amazing bike I’m proud that comes from Europe and the sound hoooligan totally ✊✊✊
Thanks great clip !!!
Walking in the paddocks of Francorchamps, I had heard a very particular sound, so I looked for where it could well come from, and there, here is the beast that appears...Wow, The rotary Norton, I had never seen it nor heard! What music, once on the magnificent circuit of Francorchamps, what delight I still have the hairs that stand up to hear it on my computer. Too bad that for gloomy pretexts of displacement it has disappeared from the circuits... Thanks for the extract
That opening sequence is freakin' awesome!
Big Trevor Nation and Robert Dunlop on the rotary Nortons is something I will always remember. I watched them at the NW200 and UGP during their era.
Although I always liked to see Joey beating them on the RC30. 😄
At the IOM TT 1992 saw Steve Hislop on the Norton rotary beat Carl Fogarty in the Senior race. First time in yonks that a Brit on a Brit bike had won it! Great spectacle great sound!!🏍😃
Development riders use to pop into the car park at the holy bush in Little Hay. Beautiful. First time i ever saw motorbike mirrors that did not shake and vibrate at idle.
I remember seeing them around Burntwood. The Motorway Police (remember them) station in Brownhills was also a great place to spot development road bikes.
Centrifugal forces from the twin rotors made them a handful but the power used to rip them past the opposition,used to rip the gearboxes up, and spray oil. But what a bike 😱😱 I have been there at the T.T.
Steve spray, Robert Dunlop Trevor nation 👍👍
I was so proud as a British kid growing up knowing we where winning , 🇬🇧🏴
Won the IOM Senior TT.
Terrific stuff
Seen one at faugheen 50, awesomeness on 2 wheels!
Seen this lots at nw200 ugp etc. Utterly amazing note...
Besides the miracle of technology - this has been a real skilled driver !!
That first clip captured speed perfectly
We see them at Snetterton going like fook past everything on the straight, but when they where at Cadwell going into Hall bends throwing flames out of the exhaust was something else. Steve Spray and Trevor Nation👊👊
Was amazing Steve spray bought the bike to New Zealand where I live in the mid 2000s maybe 2010 or something to the classic festival at one of our race tracks. He was a lovely chap and rode the bike amazingly despite it coming straight out of the museum to come to the race meeting ! Man did it scream and was amazing performance
jesus wept listen to that thing go, sounds fucking immense!
@1:10 Just a incredible display of command over ones machine.
Yes, especially when he hit the less than perfect tarmac. Folks tend to forget that this is called "road racing" for a reason. Those men are not riding on a smooth, purpose built racing surface. Tricky business right there.
It´s 1 good thing with the pandemic ! TH-camrs, uploading new grate videos! Thanks!
How Steve hislop won on one of those around the tt wow
I was sat on the wall just after Ago's Leap watching that race. Remember it coming past with no front mudguard. The noise it made was so unique.
The Mazda 787b that won le mans has to be one of
the best sounding racing cars ever amazing
A brilliant engine only let down by bad handling but the young Dunlop and Nation truly tried to tame the beast in absolutely epic style these men had balls of Titanium 💯🔥💯🏁
not according to Dunlop, he said it was the best handling race bike he had ever ridden.
What a sound awsome the best of british.
These guys look like their trying to play the piano while wrestling a pig all on top of an airplane wing. True superhuman.
Cadwell Park. Mountain section.
Spitting flames on the overrun!
Bliss...
What a sound👍👍👍👍👍,and trevor rides very well.
The "Mighty Micro" and older brother Joey. Robert was a fast rider, and that Norton was no slouch.
Ride 3 got it pretty accurate!
As an engine freak I just loved to see the underdogs wooping everything, true engineering genius from Brian Crighton, then the sound in the Isle of Man OMG, well the bug got me and I ended up finding a Hercules W2000 with a perfect low miles rotor. Its not fast but its so much fun how it goes and sounds. The owners DKW gave up after 2,000 bikes and sold the tooling to?.................Norton! So I ended up with 1/2 a Norton as the Norton doubled up the Hercs 294cc single rotor to make the 588cc.
Went to t.t races just to watch and hear these awesome bikes
First bikes to hit 200mph at the NW200! But lordy, do I love 2 strokes.... Listen to the Mazda Rotary GP car at full tilt boozo wicked sounding. Love these Duke Vids.
R.I.P. Robert Dunlop
Trevor nation and Steve spray great pair on the Norton I was only a kid at the time
Sounds marvelous!
Rc30 didn't sound bad at all. Love sound of the rotary
My dad and his mate nearly missed the ferry once, because they stayed listening to these bikes a bit too long.
Felix Wankel was a genius! Todays great minds have improved on the engine and you can have an ultra reliable 1000hp rotary engine in a daily driven car....if you can afford it!
Hus genius was limited to a very narrow field. Otherwise he was an arrogant mean character and a Nazi.
Good luck with that. If you can afford to keep buying engines.
@@franktechmaniac7488 well who the fuck wasn't a nazi in pre-WWII Germany? Get over the nazi thing dude. Everybody was one. Very few were not. Just like you would've been had you lived in Germany in the 1930s.
@@plantfeeder6677 Like in any dictatorship, the Nazi party NSDAP took the people as hostages and killed the ones daring to contradict their ideology. Does your stereotyped mind recognize any similarities to other countries ruled by dictators? Are all North Korean fanatic communists?
@@franktechmaniac7488 95% are. How could you possibly profess to know what the German people thought unless YOU WERE THERE. History books don't tell the truth from the German perspective. They lost. The loser NEVER writes history. It is you who stereotypes history. I'm not here to defend but to put in perspective. In Germany 95% of the people were happy Hitler came to be. The other 5% were running for their lives.
Were just shy of my entrance into the moto world... but echos were still heard...
Of the Norton, of course :)
INSANE! Absolutely awesome
Wonderfully aggressive bikes.. What a noise!
For 3 minutes...I just died and was in heaven 😍
The pioneer of motor side cam.
That cornering at 1:00 wow
Modern bikes are very light and nimble to be doing it on that square heavy thing is even more impressive
AMAZING RIDING 💯👍🏾
Sorry officer, I think I might have been a little over the speed limit, 31, 32?
132? Err...whoops!
Sounds amazing. I use to have a gorgeous RX7.
That was a handful😮
Wow, that speed was nuts.
The old cam makes it more terrifying
Great bike and great rider both sadly missed
🇸🇨 Thank You!
Best no stroke sound in the world.
I remember these animals when they came out!! Stupidly fast! Hears a bit of a (possibly) oddball question; Having never ridden an RE5 even though my friend had one in high school, does a rotary engine provide compression braking?
Apparently they're like a two stroke so ....not that much
Not much engine breaking just a whining sound
very much like a 2stroke motor
The RE-5 was what we might call a 500 cc Thumper. My RE-5 provided plenty of compression braking. In the last years, when my starters had blown up, I had to kick-start the beast. Ugh!!!
@@charleswilson2134
we managed to flatten the battery on the Re5 and i had to kick start it and your right it was like a 500cc single, (i could stand on lever) lol
i had to start it a few times but i don't really remember much in the way of engine breaking
nice bike and underrated classic
I rode one professionally. Not much!
This bike is awesome, thw brits know how to drive. 😈
Sounds better than any 2 stroke,
Would standard, off the shelf sports bikes keep up with these old bikes? Cheers
Pero, ¿a cuantas revoluciones va està Norton?
Brilliant.
fantastic memories Nortons awseome bikes not your normal bike
Anyone know the function of the plastic pipe going to the exhaust on these?
Known as the exhaust ejector system. It was used to draw cool air through parts of the engine to keep the rotors cooler.
Oh Norton, where for art thou?
What was joey on there the RC30 or the RC45
I was there. And at the TT when they were ruled out
Sounds gorgeous
Did these have anything to do with Honda looks and sound very similar to an old cbr 400
Nope. They're Wankel rotary engines, more in common with the Suzuki RE5!
@@creepingjesus5106 The RE5 was a joke, these beasts have more in common with the Mazda engine, it was Mazda who sorted their main problems out, the Suzuki RE5 was a joke bike at best.
@@georgebarnes8163 You're absolutely right, and I picked the Suzuki over Mazda on a whim.
Of all the firms to develop rotaries, only Mazda and Norton made a decent go at it, and to production. Merc and Citroen thought better of it, but to my knowledge only Suzuki made such an arse of it.
They were wankel rotary engines in a Yamaha Fzr 750 or 1000 frames. Not much to do with Norton parts wise except for assembling and making them race ready etc. Great bikes though
@@Welderady the entire frames were Spondon units not Yamaha, the wheels were manufactured by Dymag and engines were manufactured by Norton and based on their road going police rotary. Wankel is the name of the German who invented the engine and he never made a single engine yet.
Sounds of a jet engine - What is the difference between riding a bike and doing aerobatics - just sit back and watch.
I would propose Mazda community to make a turbo version of this and then challenge the ninja h2r
They went very well for a bike under 600cc 😊
Unusual technique by today's standard - he is moving his butt but the upper body stays in the middle.
I noticed that, too. I was going to accuse them of crossing up, but maybe that's not really what they're doing.
Robert leading Joey at the North West?
🙌🏿
Michael Dunlop legend
Were they single or twin rotar engine?
Twin rotors
man thats impressiffe fast azz
Que sinfonia.
I remember asking John mcguinness what is the TT like he said come and see I did now I have the bug seeing I live in Morecambe home to the Morecambe missile
What was the top speed on these?
Is this the north west 200 ???
Bit off controversy with these machines,what cc where they 588 or 1200? Bit of a cheat really,still sounded nice!
1:15 , 1:52, 2:30, little did he know, his little foot movement would soon become basic must in future racing.....
That sound....
2 interesting facts of the era,
Norton tried to bring the bikes to Bike mecca Matlock Bath but was refused by the council, as it could encourage smoking. Team sponsored by a tobacco company..
Second fact, Matlock police had 2 Norton rotary patrol bikes..
Wankel Rotary:
The red-headed stepchild of internal combustion engines. Brilliant concept, for sure. But it's too loud, too thirsty, too dirty, makes too much exhaust heat, and makes too little low-RPM torque to be of much practical use. Pretty much EVERY engine manufacturer made prototypes in the early 70s, almost NONE of which ever saw the light of day. Like the turbine Indy Car engine, it was a technical dead-end for motor companies. This Norton was predestined to get banned.
BRITISH BUILT BEAUTY 👍