Another fantastic find in the Deeley Exhibition is this wild custom built by Mick King of Vancouver, Canada – it combines a Norton frame and a NSU automotive engine!
It’s a crazy pairing but Paul d’Orleans of The Vintagent has a great story on this bike which you should check out, it explains why Mick had access to Nortons and NSUs and how the whole thing came about. I’ll just share a few photos for you to enjoy:
Naomi Deildal is the Manager of the Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition. She says, “This labour of love took BC’s Mick King, a British transplant and former owner of Superformance Motorcycles, over 800 hours to build!”
“I love its domineering size, the right-handed kickstand, and the bizarre hand painted logo – it’s truly one of a kind!”
The engine is from a 1966 NSU Prinz, the frame from a 1967 Norton Atlas. The museum states that the bike “delivers 45 mpg and boasts a top speed of 125 mph.” One of the most interesting features is the Norton transmission, which had to be flipped around! Per The Vintagent, “Yes, it works fine both ways, but Mick had to reverse the ‘pawl’ on the kickstart shaft. The photographs should explain his thinking, which seems sound enough – the clutch no longer runs on the gearbox mainshaft but its own stub shaft, connected to the gearbox via a mated pair of pegged plates, similar to BMW shaft-drive practice. All very clever and relatively simple.”
Check out that sump!
It’s a very cool build, and considering how much it shares with the monstrous Munch Mammuth, I actually think it looks pretty svelte.
What do you think?