A 383cc vertical twin with unit construction, electric start and made in Britain. Sounds good? Well, Norton had just one such device way back in 1963, a continuation of the much maligned Jubilee and Navigator models. Weighing a mere 350lbs was quite impressive but just 25 horses was matched by Japanese rivals of half the capacity. The smaller models had horrible cycle parts and dangerous gearboxes but by the time the Electra hit the showroom it had proper Norton forks, petrol tank and seat, plus Girling shocks, although the drums were only SLS and the frame still an odd mixture of tubular and pressed steel pieces that originated in the awful Francis Barnett.
The example I bought two years ago was rather worn and faded but basically stock, although after 67000 miles the engine had been rebuilt several times and part of the deal was a couple of boxes full of old engine bits. The electric start, mounted under the carb, refused to turn over a cold motor but was okay for starting a stalled engine in traffic. A lunge on the kickstart always sufficed from cold. The cacophony that the engine made could easily convince that the motor was moments off seizure but was normal for the range (at least that's what the past owner told me).
The engine is short stroke with a 66 x 56mm bore and stroke, peaking out at 7000 revs. It was immediately apparent that it shared the Honda 250 Superdream's gutless nature that needed the throttle twisted to get anywhere fast; and even when abused failed to get much past 70mph. Brand new ones might've made 80mph. In practice, it was impossible to do more than 60mph unless a frenzy of vibes could be ignored, more a result of wear and several rebuilds than any inherent design faults.
Ride quality was surprisingly good. Better than most ten year old Japanese hacks of a similar size. Part of this was down to the bolted up frame having extra bracing in the form of welded in plates, the original Fanny Barnet only having to cope with some lightweight stroker engine.......Norton obviously had to find a way to cut corners to get the Electra's price down to a competitive level with the Japanese 250s and 350s.
Fortunately, the suspension compensated for any remaining weakness in the frame (the geometry was good, as that was just a question of experience and therefore, in Norton's case, free). Roadholder forks and Girling shocks were well sprung and damped, though by modern standards suspension travel was poor.
On today's roads I found myself more shaken than stirred but the Electra had a precision in its steering accuracy that was enviable. Tyres were modern Avons (on nineteen inch front and eighteen inch rear wheels), undoubtedly aided the feeling of security. There was so little power from the motor that there was no chance of sliding the rear wheel in the wet, nor of churning through the tread in anything less than 18000 miles.
The chain was nowhere near as long-lived. The lack of full enclosure, the skimpiness of the chain and the worn gearbox and transmission shock absorbers gave the final drive a hard time. Within 50 miles it was flapping all over the place, needing constant adjusting. Even a new chain didn't fare well, being shredded to pieces in about 6000 miles. The sprockets looked in good shape but may not have been truly concentric but the rear wheel sprocket's quite complex and hence expensive to replace.
I use the Norton for commuting and fun (honest) during eight months of the year, November through to February deemed too nasty for motorcycling. If I was younger I might go right through the winter but, these days, the wife insists on running me back and forth to work in her Metro - it takes an hour against ten minutes on the Norton.
The Electra ain't ideal for traffic work. The clutch is heavy, the gearchange tremulous and the steering needs quite a lot of effort for such a light bike. Oh, the front SLS drum works most of the time but when a car driver suddenly does something silly, I end up with the lever back to the bars and my heart rate pounding away. So far, we've skidded to a halt in time, in one instance with a mere half inch to spare! The pedestrians clapped, both the bike and I of an age to summon up looks of amazement rather than fear and loathing.
To be fair to the old Brit twin, I've been much more frightened on a C90, an CZ 250 twin and even a CD175, which admittedly had cheap rubber. The truth was that the Norton fitted me well and tyres always had a reassuring grip, so any gripes could be submerged beneath the overall experience.
A bike of this age isn't going to be entirely perfect, one big gripe that I had was the carburettor, which liked to off-load fuel over the engine every other day. As fuel was a far from inspiring 55mpg I deduced that it was totally worn out and a reconditioned Amal was ordered, as they are no longer available new. This solved the fuel spillage problem and improved fuel to around 65mpg. Tolerable but still not very impressive for the CD175-like performance.
Because of the starter, the electrics are 12V instead of the earlier model's 6V. Norton used two 6V batteries, one under the left-hand side-panel, the other under the seat! This was complemented by a high power alternator giving almost double the earlier bike's pathetic 50W, making it possible to fit a decent (car) reflector in the huge front light nacelle which also contains the light switch and ammeter, although the latter was of the self-destruct (via the vibes) variety and never worked on my machine. Luckily, the Electra had sometime been rewired, including an electronic control box that eliminated the usual dubious Lucas rectifier and Zener Diode. The non-standard coils looked like they were off a truck but ensured that the engine rattled into life first kick and ran quite cleanly.
Quite where all the engine noises come from I'm not sure, although it's in good company as it was drowned out by a big Ariel square four, which redefined the meaning of a rolling dustbin at one British bike show I attended. I always had to say I had a Norton Twin as admitting to owning an Electra invariably resulted in a stream of contempt. The passing resemblance to the big twins in the chassis allowed me to motor around without being attacked!
But it was noisy enough to drown out the silencers. The valve gear is the usual pushrod and rocker, although the camshafts are set high in the engine and the pushrods are only a couple of inches long. Valve clearances were set by turning an eccentric shaft on which the rocker sat, 0.006 and 0.008 inch inlet and exhaust respectively, needing attention every week (200 miles). Even spot on there were a lot of rattles, which were joined by the gear whine from camshaft drive, the whipping duplex primary chain and god knows what else. After the first week I decided that earplugs were necessary.
The points also need weekly attention, party because oil was seeping into their compartment and partly because the condensor was allowing some sparking. But mostly because the points were a crap design! I've yet to find anyone who does electronic ignition for this model but if I do it'll be out with the cheque book in an instant. If the Electra ever grinds to a halt I look at the points first!
Oil leaks occur at the rocker covers, chaincase and cylinder gaskets. It disappeared at the rate of a pint every 75 miles, something I assume is normal as in 20,000 miles it never became any worse. I quite enjoy leaving a puddle on the (once) pristine drives of my richer friends. The wife of one friend rushes out with a plastic tray whenever I arrive. Very nice of her, I always pour the oil back into the tank! With a three gallon petrol tank and a range of almost 200 miles, I seem to spend more time putting oil in than fuel!
The gearbox (rather than the selector mechanism) and crankshaft are both quite well built, having withstood the past two years and 20,000 miles without any troubles. Judging by the smoke pouring out of the exhaust and the ceremonious acceleration it's just about due for a new set of pistons and rebore.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the Electra would fall apart within a few thousand miles. This might be true for the Jubilee and, perhaps, the Navigator, but the Electra was the last of the range with many upgraded components and the minor niggles that plagued the Jubilee ironed out. That makes it the best of the range and more than adequate as long as you don't expect startling performance.
Having said that, I've just bought a Jubilee plus three bikes in boxes at a price I couldn't resist. Luckily, the engineering mods to make the 250 run nicely are well documented.
F.H.
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I kept seeing this old Ford Cortina plodding down the road, seemingly without a driver. It was driven so slowly that even the Norton Electra could see it off! As I sped past, I looked over, saw some kind of midget eighty year old bint behind the wheel, eyes just peeping over the steering wheel. The old dear gave me a disgusted look and then tried to ram the car into the side of the bike. Senile bitch! I opened the throttle in third, the Norton managing enough of a punch to get me clear of the auto.
It wasn't always so easy to stay out of trouble. The chassis was in good shape, with a pair of old style Girlings and rebuilt Roadholder forks, but the 400cc OHV twin cylinder motor was rather tired, with a recorded 69000 miles on the clock. True, it was on its fourth rebuild (to my knowledge) but the last owner had used disparate worn parts, which meshed together with a certain desperateness.
In comparison to the 1969 Honda CD175, with which it shared garage space, it was slow! The Honda could be wound up until the valves bounced, whereas the Norton just vibrated like an ailing Jumbo jet if I tried to use the throttle in anger. No doubt a new engine, or even a properly rebuilt one, would be an entirely different ballgame.
Unfortunately, the Electra and its siblings (the 350 Navigator and 250 Jubilee) don't demand enough dosh to make the work worthwhile. And even when done well, a rebuild's unlikely to last for longer than 20,000 miles, often half that! Mainly because the original engine was designed down to a budget price and was never constructed from high quality materials.
Although it's supposed to have a weak top end and dodgy gearbox, my experience of the breed suggests it was the inspiration for the Superdream's built-in obsolescence, though comprehensive death of its engine internals occurs at much lower mileage than the Japanese offering. Probably because it lacks any kind of vibration absorption and the engine clatters away more intensely than most 500cc British twins.
Part of that may be down to a mismatch between the engine dynamics and the cheap and nasty pressed steel frame. The original 250 Jubilee was equipped with awful suspension that didn't do anything for the handling, but by the time the Electra emerged in the early sixties, it had been upgraded. Luckily, for the breed, steering geometry and weight distribution were a matter of experience and knowledge, could be instilled into the bike at zero cost.
For most of the time, then, the Electra's a fairly pleasant handling bike, albeit one that's burdened with butt-numbingly stiff suspension. Better that than the soft as butter, I-wanna-run-off-the-road stuff on the CD. The Norton was an order of magnitude more secure in the wet or when the road surface turned rough than the CD (both bikes running cheap and cheerful, square cut Taiwanese tyres). The large wheels on the British bike gave it a basic stability totally lacking in most modern Japs.
The frame only showed its weakness when I summoned up the nerve to ride the Norton with unseemly haste. Effectively, that means going over 70mph. The twin would roar up to 90mph on the clock, but only with a downhill stretch and following wind. It was the kind of abuse that I only indulged once a year, just to convince myself that I still had the guts!
The swinging arm, or its bearings, would allow a little bit of weaving and wallowing above 70mph, that increased in amplitude in direct correspondence to the reading on the speedo. Once, the bike lost it completely, going into an almighty wobble that all but wrenched the handlebars out of my hands. It was one of those moments that reaffirmed my belief that I was too young to die. The wobble died out of its own accord, just confirmed that a large amount of silliness was involved in thrashing a bike like the Electra. Not to mention the ball-numbing, eyeball-jumping and hand shaking vibes.
In case you're wondering, the bike got its name not from the electrifying effect of the handling at speed on the rider but from fitment of an electric start. Yes, the largesse of the British industry knew no bounds back in their days of glory. My experience of the electric boot was that if it did manage to start the engine from cold, then the feat proved so traumatic that it would never work again! Just added weight, but easy enough to dump.
One good thing about the Norton was its cheapness (forgetting for the moment the cost of its frequent rebuilds!). Insurance was laughable, road tax free, fuel around 80mpg (probably half that if thrashed, though) and consumables as long lasting as a C90's. That was one good reason for keeping the bike on the road, as even the CD175 couldn't match its frugality.
It was also easy to ride, needing less rigorous use of the gearbox, which was also about ten times slicker than the Honda's, and being a much neater handling package. Not hard, I know! Some other good points - it would start first kick however foul the weather, the massive mudguards gave excellent protection and it didn't corrode away even when ridden through British winters (although I cleaned it up a couple of times a week).
Some of the bad stuff. It was a bit of an oil gusher, leaving a pool of lube when parked up and fuming like a stroker when started. Even much work on the surfaces of the crankcases and engine cases failed to stop the leaks. My guess is that the engine is actually being distorted a little by being used as a stressed frame member.
The exhaust often falls out of the cylinder head - quite amusing when some ped gets enraged by finding himself attacked by a noisy bike that has suddenly turned into a flame-thrower. If the nuts and screws aren't gone over on a daily basis things fall off, or merely destroy themselves when metal grinds against metal. To be fair, most of the components are quite thick steel, reflected in an all up weight of around 375lbs. Giving a power to weight ratio that doesn't compare favourably with other British twins.
The SLS front brake's barely adequate in modern traffic, but it can be upgraded to TLS but I make do with looking where I'm going. The rear brake's just right, though. Shoe wear is unknown and maintenance just the odd adjustment to the cable - compare that to the sheer horror involved with an old Jap disc brake.
Everything about the bike is really set up for practical commuting rather than spirited riding, though it's not unpleasant to potter down country lanes at 60mph, or so. Motorways and A-roads just leave the bike a sitting target for the more psychotic cagers, who can't understand why something so slow and old is still allowed out on the road. The few times I made it on to the motorway I ended up on the hard shoulder because I found that half an hour at 70mph made the engine overheat, lock up momentarily! Had to let it cool off and continue homewards at a dangerous 50-60mph!
As a British practical classic it's severely limited, wholly lacking the overall usefulness of the 500 or 650 twins. However, they are quite cheap, decent if non-original bikes turn up in the £500 to £1000 price range and they are definitely a step up from the Bantam, Tiger Cub or C25 hordes.
It all comes down to personal taste and what you want out of your motorcycling. I'm happy to carry on riding and rebuilding the Electra until the spare parts situation becomes too expensive, which given the pile of stuff I've got in the back of my garage is likely to be never. A lot the press (the UMG included) have been rather nasty to the breed, but I don't think they are that bad!
Rowan Jones