The spotty faced youth had passed his test within 2 months of being allowed to ride a motorcycle and was riding his Honda 50 flat out everywhere. However, 45mph down hill and 35mph up hill was not quite the speed required. The main stumbling block to speed or a larger machine was my low income as an apprentice diesel fitter - I could hardly buy a Triumph Daytona on that kind of money. To make matters worse, one of my friends insisted on giving me lifts on the back of a Ducati 160 Monza Junior at 70mph down the local High Street. I was impressed - so much power! Another chap I knew had a Vespa 180 Sport and his tales of 70-80mph had me a with envy.
The Honda 50 was sold and with the £45 I bought an ES2. With it came the original tool kit, the Pitman Book Of The Norton, and a copy of Motorcycles And How To Manage Them, by Ixion - real vintage stuff, great to read, though, if you get the chance.
Starting the 500 single was quite easy. Retard the ignition via the handlebar lever, flood the carb, ease it to TDC compression stroke, operate the decompressor, swing it over and bang, bang, bang. The bike felt unhurried, the first few runs I rarely exceeded 50mph. This was just as well as the brakes were very, very poor and stopping from as little as 30mph took ages so to exceed fifty the road had to be very clear.
The bike would rush up to fifty rather niftily but took a long time to reach a staggering 75mph top whack, on a 120mph speedo. At 70-75mph it felt like sitting on a pile driver - my arms vibrated, my head shook and it shed several nuts and bolts, cracked the mudguards, used loads of oil. At that time I was delighted with the bike, thinking that at those kinds of speeds this was just the normal reaction and that you just had to put up with it.
I'd thrashed the old girl for 3 weeks and the once quiet motor had a distinctive rattle from inside, getting louder each day. Life can be cruel. The engine was removed at work and stripped for a post mortem. Old Jim, 35 years a fitter, did the strip, finding a worn and cracked piston, loose mains and an endless list of other problems. Fortunately, everyone in work offered their help - the bearings were easily obtained, the piston came from a V-twin compressor, although it did need a bit of juggling as it had four piston rings. Some BMC valves were forced into the head. All the gaskets were made from rubber bonded asbestos. The Norton roller bearing big-end was discarded in favour of a large bush made up to replace it.
Two weeks later the old girl was running again. That four ring piston was a very tight fit in the bore, making the engine run hot. Even after 1000 miles it would still only just hit 65mph. However, it was smooth and on used a small amount of oil. One night, while out with some of the chaps, I approached a bend at about 45mph, found that it tightened up, braked but could not kill the speed quickly enough - a handy bush decided to stop the bike. I left the seat, preferring to fly through the air, landing in a field with a not so nice thump. The brakes were next on the list to fix.
New shoes and a cable improved the brakes no end - it only took 75 yards to stop from 30mph. These brakes make the things fitted to CD175s feel powerful. Both brakes were SLS drum and the only way to improve them is to fit the later Norton TLS item on the front or change the lining, although the latter is a lot of hassle and still doesn’t produce anything like modern stopping power.
Every Easter the firm I worked for held a dinner dance - a very formal affair where a quintet of ladies played harps and stuff. Great for a laugh, back then. My girlfriend and I arrived in full evening dress, after using the elegant ES2 as transport - I like to think that the ES2 was made for that sort of thing. On the way to the dance we were stopped by the police and accused of doing 100mph down the main road. The officer was obviously endowed with a great deal of intelligence - the ton on a 75mph bike in full evening dress - he let us off in the end.
One of the idiosyncrasies of old English bikes turned up on a run with a motley collection of scooters and motorbikes. We went off to Scotland for the weekend. The ES2 started out performing well, holding 65mph as we went through Otterbern heading for Jedburgh.
Anyway the Norton manages to slog on up through the countryside with all the aplomb of an English Gentleman in his element, it’s the kind of bike that encourages the rider to take it nice and easy (OK, he can’t do much else with that kind of engine) and as long as it’s not pushed too hard, it'll thump along quite happily - after all, part of the venture was to admire the Scottish countryside and not just whizz through at maximum speed, ignoring everything except for the next few yards of tarmac.
We had a great weekend in Scotland, partly because we stayed in B&Bs rather than camping out in all weather. It really is much nicer to travel light and not have to load up the bike every morning with tons of gear. Also you have to remember that the stories about rain in Scotland are not exaggerated one iota and after a long hard day buggering about in the wet the last thing you want is to be turned away from some campsite. Scottish B&Bs are cheap and friendly.
One aspect of that Scottish trip that I'll always remember is when I'd actually got the old girl up to 70mph; blitzing her through the bends I suddenly found the brake lever back to the handlebars. PANIC. Hedgerows are very useful for stopping runaway Norton singles. At least the frame and forks were strong enough to take that kind of abuse without bending or snapping in half.
I'd read in Motorcycle, Scooter And Three Wheeler Mechanics that to obtain top speed on a 500 single you had to rev it hard in third on a flat stretch, preferably slightly down hill. If anything, | revved the Norton in second, into third, Bop-Bop -Bop, 50-55-60, then the revs rose but speed dropped off to 50mph then 45mph. No, the clutch wasn't slipping, it was valve float. 3000 miles after the rebuild the motor was becoming noisy again and using more and more oil. Where it had once topped seventy, it was down to a max of 55mph.
The strip down revealed worn main bearings and a cracked piston. Whether this was a result of the non-standard parts fitted or because the engine just didn’t like being thrashed, or a combination of both, | couldn't say.
The ES2 is a nice, simple, ride to work OHV single, that gets a bit ratty if you treat it bad. I’ve seen one recently advertised for £3000 which is just plain daft. If you want to experience the unique nature of an ES2, find a cheap one, use it as hard as you like till it fails then sell it, swap it for something else, or if the worst does happen then scrap it.
William Gould