I bought my Norton 88SS Dommie as a rolling wreck. The engine still ran, just, and most of the chassis was still there, but its overall appearance was of a machine that had been flogged to death. Its owner had been a rocker in the sixties and had thrown the bike to the back of the garage when the wife, kids and canine came along. He had dug it out eventually with the intention of reliving his youth but found that his memories didn't match the Norton’s lack of brakes, the huge increase in traffic and ruined state of modern roads.
It had taken me several visits to convince him that he wasn't going to get the thousands of pounds demanded for a perfectly restored example. Only the fact that I was the only interested party allowed me to take it off his hands for six hundred quid, and I still think I paid too much.
I rode it home, spent a weekend tidying it up and replacing various perished items such as tyres, cables and footrest rubbers. By the time I’d finished the Norton was looking OK, but the engine was running very rough and leaking oil despite the fact that I'd given it a full service and tightened up all the bolts. The 1962 machine had done 39200 miles, so I suppose it had a right to feel tired.
The bike looks little bigger than a Honda Superdream, although its small dimensions are rather at odds with its wide petrol tank, even if earlier bikes with the Wideline version of the Featherbed frame must have been even worse. The 88SS weighs around 400lbs and is easy and predictable to throw around at town speeds, stable and flickable on the A roads.
My initial impression when I tried to do more than 70mph was that the engine had turned into a buzz-saw! The motor is similar in outline to the 850 Commandos and it's easy to see why Norton went to the trouble of using Isolastic mounts on the newer machine. Between 80 and 85mph the engine was at its best, never entirely smooth. I was soon to find that bits would loosen off if not given a weekly dose of spanner work. It powers up from 55 to 80mph rather energetically and then there's another dose of power just past 85mph which catapults the machine up to an indicated ton.
Vibes at such levels were eye blurring, bad enough to make my feet drop off the footpegs which are mounted directly on to the engine - they are, by the way, adjustable in position. After that first run I had another look at the carbs. l must’ve balanced them more accurately that time because the vibration did diminish. Unfortunately, the carbs need attention every 350 miles or so. When I later did a rebore and top end overhaul, the motor became better still. I have ridden a Yam XS650 and l can say that the Norton never came close to the smoothness of the Japanese machine despite its lower capacity.
I have now owned the Norton for three years and averaged 9000 miles a year. The crankshaft and gearbox have not been touched, although a lot of minor work as well as the top and rebuild has been needed. The first time it broke down on the road was a burnt out exhaust valve, probably down to my experimentation with some open megas. The engine went on to one cylinder about 50 miles away from home, with lots of smoke out of the exhaust.
As a single cylinder 250cc motorcycle it’s not much use, just about able to stagger along at 30mph. That lasted for the first 35 miles until the engine just stalled at a junction and refused to start again. I figured it had overheated, went for a drink to cool down myself and returned with a litre of oil to top up the oil tank.
The last 15 miles were done at less than 15mph but we reached my home without the indignity of summoning help. I found I had to replace both pistons as well as one exhaust valve. Parts availability is good if you consort with fellow British bikers. I rarely had to buy new parts.
The second breakdown was due to the electrics. The original 6V system had at some time been uprated to 12V, but the wiring was wound together rather than soldered or properly connected. The main lead for the ignition ended up shorting out on the engine. I was doing 65mph at the time, overtaking a Sierra. The car driver went berserk when I piloted the bike across his front bumper. He swerved around me with his hand on the horn, slamming on his brakes once he got in front of me. We were somewhat distracted from our mutual hostility by the engine suddenly becoming engulfed in flames. He stood by the side of his car with a huge grin whilst I tried to smother the flames with my leather gloves. I think it must have just caught the surface layer of petrol on the carbs (from the need to tickle them to get the beast running) for I soon put out the fire. Luckily, I had a Iength of electrical wire in my tool kit which enabled me to reconnect the ignition system.
A similar incident happened when the oil feed pipe from the tank to the engine came undone. This time I was thumping along the motorway at 80mph. The first I knew of the problem was when the back tyre started skating around. On a bike with a less well endowed chassis I think I would have ended up on the tarmac, as it was I made for the hard shoulder, crashing down through the gears with the SLS front brake hard on. I knew the brake was good for one fade free stop a day! Both my boot and the lower half of the motor were covered in Duckhams' finest. Over four pints of oil had gone AWOL, so I had to dump the bike and hike it three miles each way to the nearest services.
There were other minor irritations but it was really just a matter of getting used to the machine, knowing which parts of it were likely to give trouble and how far and hard I could push it without worrying about engine demise. The latter was pretty straightforward because before you could push the engineering limitations of its components you were blitzed by fierce vibration.
l gradually got the chassis in shape, taking some time and care to get a good, fairly original finish on the cycle parts. It says a lot for the quality of things like petrol tanks, sidepanels and mudguards that they were still original and hardly affected as far as rust was concerned from thirty years of use on British roads. By far the worst was rust damage to the underside of the rear mudguard, but a bit of wire brushing revealed that it had not eaten very deeply into the steel.
You can still buy kits to service the front forks, so I did, and a set of Girlings (oId but still boxed) were fitted out back. Thus renewed, handling was surprisingly good for a sixties machine although, of course, the suspension travel is limited to just a couple of inches at each end. The only good point following on from that is the way it allows the relatively narrow vertical twin engine to be mounted low in the frame. The bike came with extremely wide bars, but it did not need them, for that low centre of gravity and reasonable mass meant it could be flicked through the curves with surprising elan. I had many a dice with middleweight Japs, finding I could either ride around them or come through on their inside, depending on conditions.
One GPz550 owner sticks in the mind, he went berserk when I out rode him through a very long, 90mph bend. He tried everything to get past on the ensuing series of S bends, but it wasn't until we entered a long straight that he was able to clear off into the distance. For some reason he did not wave as he wailed past.
I changed the bars for something narrower as I found the stock bars tended to knock off car mirrors in town. The engine has the grunt for quick take offs, but the aged gearbox requires a restrained action to avoid missed cogs. That's not so bad because it will do 65mph in second, a gear I find ideal for thumping through traffic. The engine does get a bit hot and bothered after fifteen minutes of slow work, whilst not even the otherwise excellent chassis can stop the bike being thrown about by potholes and displaced manhole covers. My back gets something of a thumping, which is the only limit on the pleasure I obtain from riding the Dominator.
So there you go, not trouble free but very enjoyable to ride; a real buzz! Consumable wear is very good compared to the Japs, and it averages slightly better than 60mpg. With 66000 miles done so far I expect it will soon need some major attention to the bottom end and gearbox, but as I expected to do that much sooner I am not complaining.
Peter Humphreys