If you enjoyed our story on the Hercules W-2000, the world’s first production rotary-powered motorcycle, you’ll dig photographer Ken Richardson’s video and outtakes from his shoot of the rare, low-mileage 1976 Model we profiled here. Enjoy!

Hercules W2000 from Ken Richardson on Vimeo.

Friend of the magazine Ken Peters is the owner of the lovely 1973 Norton 850 Commando featured in this video. Ken bought the Norton in the 1980s when he was living in San Francisco, rebuilt the engine and then piled on the miles. I met Ken when he moved back to the Midwest, when I still had my 1975 electric start 850 Commando.

Flash forward to 2011 and the Norton was ready for its next rebuild, although this time Ken left the engine alone, concentrating instead on freshening up the paint and brightwork, and also completely overhauling the transmission, swingarm and Norton Isolastic system. He also installed a new wiring harness and a Tri-Spark electronic ignition system from Colorado Norton Works. The result is a stunning Norton that goes as good as it looks. Nice to see it on the road again. (Click here to see the Harley we mention in the video.) –Richard Backus 

Two American teams took on the 2011 4 Hours of Spa Classic, an endurance race for pre-1980 superbikes at Belgium’s iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit. It was the first time Americans have ever taken part. The Moto Guzzi LeMans of Team Guzzi Nerd (Christopher Page and Andrew Gray) was a study in metronomic efficiency. It punched out lap after lap, never faltering.

If you're never watched motorcycle racing from the Isle of Man, you're in for a treat. Vintage racer Dave Roper (pictured here at the 2011 Isle of Man TT with the 1911 Indian Racer Replica) video-taped a practice lap at the 1993 Isle of Man Manx GP while riding the Team Obsolete 1967 Benelli factory GP bike. 

Photographer Ken Richardson visited the Isle of Man for the TT in 2011. His story "Motorcycle Mecca: Making the Pilgrimage to the Isle of Man TT" appears in the January/February 2012 issue of Motorcycle Classics. Here's a video featuring some of the racing highlights he captured during his trip. 

Isle of Man tt 2011 various footage. from Ken Richardson on Vimeo.

In Ken's story, he also mentions watching footage of racer Guy Martin doing a lap in 2007 aboard a modern Honda literbike. View part one and part two of that video below.

 
The featherbed Norton Manx won the Senior and Junior TT at the Isle
of Man in 1950. 

The featherbed Norton Manx that Steve Tonkin’s street-legal Norton Manx is based on was one of the greatest racing motorcycles of all time. It can trace its heritage back to 1927, when Norton engineer Walter Moore designed the SOHC engine that took Alec Bennett to victory in that year’s Isle of Man TT. The first DOHC version made its debut in 1937, and between 1931 and 1954 Norton won all but two of the Senior TT races, and often filled the top three places.

In 1950, Norton’s racer got a new frame designed by Rex McCandless. A double downtube steel cradle with a swingarm rear suspension, its superior handling characteristics influenced frame design for decades to come. Asked what it was like riding the new Norton, works rider Harold Daniell replied that it was so comfortable it was “just like riding on a feather bed.” The name stuck, and the Featherbed frame became synonymous with superb handling.

The featherbed Norton Manx (the Manx name was adopted in 1947) were offered for sale in 1951, but with less than 100 made each season, they only went to riders of proven ability. The DOHC 350cc Model 40 and 500cc Model 30 were hand-built by a team of less than 10 men in the racing shop of the Bracebridge Street, Birmingham, factory. Crankcases were cast from Elektron magnesium alloy, and to minimize vibration the crankshafts were made integral with the flywheels to increase rigidity. The cambox contained five shafts with five gears, which were ground, not machined, to size. Engines were always run for two hours on a dyno before being stripped and rebuilt.

Phil Heath, one of many “Continental Circus” riders who toured the European racetracks picking up appearance and place money as they went, said that an engine would last a whole season without being stripped. A Manx engine will hold its tune, and reliability is in the bulletproof category.

Featherbed singles were still the backbone of international racing as late as 1963, when nine of the top 20 places in that year’s 500cc World Championship series were taken by a Norton Manx. Mike Hailwood took the title on the MV Agusta, but Jack Ahern was second on his Norton. The last Manx rolled out of Bracebridge in January that year. 

Here is some amazing vintage racing footage of Scottish racer Bob McIntyre testing a Norton Manx at Oulton Park, presumably in the late 1950s:

 
1972 Laverda 1000 

Introduced in 1972, the three-cylinder Laverda 1000 (top) was the bike the boys at Breganze were really hanging their hopes on. Although a little heavy for track work, the big triple was successful in the European endurance circuit. More importantly, it was an excellent high-speed touring machine, equally at home blasting across the U.S. desert Southwest or carving corners in the Swiss Alps. Dual front discs were new for 1974.

 
1974 Laverda 750 SF 

The Laverda 750 SF was Laverda’s bread and butter bike, a well-engineered, well-made parallel twin. European buyers tended to favor low bars, while American bikes, like the one shown here, carried taller bars to suit our presumably longer rides. Bosch electrics meant reliable starting and charging, and Nippon Denso gauges provided clear information. 1974 SF2s sported dual-disc front brakes and a new exhaust with a balance pipe.

 
1974 Laverda 750 SFC 

At the top of the heap was the 1974 Laverda 750 SFC. Although very limited in production, they were highly touted in company ads. While all Laverdas were more handmade than most, the SFC took that to a different level, with each engine assembled by one person. Finished engines were then tested on the factory dynamometer to verify output. Each bike was road tested, usually with an older gas tank to avoid damaging new parts.

Here is a video demonstrating the magnificent sound of the 1974 Laverda 750 SFC:

 
Mike Madden's 1940 Big Tank Crocker motorcycle at the 2005 Legend of the
Motorcycle show in Half Moon Bay, Calif., where it garnered Best of Show.  

In the period before World War I, at least 100 different American motorcycle brands appeared on the market. In the 1920s, two or three intrepid U.S. manufacturers came out with new bikes. In the 1930s, the only American to commence the manufacture of motorcycles was Al Crocker with the legendary Crocker motorcycles.

Crocker worked for the Indian Motocycle Company in the late 1910s, not long after graduating from engineering school. By 1928, he was the Southern California Indian distributor, but what he really wanted was to go out on his own.              

Crocker bought a machine shop, where he made aftermarket parts such as a steering dampener for Indian Chiefs as a sideline. He would have probably continued his main business selling Indians, had it not been for the speedway craze, a type of short-track racing on a cinder course.

In 1931, racers from Australia gave speedway exhibitions in Southern California, touching off a brief speedway fad across the U.S. Seeing an opportunity, Crocker designed and manufactured special speedway competition cylinders and heads for Indian Scouts. About this time, he met up with Paul A. Bigsby, a patternmaker by trade, who shared Crocker’s love of fast motorcycles. Bigsby soon became an integral part of the Crocker motorcycle operation.

Crocker decided a single would be better for speedway racing than the modified Indian twin, and built approximately 31 hemi-head, overhead-valve, 500cc single-cylinder racers between 1932 and 1935. This was at odds with his working for Indian, so Crocker sold his Indian franchise to Floyd Clymer around 1935. Crocker singles were campaigned by some of the top riders of the era, and were very successful until English-built J.A.P. race bikes appeared in 1935.

Crocker put the speedway aside, and encouraged by Bigsby, started work on a sporty, overhead-valve, V-twin bike. By 1936, testing was so successful that Crocker installed Bigsby as chief engineer and began producing the Crocker V-twin. He immediately ran into a piece of bad luck: Harley-Davidson finished development of its own overhead valve sport bike soon after the Crocker twin hit the market. Making matters worse, the Harley also featured a constant-mesh transmission, but with four gears, a step up from Crocker’s three.

Crocker motorcycles had a performance edge, however, especially in the early days when the Knucklehead’s bugs were still being worked out. But a Crocker cost $495, when a top-of-the-line EL Harley sold for just $380. However, every Crocker was basically custom built, and few are alike. For example, there are at least four different versions of the original hemi-head, and five different parallel-valve top ends.

 The crankcases were heavy aluminum alloy and the cast iron cylinders were so thick that although Crockers were designed as a 61ci (1,000cc) with a bore of 3.25in, overbores to 3.625in without distorting the cylinder are possible. A Crocker motorcycle can be built up to 90ci (1,476cc) through a combination of boring and stroking.

The first Crocker motorcycles were hemi-heads with cylinders similar to the speedway machines. Although fast, they leaked oil and developed cracks in the heads after hard use. In 1937, Crocker introduced redesigned heads with the valves positioned vertically over the piston.

The new heads didn’t throw oil or crack as easily, and produced about as much power as the earlier hemis: 53hp to 55hp at 3,600rpm, depending on whose bike was tested on which dyno. Here's a video tribute to Crocker motorcycles:

Unfortunately, America’s entry into World War II made it impossible for Crocker to get raw material for his bikes, and he was forced to turn his machine shop over to war production. This was probably a blessing in disguise, since it cost so much to build each bike that he made little to no profit. It’s rumored he lost money on every bike he sold. When the war ended, he decided not to return to the motorcycle industry.

Crockers were not mass produced, and estimates of how many were made range from 61 to 104 road machines, with many experts agreeing on 75 complete motorcycles manufactured. And had it not been for Elmo Looper and Ernie Skelton, there would probably be few left. Elmo bought out Crocker’s remaining stock a few years after the end of World War II, while Ernie enjoyed riding his Crocker so much he regularly took it to meets to let other people ride it: One ride was enough to spark Crocker fever in many folks, and the remaining Crockers in Looper’s care were rescued and restored. The brand itself was reincarnated in 2006 as the new Crocker Motorcycle Company.  

Special thanks to Chuck Vernon and the late Ernie Skelton, who is sorely missed by all.