Description
H&H Classic Auction @ National Motorcycle Museum | Solihull, West Midlands
12th July, 2023 10:00
1925 Norton 16H
Long-term ownership
Estimate
£10, 000 - £12, 000
Registration No: PU 7112
Frame No: 16600
Engine No: 6730 CC: 500
MOT: Exempt Long-term ownership
Purchased in July 1971
Restored and used since purchased
Current V5C continuation
RF60 James Lansdowne Norton founded the Norton Manufacturing Company during 1898 in his home city of Birmingham supplying components to the established cycle industry and also to the newly emerging motorcycle industry. By 1902 he had produced his first motorcycle employing a French clip-on engine and over the next five years developed both the frame, lowering and elongating the basic cycle structure in order to mount the engine (and later the gearbox) within the frame structure and his own engine design which was introduced during 1907. When machines became available to the public in 1908 the prototype displacement of 660cc had been reduced to 633cc. Equipped with aluminium crankcases and an iron head and barrel the new engine established a pattern that would run until 1954 and introduced a name to the motorcycling vocabulary that is as well regarded today as it was in the Edwardian period - the Big 4. 1909 saw the introduction of a smaller 475cc engine which, although not particularly successful in its own right formed the basis for a revised model introduced in 1911, with engine dimensions of 79 x100 mm and a swept volume of 490cc. Typed the no. 2 under the system introduced to identify models during 1915, when the no. 2 was equipped with a chain final drive from the three-speed gearbox instead of a belt it became the no. 16. For 1921 a revised version of the 16 was introduced using the "low" or home market frame instead of the colonial frame that it had previously employed and shared with the Big 4, Norton added an H to the model number and the 16H came into being. The sporting 16H is as desirable today as it was when new, displaying as it does the best attributes of vintage motorcycle design. The model's specification placed it at a considerable advantage to many of its rivals, an advantage that was enhanced further by the reliability and build quality of the machine. This charming 1925 Norton 16H was purchased by the current vendor in 1972, he then swapped it in 1975, for an Austin Chummy. In 1980 the opportunity came up for him to purchase it back, by which time it had broken a conrod and the engine was changed (details on RF60). It was restored by the vendor and has been used since its completion. The 16H will need recommissioning before use due to being stored for a few years. It is offered at auction complete with a current V5C, 1958 continuation RF60 logbook, a host of old MOT certificates, tax discs, and various paperwork.
