Classic Motorcycle DVD - Rising From The Ashes

23rd August 2005

Rising From The Ashes

Rising From The Ashes Enough of all this riding around in the sunshine. Get back indoors and watch some TV. We dragged Frank Westworth away from his spanners and sat him in front of the telly for an hour...

Legendary former works race engineer and rider Norman White stars in a new documentary, available on DVD, which tracks the re-creation of five of the 1970s Norton Works racers destroyed in the National Motorcycle Museum fire.

More than two thirds of the museum's priceless collection of veteran, vintage and classic motorcycles were irreparably damaged in the fire, which swept through the facility in September 2003.

Rising From The Ashes The bikes had to be rebuilt entirely from scratch in Norman White's Thruxton workshop, using original drawings, photographs, and in many cases relying on memory.

To ensure they were as authentic as possible, Norman White traced three more members of the original 1970s works team; Peter Pykett, John McLaren and Basil Knight. Two of the team, now in their seventies, came out of retirement to work on the project.

Speaking in the documentary, Norman White comments: 'Perhaps only us, the original team from the 70s workshop, could re-create these bikes exactly as we produced them in the 70s.'

The project also turned into a race against time, with the museum vowing to re-build and re-open in little more than a year - and they wanted the John Player Nortons - a monocoque and a Cosworth Challenge among them -- ready to take pride of place.

During the course of 2004, exclusive access was given to the film company to chart the rebuilds, and this documentary is the result. The film's producer and director, Stephen Arkell, is a Norton Commando owner himself. 'I felt very privileged to witness the re-creation of these bikes by such a remarkable team,' said Stephen 'I hope other owners and enthusiasts will feel as though they were there during this historic project too.'

And it's a decent enough programme too. Having said that, several things become clear, not least the sad but inescapable fact that the bikes which emerge from the truly impressive White workshops are replicas. Authentic replicas, if you like, but not reconstructions of the originals (there was nothing left of the originals which was fit to be used, sadly).

Does this bother you? Only you can answer this question. The bikes were built by the blokes who originally built the originals, using many of the same skills, but they are not the same bikes.

Random Nortons on eBay.co.uk

Rarely has such a well taken picture shown so little of the subject matter.

The other, far more positive, conclusion is that the guys wielding the spanners - and in the case of Norman White, actually riding the bikes - are as expert and proficient as ever. The DVD is worth watching just to see the work that goes into re-solving problems which first arose decades back when the originals were being constructed. It's worth watching just to hear the bikes fire up; to watch the elegant solution to building a monocoque for one of the Commandos, finding a replacement engine and manufacturing a new swinging arm for the Cosworth, and for the understanding that from destruction so complete (only a marginally re-useable wheel spindle was left from one bike!) such glorious machinery can emerge.

No Norton rider can be immune to the emotion which will follow watching this vid. Really. Let's hope that the National Motorcycle Museum follow the trail they've blazed with their collection of rotary Norton racers, and let these astonishing machines back out for a track canter from time to time.

*****

Norton - Rising From The Ashes is available for £9.95 plus £2 recorded p+p in the UK.

Send a cheque for £11.95 made payable to 'Retina Productions Ltd' to:
Retina Productions Ltd, 6 Mount Pleasant Crescent, London, N4 4HP, UK.

International prices are €18.95 (including p+p) for deliveries outside the UK but within Europe, US$17.95 for deliveries outside Europe (including p+p).

Please allow 14 days for UK delivery, 21 days for international delivery. Please state with your order whether you require a PAL or NTSC version.

For more information email: norton@retinaproductions.com

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