Rowean Hoseason and Frank Westworth review the latest video from the Norton Owners' Club. FW: "This is a masterclass in the noble art of gearbox building"...

The Norton Owners' Club have produced a new documentary, available on DVD and VHS, which shows the full procedure for stripping and rebuilding AMC and Laydown gearboxes as fitted to most post-war Nortons. The 90-minute film is demonstrated and explained by marque expert, Mick Hemmings.

If you've never actually sat and watched A Noted Expert strut his terrifying stuff, then treat yourself to a copy of this DVD and watch Mick Hemmings strip and rebuild two Norton gearboxes.

The first of the boxes is the AMC type, so applies equally to fans of AJS and Matchless post-56 heavyweights as much as it does to Commando owners.

I've stripped and ruined many a gearbox over the last three decades, and was in fact in the process of destroying another when I took a break to watch this disc. Blimey. It's all so easy when you know how. Plainly this is why folk pay money to experts; not only do the gearboxes just fall apart in his hands (very little application of hammer required, which was a surprise) but they also fall back together again.

This is a masterclass in the noble art of gearbox building, and it's also a lot more than that. It is a serious (but very entertaining) lesson in good workshop practice. Mick doesn't labour any points at all, but the need for organisation, cleanliness and skill are very plain. Like expertise, these can all be learned, and I wish that the legions of bodgers who have ruined so many bikes over the years had learned them before they'd applied wood chisels, giant screwdrivers and plumbers' pipe-wrenches to the bikes I've acquired years later.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff. The Norton Owners Club also produces a video about rebuilding heavyweight twin engines; I shall order one this afternoon…

Frank W

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A second opinion: I will admit that most motorcycle programmes send me running from the room, screaming and wailing after about 10 minutes. They normally suffer from appallingly low production values and - even the best presented - somehow manage to turn the most exciting machines on earth into the least interesting. But this vid is different.

It had me genuinely gripped. I was fascinated to watch a real professional at work and to be able to stop, go back, and watch again when he did something so smoothly and quickly that we didn't quite catch it the first time around. If you are uncertain about basic workshop practices - if you never quite know how 'light' a 'tap' to give something, or how much heat a timing cover can take, then this vid is a real education.

My only criticism is that it goes too fast in some places. Mick is so familiar with what he is doing that he'll rattle through 'and if you have the earlier model then this goes here instead of there and you need to stand on your head while tapping it with a mallet and pushing the spring back in', which left me saying 'Que?' and feeling a bit intimidated. Likewise, the camera doesn't leave the main workshop - so every now and then Mick pops off with an item and comes back with 'here's one I did earlier'. It's fine if you understand the process which took place off-camera, but mechanical greenhorns like myself would probably prefer more details.

The film also makes it really clear how easy the job can be - when you have the right tool. There are at least half a dozen tasks in the gearbox strip where Mick says 'and I made up a tool to do this' and so accomplishes the impossible in a nanosecond. The good thing is that he normally explains what the tool is made from and how to busk one together yourself. The bad thing is that if you don't have the gadget or the wherewithall to make one, then you're left floundering about how to progress to the next step. The moral? You can't beat having the right equipment.

Overall, I can't explain quite how superior a video presentation is to the usual comedy of trying to follow a written manual. No matter how good a manual is, it can't capture the moment of 'dammit, that always happens' which is so reassuring ('Look, darling: it broke for him too!') when you see it happen to a proper grown-up.

So what I'd like for next Christmas, is a full 'how to rebuild an entire motorcycle for idiots' vid. I reckon it would probably run to about, ooh, three days. Any chance, NOCcers?

Rowena

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The NOC Gearbox Servicing DVD is available as a DVD for £25, or VHS for £20 sent to the UK.

Cheques to NOC at 252 Ingram Avenue, Aylesbury, HP21 9DE or merchandise@nortonownersclub.org

The video series 'how idiots build an entire motorcycle' is available here…

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