The Ultimate Cafe-Racer Norvin | Cycle World | FEBRUARY 1995

The ultimate cafe-racer NorvinFOR SPEED-CRAZY, CAFE-RACING motorcyclists in the 1950s and 1960s, mixed-make hybrids were an inevitable result of the quest to top anything on the road.A popular choice of the time was the Triton: a tuned Triumph parallel-Twin bolted into a Norton Featherbed frame.But as soon as the Triton was established as the ultimate burn-up tool, a few bold individuals looked for someth ing more powerful, even more intimidating.They sought the absolute in the Norvin, a Vincent-engined Norton.The Stevenage V-Twin had obvious advantages-more cubes for a start, lOOOcc against Triumph’s 650. It was the biggest, fastest lump available, even 10 years after its manufacture ended in 1955. In turned form, it promised a significant advance on the best parallelTwin’s 45-odd horsepower. And the Vincent engine/gearbox stuffed the engine bay of the Featherbed to splendid fullness.There were racetrack precedents for this, including the Norton-Vincent British roadracer John Surtees...