Comments on: Norton Kawasaki 2 Stroke Cafe Racer – Norasaki

By: Benjamin Gradler

Benjamin Gradler — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:53:05 +0000

In 1968 Reg Pridmore won the 500cc AFM championship with his Norton Manx. For 1969 he took the Manx engine out and put a h1 500cc Kawasaki triple in it’s place. The engine was wide and the expansion chambers were bulky and he had ground clearance problems with it. The bike was not a success in that configuration.

I have the bike now and am putting it back together with the Manx engine as close to how it was when it won in the AFM in 68′ as possible.

Anyway, Pridmore called his the Trisaki, mixing the words Triton and Kawasaki. if he was not the first one to do this he had to be almost the first……

By: Gary D

Gary D — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:18:19 +0000

The Yamaton referenced is actually a real Yamaha 650 Special, frame and engine. It was built by Bob Vail of the AMA. I attended his seminar at AMA’s Vintage Motorcycle Days this year where he described the build process used to create it. Yes, the tank is a Dunstall Norton artifact he purchased and imported for a sizable sum, and a number of the other bits were hand made by Bob, but the rest is pure Yamaha. I wish he’d make the PowerPoint presentation he used available to the public as it was extremely entertaining.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:10:37 +0000

Wing ding ding ding .

By: Rick Calhoun

Rick Calhoun — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:35:58 +0000

I purchased the book Cafe Racer: The Motorcycle, I was intrigued so that I’ve descided to make my 02 883R Sportster into a cafe race. Thank you for the inspiration.

By: stacius

stacius — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:32:56 +0000

Good god, I bet that thing goes like the blazes…