HEAVY WEIGHT CONTENDER

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, vertical twins of 600 / 650cc were regarded as very large. They had, after all, evolved from smaller 500cc machines, and for a while it looked as if those earlier designs had been stretched to the max. That was until Royal Enfield skipped straight through the 600s and brought out the then massive Meteor 700, kicking off another capacity competition. Norton eventually replied with the 750 Atlas, our bike on the bench this time around.

My father owned a couple of 650SS Nortons from the mid-1970s onwards. One, a Dunstall variant with clip-ons, fairing and rearsets, was moved on quite quickly but the other, a more traditional, naked café racer stayed with us for a few years. While dad was working away for three months at a time, it was my job to start the remaining 650SS occasionally to keep the dreaded wetsumping at bay. For a 14 / 15 year-old it was no mean feat getting that brute fired up. I quickly reasoned that my efforts deserved some reward and it was only fair to let the old girl stretch her legs a bit.

My illicit rides didn’t go unnoticed; indeed, I was stopped by the police on my first legal trip on my 50cc BSA Brigand when I’d just turned 16. ‘Where’s your dad’s