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The Remarkable Story Of Pete (Pedro) Howell's Updraft Norton. by: BB_DASLER
Back in the dark days before unit construction motorcycles, most of the early cafe racers of the late 60's early 70's used the available parts from donor bikes to construct their own 'Special' and then strutt thier stuff at the local biker bars or cafes, to show off the fruits of their labors.
Here, you would see many examples of the cutting edge streetfighters of the era, sporting all the trick goodies that were coming onto the market around that time, like swept back pipes, 8 gallon fi-glass or polished alloy race replica fuel tanks, clip on bars, and as disc brakes were not adopted then by mainstream manufacturers, the twin leading shoe front brake conversion was a must for uprating the woefully inadequate drum brakes fitted to the bikes of the era.
Pete was a maintenance engineer at the local hospital and I was in a similar role in the electrical engineers dept at a nearby automotive machinery factory.
We used to ride out a lot together, and of course spend loads of time with our bike maintenance between numerous boozey parties,also along the way, partaking in more than a little of gods weed as we planned out routes to various venues and discussed our schemes to modify our rides.
In his apartment was what was going to be his 'piece de resistance' the PHD as he called it..The Pete Howell's Domiracer.
On a threadbare rug, between his bed and a small galley kitchen, stood a Norton Dominator
rolling chassis, with a small wooden crate used as a prop under the lower frame loops.
The gearbox was on the drainer next to the sink and the motor sat magnificently atop of a compact 50's refrigerator. Of course I tended to notice this as it was quite similar to my humble abode of the time except that I did put out the garbage on a more regular basis than he did it seemed.
So my reason for visiting that evening was to collect the plywood templates that he had fashioned to fit the motor and gearbox to the frame, and then in a feat of lunchtime engineering, to use these as a pattern to cut out the engine plates in dural for subsequent milling and polishing.
Excitedly he stuffed them into my back pack and we popped a few cans before I headed back home.
Pete's workshop was equipped to run a hospital not an engineering works, and so I was glad to help out a buddy by utilizing some of the best machine tools and buckshee metal stock available in the area. In fact our factory employed so many motorcyclists that it was known locally in jovial terms as ahem... Redmond Motorcycles. Ummm on reflection all these years later, I can see why they probably went under with so much illicit use of the equipment during lunch hours and sometimes invariably beyond that time, it must have had a knock-on effect that resulted in the closure of the plant in the late 70's. Ahhhh well, it was the era of peace and love after all.
So I did the job without too much trouble, four bits of dural plate from the scrap pile in the yard, a nod and a wink to the section chargehand ( Malcolm the Man...Rode a Matchless framed BSA 650 Rocket Gold Star) and we were home and dry...roll on 5pm.
Now the upshot of this story is, Pete bolted up the mill and G/box into the frame and dropped the chassis to sit on the wheels to measure up for some exhaust hangers.
Well, the phone rang that night and he was spitting feathers. It appeared that since the frame had a downward bias toward the front from the box it was propped on, a small error of judgment had occurred.
As he was calculating the angles to get the motor with a forward incline to give some downdraft to the inlet tract flanges and a stylish upsweep to the headers, he had not factored in the downward slant of the frame at the time.
So there he was with his bellmouths pointing toward the ground and the exhaust ports reaching for the sky.....How we laughed that night. ho ho ho I went, gnash gnash gnash said he. We got bad wasted that night, but we never forgot it.
A good friend and riding compadre....See Ya Round Ped
