Today at the Local Beach

Alas, not much has been accomplished on Trixie, life and responsibilities, ugh.

A front has been pushing through over the last couple of days pushing the temperatures into the 50's even 60's. Last night a strong storm passed with the typical effect on the ground swell. A couple of hours before this picture was taken the surf was a mushy mess, then the wind shifted to the SW and the waves smoothed out and the lips held up. Surfers should have been happy.

A Small Start

The other night I had a spare hour and took the opportunity to remove the gas tank and tail light assembly. I've also had an opportunity to spend some quality time examining the shop manuals and have decided to remove the drive train as a unit to begin the examination of the condition of the engine and transmission.

Next step is to mark and remove all the ignition wiring and systems.

Jim

Today on the Local Beach

Normally the local beach looks some thing like this...

But today it looked like this...

This is the result of mixing seawalls with powerful storms. Sandy did the initial damage and last week's Nor'easter simply stripped away the remaining sand. Interestingly some of the missing sand was deposited a mile or so to the south on a section of beach that typically has only rip-rap.

Jim

Why name the Norton Trixie?

The first bike I named was my F650 Dakar, which received the sobriquet Crisco, as in Fat in the Can for the bikes appearance when fitted with aluminum panniers.

Casting about for a name for the Norton, I thought of the Jackie Gleason sit com from the 1950's, the Honeymooners, and remembered Gleason's on air buddy was named Norton, but I couldn't remember the first name. A quick look up showed that Norton's name was Ed and that his wife's was Trixie and that Trixie was a former burlesque performer. Norton: "Every night I'd meet her backstage and hand her a rose ... It was her costume!" My Norton will lose some parts during its revival and it will be entertaining, so why not Trixie, the name is more interesting than Ed.

Jim

Progress Report

The only progress on Trixie has been the receipt of a set of Whitworth sockets, work and finishing a kitchen project have been a priority. But I have given some thought the direction the the revival will take.

The first task is to get the head off and evaluate the condition of that and the cylinder, which I expect will need work. Hopefully the bottom end is still bathed in 20 year old oil, but its not leaking and being British, that's a concern.

The bike will be fully disassembled the subsystems, brake cylinders, wheel & steering head bearing etc, will be rebuilt. I'll replace the wiring harness and electrical components, figuring it is better to start fresh than trouble shoot the old.

The gauges and switch gear are intact but with a broken lens on the tach and the fact that Trixie was left outside for several years, its doubtful that they work. By the way, there are 18,847 miles on the bike, maybe. I'll likely be evaluating replacement gauges and switch gear. Suggestions welcome.

I know this is stock, but it will go.

Depending the the choice of direction, mostly stock or lightly modified I expect to replace

the out of scale tail light and turn signals with something more discreet. Did Euro & UK bikes have different tail light assemblies?

It would be interesting to replace the headlamp with a bi-xenon or LED unit. More light and

less draw on the electrical system. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated?

Jim