[Dave M] Dave nice to meet you, and you've got here a 1988 Rotary. I believe it's a water-cooled Rotary.
[Dave B] Absolutely, it started its life as a 1988 Norton Rotary Commander. That's a water-cooled twin rotor,
and I converted it into a cafe racer which is what you see now. So it's basically a Kawasaki ZX7R
front end, Manx Norton tank, that's an F1 Sport tail fin, and a Spondon swinging arm. It was just
parts which seemed to be available at the time, parts that I could get hold of, and it was just
putting it together. I knew roughly what I wanted it to look like which which was a cafe racer,
and obviously the standard the Commander that would normally be fully fared. So of course
this came to me as a crash damage bike, and I just had a vision, and just managed to source the parts
either locally on eBay until I got the look that I was looking for. [Dave M] But this is very much like a
two-stroke to ride, like we had a chat just now, and there's not a lot of engine braking so you have
to have a powerful front brake, hence why you've got that mod on there. But to ride, I'd imagine
it's great. [Dave B] It is good fun, it's quite revvy, and it sounds good. Also you can see the
the race replica exhaust system which was especially made by somebody in the Rotary circles
It's a guy that's got his own company that makes exhausts, I believe it's called ASBO Exhausts,
and they do some amazing work. And this is a race replica exhaust which makes it sound quite good. [Dave M] On
the overrun do you spit out flames? [Dave B] It doesn't quite get the flames but it's, people can
certainly hear you coming. This is from the race bikes, they had a system called the
exhaust ejector, and what they used to do was to suck through the rotor cores using the Venturi
principle, and it used to give the bike an extra 20 to 30 horsepower. The only downside was that
it couldn't really be silenced and you'd probably get two foot flames come out the exhaust, which
some people say it isn't really a downside. [Dave M] So riding at night could be... [Dave B] Spectacular.
[Dave M] Is there anything here that you would like to talk about on the engine that we can see?
[Dave B] I haven't really modified much on the engine from that side apart from the different air filters.
Everything else is the same. It's a standard radiator. The tank that was, the original
Manx Norton tank would have had a flat bottom, so I had to get that specially fabricated with a,
so that actually sits on the frame. So it has like a tunnel down the centre of the frame.
Had to get that especially welded. And then the spray job was originally done by
Dream Machine, until I had an accident on it in 2019. So it's first time out, actually I've been
out on the bike since 2019, so I've been taking things easy. [Dave M] Reliability, do you find it good? [Dave B] It's
been good so far. I mean I don't really go that far on it, I tend to just do a few local runs and
shows, but it's just a good fun bike. It certainly gets noticed
and it's a very different riding style from other bikes that I've ridden. Like I said, no
engine braking, but it's uh it's good fun to ride, and you know there aren't that many
Norton Rotaries about. [Dave M] Your paint scheme, I do like the crossbones on here. Does
that have any significance with being a bit of a tearaway? [Dave B] No. It's really a sort of play on the
sponsorship because it used to be the JPS Norton that used to sponsor Norton in the years
'88 to about '92 I believe. And so I decided I wanted to do something along those lines. So
hence the reason skull and crossbones, so I've just put it on there instead of a number.
It's still coming together, it's a bike that is still evolving. It's not
finished, it's an ongoing project, and it's just like I guess, a labour of love. [Dave M] Something that
people are not aware about with a Rotary, if you lay it up during the winter are there precautions
you have to make, and layout procedures? [Dave B] Absolutely. They say because they got cast iron rotor tips,
and you've got to be careful the rotor bearings, what they often do nowadays is to,
the process is to fill the plug holes up with oil and then to put oil also in the air filter. So
one for the rotor cores, one for the rotor tips, turn the engine over, and then you can then leave
it quite comfortably. It's got a coating of oil in the engine, it's then protected in a cold damp
garage for the next three - four months and then what's entertaining is when you then start it up.
You start it up after the winter layoff period and I find that all the neighbours tend to be
closing all their windows. There's plumes of smoke, it has to clear it. [Dave M] So what would do? Remove the plugs
and turn it over there, get rid of a lot of the residue of oil in there. [Dave B] I tend to do that at the start.
We take the plugs, turn the engine over, capture the oil first of all, and then when it's ready to start
then yeah, take it on a spin. But I find it's best not to labour too much in
the neighbourhood, just to go for a spin and then it clears itself within a couple of miles.
[Dave M] I really love your bike, and thanks again Dave for letting us chat about your bike,
and love to hear it going very soon. [Dave B] Yeah will do. [Dave M] Thanks very much.