Scoring a nought on a Norton
Back in the 1960s, long before the introduction of pre-licence motorcycle training, it was just a matter of paying Ten Shillings for a Motorcycle Learner’s Permit and then actually learning how to ride by practising in the traffic! You could then go for your full licence by answering questions designed to test how well you could recite the road rules, then finally have your ability to ride without breaking any road rules assessed by a Tester who followed you on a ride around the streets. No mistakes meant a score of nought.
You were allowed to extend your Learner’s Permit twice but after that you had to pass the full Motorcycle Licence test or give up your ambition of becoming a motorcyclist in Victoria. I had used up my maximum number of Learner’s Permits and it was time to face the music, but my Velocette was in bits and I was getting desperate, so I did a ringaround of my motorcycling mates to see if I could beg, borrow or steal a bike to do the test. All these bikes were fine examples of the post-WW2 British motorcycle industry. Here’s the roll call: Simon’s Norton Dominator – in bits, seized piston; Big Ed’s Triumph Thunderbird always in bits; Dave’s Triumph Speed Twin – not in bits but not starting (cause unknown). Final hope, in desperation I rang Lynton to plead with him that I borrow his fully restored silver-grey and chrome Norton International. Much to my surprise he said yes. “You mean it’s not in bits?” I asked. “No, but the Jampot silencer is being repaired” he replied.
It was too late to get a replacement Jampot silencer, so I fronted-up for my motorcycle licence test on a borrowed Norton clubman racer fitted with what was basically a Manx racing engine, manual advance/retard magneto ignition, close-ratio TT gearbox and competition clutch, and for an exhaust, wearing nothing but a straight-through header pipe!
I arrived at the Exhibition Building (where licence testing took place in those days) and put the bike on its centre stand with the exhaust facing away from the building in the naive hope that the Tester wouldn’t notice that it didn’t have a silencer (as if no one would notice once the engine started). I went inside and did the written and oral test about the road rules, traffic light colours, etc. which I passed.
So, accompanied by the Tester (an ex-Motorcycle
Police Officer), we went out to the bike. My Tester looked at the Norton and exclaimed “nice bike – yours?” so I had to explain the ‘bikes in bits’ situation. He then told me to start the motorcycle. Fortunately having a Velo I knew the 500 Single starting ritual, so after fiddling with choke and advance/retard settings and some help from the exhaust valve lifter I eased it over TDC on the compression stroke, and gave it an almighty kick that produced a loud backfire, and an orange-blue flame about two feet long shot out of the header pipe.
“That bloody thing belongs on a race track, not on the road” barked the Tester. “Take it away and don’t come back until it’s got a silencer fitted.” I wheeled the bike away till out of sight then rode home because I had to think, what to do? Then I remembered a friend who had a Norton ES2. I rang him and guess what – his bike was in bits, but he was willing to lend me its ‘pea-shooter’ silencer, which unfortunately jutted at an odd angle when fitted to the International, but it was a genuine Norton silencer and on the bike, so I rang the Motorcycle Licence Testing office and spoke with the Tester who told me to bring the bike straight back for the riding test and to make haste as a storm front was approaching Melbourne. By the time I got to the Exhibition Building it was already raining and getting heavier by the minute. The Tester gave a disdainful look to the heavens and said “Look, I’m not taking my bike out in this, so start the machine and ride to the other end of the car park and I’ll tell you what to do.” I quickly went through the starting ritual and the bike started first kick, then slipping the clutch against the TT carb’s high idle speed and high first gear, while making minor adjustments to the choke and advance/retard controls, I rode on the streets without once putting a foot down, until upon return, using both brakes, I proceeded to stop at the white line he indicated to me to stop at. Because it was now bucketing down the Tester put his helmeted head right in front of me and yelled “I’ve seen enough, you can have your licence.” I was invited to go inside to pay my money and was told that until the licence turned up in the mail, to use the receipt as proof that I was qualified to ride a motorcycle on the Queen’s highway.
Years later I worked for the Road Traffic Authority as a casually-employed motorcycle instructor in their pre-licence Learner Rider Course. This course was introduced because of the very high accident participation rate of learner riders – yes, the very ones who learned to ride while practising in the traffic and were tested primarily on their knowledge of the road rules rather than whether they could properly control a motorcycle – or not.
Now, reflecting on the licence test, my Tester was more interested in assessing how well I could ride than if I could memorise the rules of the road. That he allowed me a second chance to complete the road-riding component of the test in dubious weather conditions, on a borrowed marginally street-legal clubman racer supports this proposition. It could be argued that my Tester was in fact ahead of his time, a pioneer who anticipated the shift from a rules-based to a rider skills-based approach to prelicense motorcycle training and licence testing.
The paradox now is that it is no longer learners who have the largest increase in accident participation statistics, it’s now us old blokes returning to ride bikes after years of neglect and not practicing our motorcycle riding skills. In training and in testing the focus is now on Road-Craft and critical riding skills such as throttle and clutch control, steering and braking, and in my view learner motorcyclists are all the better prepared for the road as a result of these changes.
So to ensure the right of people of our generation to continue to ride, it is up to us to show initiative and consciously reskill ourselves as competent motorcyclists.
“I fronted-up for my motorcycle licence test on a borrowed Norton clubman racer fitted with what was basically a Manx racing engine, manual advance/retard magneto ignition, close-ratio TT gearbox and competition clutch....”