I think that could be mine!

Just received my February Classic Bike Guide. Leafing through I notice a couple of articles about Nortons – someone’s doing up a Mercury.

Hang on a minute... that bike looks very familiar, and the restorer’s saying a previous owner says he did 150,000 miles on it.

Now I don’t know if that actually is my old bike, but mine did have a matched pair of Cronometric clocks on (the speedo tended to go wrong quite often), which isn’t standard for these; they should have a single grey-faced magnetic speedo. It also had the ‘orrible blue colour overpainted black – just like mine. Even the tank mounting rubbers look familiar. So, is it YPE661G?

That black ‘coating’ inside the engine that took so much getting off may have been the residue from the Slick 50 I put in. It’s a shame that the new owner opted not to use the Norton twin-leader brake. If it was my old Mercury, a previous owner had modified the brake, the back plate was bored and sleeved to be a good fit on the spindle (not always the case on the standard Norton one), and a bracket had been made up which bolted loosely to the fork legs, secured with Nyloc nuts.

This converted the brake to floating shoes, self-aligning when the brake was applied. I remember it as being excellent, and a mate who rode it said the front brake was better than the discs on his bike!

Don’t know where those shocks came from as it had standard enclosed ones during my tenure.

As described, the bike had done a huge mileage. I rode it to work in all weathers for 13 years. It was sold because it had started to smoke on one ‘pot’ and I didn’t have the time or money to rebuild it. The new owner was aware of this. Cosmetically it was very clean when sold, so it does seem to have suffered over the years. I hope the new owner enjoys it;

I still believe it was one of the best bikes I ever owned and the Mercury is, in my opinion, the best Norton twin – if not one of the best bikes ever made by a British manufacturer.

Steve Orme Dear Steve, it is indeed! I will get you two in touch with each other. How great to piece together the past of our machines. Thanks for writing in – Matt