NORTON FEATHERBED

The iconic frame that created a handling revolution 70 years ago

In classic motorcycle circles, everyone knows what a Featherbed is. Amazingly, the Featherbed frame has now been around for 70 years, and represented a quantum leap forward in motorcycle handling when it first appeared.

Produced in various forms by Norton for 20 years between 1950 and 1970, it’s still in action – in both original and replica form – with countless classic racers, Triton and specials builders, and owners of both single and twincylinder Nortons. The Featherbed frame is a genuine motorcycling icon – and it’s one that shows no sign of falling out of favour any time soon. That’s some achievement for a collection of steel tubes. But, of course, there’s more to it than that. Much more...

When the Featherbed frame made its public debut in April 1950, at Blandford Camp in Dorset, it was an instant sensation. The ‘Garden Gate’ plunger frames used by the works Norton team during a bitterly disappointing 1949 season were a disaster. But now (admittedly in the sublimely talented hands of Geoff Duke) the 1950 works bike, with its all-new frame, totally eclipsed the rest of a world class field to record a stunning win in front of 40,000 fans. It was the first of many victories for the new frame – and for Geoff Duke. Norton were back on track.

Aside from the skill of works rider Duke, much of the credit for the transformation in Norton’s racing fortunes has to go to that new frame. It was common knowledge that the works stars weren’t happy with the handling of the old Garden Gate frame – and it was no surprise to learn that Norton had been beavering away at a replacement. But, while most observers assumed the frame was an in-house development that had been designed, built and tested over the close season, the reality was that it had been

a long time coming. In fact, the origins of the new frame went back to the war years – and to a workshop in Belfast, rather than Bracebridge Street.

During the war, road racers Rex Mccandless and Artie Bell both worked at Short and Harland in Belfast, producing aircraft parts. But bikes – and how to improve them – were never far from their thoughts. Pre-war, just about every normal machine had a rigid rear end. But, as early as 1942, Rex started experimenting with a sprung frame. He wasn’t the first to come up with the concept, but he had become convinced that frame design had failed to keep up with ever-increasing power outputs and he saw a sprung frame as crucial to taming the power of the latest engines.

Using Citroën damper units fitted with Salter springs, Rex produced a prototype swingarm conversion for rigid machines and began testing on his own Triumph twin. By the time the war was over, Rex and Artie were ready to begin production of their swingarm conversions – and when racing resumed, Artie started racking up some impressive results on his own swingarm machine. In fact they were good enough results to attract a works ride for the Norton factory in 1947. It would prove to be the first step towards the development of the Featherbed frame. The swingarm conversions were doing good business and were proving particularly popular with road riders. So good, in fact, that James Ferriday – the founder of parts and accessory giant Feridax – took such a keen interest in the springer frame business that he went into partnership with Rex as Feridax-mccandless. But, by that time, Rex and partner Artie had their sights set a little higher and they sold the manufacturing rights to Ferriday and moved on to the next stage of their adventure.

With Artie ensconced in the factory race team, Rex finally had the chance to pitch his ideas to Norton factory boss Bill Mansell. That resulted in a freelance contract and the chance to work with the latest racing engines. Convinced a decent frame could reverse the dismal fortunes of the works team on the world stage, he got the go-ahead to produce some prototype frames for the works Manx racers – and over the winter of 1949/50 the new frame came together. Testing of the prototype early in 1950 on the Isle of Man, at Montlhéry, the Motor Industry Research

ABOVE: Geoff Duke at the 1950 Senior TT, on the way to the top step of an allmanx Norton podium, with Artie Bell in second and Johnny Lockett third – all three on Featherbed frames

Association (MIRA) test track and Silverstone revealed the potential of the new frame – even to sceptical Norton race boss, Joe Craig. At the Silverstone test session, delighted works rider Harold Daniell declared the new frame was like riding “a feather bed” compared to the old Garden Gate design. The Featherbed frame had arrived.

With that enthusiastic endorsement ringing in his ears, Rex (and employee Oliver Nelson) produced a small batch of frames for the 1950 works race machines. Apparently, neither the Norton factory, nor its preferred frame contractor Reynolds, had the facility to undertake the Sif-bronze welding that Rex’s design demanded. Named after the Suffolk Iron Foundry, which pioneered the technique during the war, Sif-bronze welding uses an alloy with a lower melting point than the steel it joins. And, unlike brass used in brazing, it could be worked up into fillets to strengthen the joints. It was perfect for the manufacture of motorcycle frames and rendered the old, heavy, lugged-and-brazed frames instantly obsolete.

The design of the Featherbed frame was simple yet ingenious. Of duplex cradle design, the main loop was constructed out of two roughly rectangular runs of tubing running straight back from the bottom of the headstock, curving down round the swingarm mounts before sweeping back under the engine to form both sides of the cradle and

This shot, of Ken Kavanagh at the 1952 West German Grand Prix at Solitude, shows off the design of the Featherbed frame with its simple but effective duplex cradle design. The geometry placed more weight on the front than Norton’s previous ‘Garden Gate’ frame, greatly improving handling

Top: Norton’s 1949 500cc Garden Gate-framed works racers fared so disastrously on track, the factory desperately needed a new solution

Below: The Featherbed frame, as seen on this Manx Norton, turned Norton’s race fortunes around. The Sif-bronze welded frame and its revised geometry proved light, strong and rigid with sharper steering finally curving up to rejoin the headstock at the top. Cross braces were added behind the headstock, above and below the swingarm mounts and at the rear curve of the main frame loop. The rear subframe was bolted on, the swingarm pivoted in Silentbloc bushes and all the joints on the main frame section were Sif-bronze welded. The geometry of the design placed more weight over the front end of the bike – a feature that helped sharpen steering and the whole package proved extremely light, strong and rigid. As a bonus, it was actually easier to manufacture than the old lugged-and-brazed Norton frame.

The new frame worked. If anyone needed proof that Geoff Duke’s win at Blandford was no fluke, they soon got it. After being pretty well unable to buy a win during the 1949 season, at the TT in June 1950, Nortons with the new Featherbed frames just about cleaned up. Nortons scored one-two-three finishes in both the Senior and Junior races. Fittingly, Artie Bell took the Junior win, with Geoff Duke second and Harold Daniell in third. Duke won the Senior, Artie Bell finished in second place and Johnny Lockett was third.

The rest of the GP season saw Duke scoring two more wins, at the Ulster GP and at Monza, but his failure to finish in a couple of rounds meant he had to give best to the works Gilera of Umberto Masetti in the title chase – though Norton did win the constructors’ championship. Duke finished second in the 350 class, too, pipped by Bob Foster’s Velocette. Norton were back.

The following two seasons were even better for the Featherbed-framed works Nortons. In 1951, Duke dominated, winning both the 350 and 500cc titles. And the following season, he again topped the 350cc class. The Featherbed frame seemed to have given the ageing Norton singles an extra few years at the top before they were finally swept aside by the rising tide of multi-cylinder machines from Gilera and MV Agusta.

Duke moved to Gilera for 1953 and won the 500cc

class – but, despite that, the Featherbed frame (and the Manx Norton) weren’t quite done. Ray Amm rode his Norton into second place in the 350 championship and took second place behind Duke in the 500 class in 1954, as well as finishing second in the 350 title chase. By 1955, though, Nortons were slipping down the leaderboard at GP level. The age of the four had arrived.

Plenty of privateers continued to plug away with the outgunned Norton singles, the superior handling of the Featherbed frame allowing them to stay in the hunt with the faster multis. Geoff Duke, having returned to the Norton fold, managed third in the 1958 350 GP class, won the Swedish round and continued to regularly score GP points. And, in 1961 – albeit in the absence of the Gilera fours – the astonishingly talented Mike Hailwood rolled back the years to blast a 500 Norton to the Senior win at the TT. As late as 1964, Jack Ahearn was able to win the Swedish 500 GP on a Norton and Phil Read claimed victory in the premier class at the Ulster that year, too. And as late as 1970, Featherbed-framed Norton singles were still making up the not-inconsiderable rump of the GP field. But wins were becoming harder to come by.

There’s no doubting the Featherbed frame extended the competitive life of Norton’s Manx way beyond its sell-by date. And, if the Featherbed’s finest decade on the race tracks was the ’50s, the road-going version of Rex Mccandless’ tubular belle would have an equally long career.

For 1951, the public could buy both

1951: 1952: 1953:

F G H

1954: 1955: 1956:

J K L the Manx Model 30 (500cc) and Model 40 (350cc) racers equipped with the new frame, but it would be 1952 before production versions of the Dominator 88 (with a mild steel version of the Featherbed frame) went on sale. The same year, welded (rather than Sif-bronze welded) joints were used to fabricate the frame of racing Manx models. Road bike frames were constructed either of grade B (14-gauge) tubing, for Dominator models, or grade A (16-gauge) for overhead-cam International models, with 10-gauge used for the swingarm. Racing frames were still constructed of lighter, aircraft-quality Reynolds 531 tubing.

Road-going Featherbed singles joined the Norton line-up for 1953, when both the ohc International and the ES2 got the new frame. And for 1954, the first of the (previously export-only) Model 88 Dominators were released in the home market. The following year, the first major revision of the Featherbed design appeared, with the adoption of a welded (rather than bolt-up) rear subframe fabricated using larger-diameter tubing. The Dominator 99, launched in 1956, was the next new model to benefit from the Featherbed frame, while the next significant development following that would be the introduction of the ‘Slimline’ Featherbed for 1960. The Slimline’s main frame tubes run closer together at the rear of the fuel tank, allowing the use of a slimmer tank rear section, along with affording the rider a more comfortable riding position. In 1962, the new 650cc Manxman, 650SS and 745cc Atlas models also

Between 1946 and 1960, Norton used a code letter on frames to indicate the year of manufacture. On Featherbed frames, this is stamped on the nearside rear frame gusset, just above the swingarm pivot. The codes are as follows:

1957: M 1958: N 1959: P

1960:

RFor 1961-1970 Featherbed frames, you’ll need to check the full frame number to establish the year.

The Norton Dominator was one of Norton’s road bikes to benefit from the design of the Featherbed

While there are plenty of original Featherbed frames still out there doing what they were designed for, such is the enduring popularity of this iconic tubular construction that you can still by new, replica versions from a number of sources.

Here are a few of them.

Manufacture race and road versions of the Wideline Featherbed. Prices around £2340, depending on options such as sidestand mountings, steering stops, etc. nortonraceparts.com

Produce and market Manx Featherbed frames (see below) through the TGA brand, which Andy and Richard Molnar have operated since 2016. Priced at £1950. tga.co.uk

Run by the great nephew of James Ferriday – founder of the Feridax accessory brand and collaborator with Rex Mccandless. Prices depend on specification. loweframefabrications.co.uk