Nova Racing
From humble beginnings making gears for the motorcycle racing world, to absolute cornerstones of many bike builds, Nova is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
THE HISTORY
Nova Racing was started by Graham Dyson, who was previously the director at Barton Motors where he was responsible for the manufacture of all engine and transmission components.
In his role at Barton, he worked closely with the design team to create the infamous Sparton and Phoenix two-stroke engines, which had some serious success through the 1970s and 80s.
Barton Motors was then purchased by Armstrong Industries and plans were laid to move into volume motorcycle production. However, Graham wasn’t keen and left to set up Nova Racing Transmissions Ltd.
The initial race gears developed by Nova Racing were produced in a small industrial unit near Peterborough and Graham soon established a reputation for making top quality products.
In 1996, Graham joined forces with consultant Martin Ford-dunn who was carrying out a similar type of work on motorcycle cylinder heads.
Martin had previously worked at the renowned Ricardo Consulting Engineers Plc for 29 years, becoming responsible for work on ‘small engines’ – including motorcycles. As a qualified mechanical engineer he worked closely with major manufacturers across the globe, learning the latest techniques in manufacturing and computer-aided design. He utilised this knowledge in his work for Ricardo – managing technically challenging projects including the production of a three cylinder 350cc Ducati racing engine and a Harley-davidson modular engine project.
With the two men working together, Nova Racing Transmissions began to grow and grow. Investments were made in CNC machinery and the latest design and analytical software. Four extra staff were employed and larger premises acquired.
Over the years, Nova undertook a wide range of projects – covering an eclectic mix of design and manufacture work. But there was one common thread through all of it – motorcycles.
Much of the duo’s initial work was focused on increasing the number of gears in the boxes of classic bikes, without changing the appearance of the external casing – so that the unit was eligible for racing.
At the time, its bread and butter was the BSA Gold Star five-speed, the Royal Enfield Bullet five-speed, the Bultaco 350 six-speed and the Triumph 5T six-speed.
Following Graham’s death in 2012, there was a brief period of uncertainty – but with the help of Martin’s son-inlaw Jeff Claridge, Nova made the move to the South of England. Jeff took over as director, bringing marketing and management expertise – in addition to a serious passion for racing, having started doing motocross at the age of seven before progressing through to GP125 road racing and 24hr Endurance events.
Jeff’s been leading the charge ever since, pushing Nova forward to the future.
WHAT DO YOU DO AT NOVA?
My name’s Mick Dearlove. I’m front of house; I answer the phones, take orders, prepare parts, build transmissions and look after the shipping and logistics. I’m the first port of call at Nova Racing.
We run the day-to-day business for Jeff Claridge whose main focus is the GP2 racer that we’re working on at the minute. Jeff took the business over from his father-inlaw, Martin Ford-dunn – who joined forces with the original founding member Graham Dyson in 1996. Martin got his name out there by designing and building a championship winning sidecar for his brother.
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED AT NOVA?
I was previously working in the motor trade, and had been running a Toyota workshop for 10 years. Then I was made redundant. Nova had just relocated close by, and I wanted a different challenge – and I basically came in and started as an apprentice gear cutter.
I knocked on the door and asked for a job as they were bolting all the machines down. Jeff the owner said: ‘well, what do you do?’ And I said, ‘I’ve no idea what you’re doing but I’m mad on bikes, bikes are my thing.’ And Jeff just said ‘come back on Monday.’
So I came to Nova as an apprentice gear cutter, but then when we got someone young
in and trained them, I went on to grinding. Soon enough I started answering the phones though, because the guy in charge didn’t really like doing it. I got excited about bikes and products and I found myself doing all the calls, taking all the orders, talking to the public – and I did the racing for two or three years too, spending time in the pits getting to know everyone.
It was important to get the name back out there because everyone thought we’d shut down with the move. But we hadn’t...
HOW DID NOVA COME ABOUT?
Nova Racing was originally based up at Crowland in Lincolnshire. Graham Dyson was the engineer and Martin Ford-dunne was the designer. But Martin always lived down here in West Sussex so when Graham unfortunately passed away in 2012, the plan was that the business would be wound up. Then Jeff Claridge, Martin’s son-in-law came along and said ‘Well, where are the racers going to go? Where’s anyone going to go?’
So he had a look at the business and decided to take it on – but the deal was Nova moved down here, so that Martin was nearby. Three of the original staff came down with the business, but the majority of the staff in the machine shop were new. Essentially, Nova started again. That was at the end of 2012, start of 2013 – and then I knocked on the door in February 2013.
WHAT WORK DOES NOVA DO?
Transmissions are the majority of our business; both classic and modern. We also do dry clutch conversions for particular models but it’s always motorcycle related. We used to do stuff for Jedi Racing Cars’ single seaters with the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 engine – and then we also did some Hayabusa parts for radical cars, and then various bits and pieces for drag racing too.
WHAT’S THE BALANCE BETWEEN ROAD AND RACING?
I would say racing is a good 50% of our work k, and then the other 50% is split between classic and modern. Of course, our work in racing also involves both classic and modern – and I would say, about 30% is classic and 20% is modern.
WHAT SORT OF STUFF DO YOU DO FORTHE RACING WORLD?
The majority of the grid in BSB (bar BMW) run a Nova transmission. The works Hondas, all the Kawasakis (bar SS3), the Suzuki GSX-R 1000s are all running a Nova transmission. WEW make the race parts for Ducati Europe – we make all the race gearbox parts for everythingg but Motogp. So that means the World Superbike and British Superbike Ducatis will have Nova gears in, even though they’re on a Ducati parts number. We do some Moto3 stuff too; producing boxes for KTMS, and we used to do the Mahindras.
HOW DOYOU DEVELOP THE PARTS?
It all depends on the product. In BSB we have two teams that we work closely with. It all started when Gbmoto switched to Kawasaki. They couldn’t get race parts, so we sponsored them and worked with them to develop the low inertia transmission which is now widely used in BSB.
We also have a couple of partners in the classic racing world who we work hard with. We work particularly closely with Davies Motorsport, and together we’re always looking for ways to develop and move forward.
HAS THE CLASSIC RACING WORLD ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF NOVA’S WORK?
Yes, classic racing’s always been a big part of what we do at Nova. A lot of the standard stuff from back in the day just can’t cope with the conditions of racing – and that’s where we come in. We use a particular type of motorsport steel and different heat treatment processes to create competitive transmissions for older bikes. And of course, a lot of road bike gear ratios aren’t ideal for the racetrack – so we can alter the ratios to suit too.
WILL YOU CREATE SOMETHING SPECIFIC FOR A CUSTOMER?
We can do one-offs, yes. But quite often now, if it’s going to be a mass produced bike we’ll develop a transmission with what we think is the optimum ratio – with possibly, alternate first and second gears depending on the circuit and the bike.
WHAT’S YOUR BEST SELLING KIT?
Oooh, blimey. Best selling kit.... It’d probably be for the BSA Gold Star or, surprisingly, the TRX 450 quadbike.
Everytime I make bits for the Gold Star, they sell out. It’s unbelievable. I must have done 300 sets since I’ve been working here. It’s endless. We’ll make 20 and they’re gone. I’m just doing another set now, and they’re already sold out. The Gold Star is closely followed by the T500 Suzuki and the RG 500 Yamaha, both very popular in the classic world.
IN ADDITION TO MACHINING PARTS, WHAT OTHER SERVICES DO YOU OFFER?
We are primarily a designer and manufacturer – although we do also offer superfinishing for all our products. The benefit of that is there’s less friction, which means less wear. It’ll also help the gears run cooler, because the oil sticks to the metal better.
HOW DO YOU SELL?
To be honest, we still get a lot of people coming to see us. We’ve just had a couple in from New Zealand. They’d come to the UK on holiday and had planned to pick their gearbox up on the way. We’ve had people from the States come over and ask us to design particular boxes. Anyone’s more than welcome to come and visit us, have a cup of tea and see what we’re about. If we can’t do a job because it’s not cost effective, we’ll try and suggest a different way forward.
HAS THE MARKET CHANGED FOR YOU?
The market has changed. The age group’s changing, particularly in the classic world. Everything’s moving towards 1970s and 80s and rather than 1950s and 60s.
Much of the demand for parts for British bikes has pretty much died off – apart from BSA. The age group of someone who’s into classic bikes and who’s got the cash to spend on one has changed. So they’re looking at 1985 GSX-R 750s not Triumph Bonnevilles. It’s CB900S, Freddie Spencer replicas and Eddie Lawson stuff.
WHAT’S COMING FROM NOVA RACING IN THE FUTURE?
There’s lots going on. We’ve just been designing some seven-speed boxes for sidecar racing, we’ve developed a device to remove neutral from race bikes, so you can shift straight from first to second with no gap – and then h at the end of the race you can click a little lever and use neutral again. We’ve W just developed a six speed for the BMW B twins, the roundheads – which means devising a whole new selector mechanism. We’re still developing new selector mechanisms and bits and bobs for Ducati singles. And we’re also a on with building our own GP2 race bikes b in conjunction with Go Racing D evelopments. There’s always something ne ew for us to be doing to eradicate pr roblems in older bikes, while looking to th he future in racing.