The Norton F1 was a Wankel rotary powered road bike built by Norton Motorcycles between 1989 and 1991. It had an engine capacity of 588cc, race spec suspension, an aluminium alloy frame, a hydraulically operated clutch, 5 speed transmission and front/rear disc brakes.
The bike was a revelation when it was released and the original race version won its first ever outing at Brands Hatch, the road going version was put on sale a year later for £12,000 (a stupendous amount of money at the time) and saw limited sales success, it also had issues with excessive emissions and overheating but none of this ever concerned me. I wanted one then and I still want one now.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Suzuki GT750 was released in 1971 as a competitor for the Honda CB750. Much to Suzuki’s credit they didn’t jump on the bandwagon of the air-cooled, inline-4 CB750, and went off in their own direction, creating a liquid-cooled, inline-3 cylinder 2-stroke. The Suzuki GT750 “Le Mans” Suzuki broke a lot of new ground with…
The Harley-Davidson XR1200X The Harley-Davidson XR1200X was the high-end version of the short-lived XR1200 series by the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer. That “X” suffixed to the name denoted Showa Big Piston Forks and twin full-floating Nissin front brake rotors up front with Showa shocks (with piggyback nitrogen-charged reservoirs) in the rear – the most modern suspension…
The Honda Monkey Z50R was released in 1979 as the new and improved Honda Monkey bike – so named because people looked like monkeys when riding them, with their knees up, arms out, and shoulders raised. The Honda Monkey Z-Series The truth of the matter is that the Honda Monkey came about almost by accident,…
When you see the Watkins M001 for the first time you spend a good 5 minutes staring, trying to wrap your mind around it. It’s equal parts complex, unusual, and unfamiliar, almost as if a motorcycle from the Blade Runner universe was modified in the Marvel universe, before somehow exiting a wormhole and landing on…
This is Dennis Hopper’s original 1970 Husqvarna 250 Cross, he bought it brand new just a year after the cinematic release of Easy Rider, one of his most famous works which he had co-directed with Peter Fonda and co-written with both Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. Dennis Hopper – Counterculture Hero and Hollywood Icon Hopper is remembered…
The DKW W2000 is a rotary-engined motorcycle that was sold under the name “Hercules W-2000” in all world markets outside the United Kingdom – it was the first rotary motorcycle (in full production) in the world and its engine would go on to form the basis of the Norton rotary-engined motorcycles that would be produced…
