The AJS-type positioning of the
magneto behind the cylinder meant
that the dynamo beneath it needed
the primary chaincase and clutch
removing to take it out. The saddle had to
come off to get at the standard air cleaner. And
not many mechanics then were familiar with
telescopics. But with DRs the G3/L was still top
dog – after all, it had a fork in the future.
Norton WD 16H
Norton’s Gilbert Smith cultivated the War
)epartment in the s, hosting officers to
the TT, ISDT and Scottish, where Norton singles
shone – and Smith even had one of his men
write their reports for them!
In line with the ‘simple and reliable’ doctrine, it
was the 12.5bhp, 490cc side-valve 16H single
which was eventually selected for duty, along
with a couple of hundred 'ig 6cc outfits
with selectable sidecar-wheel drive. Always
conspicuously underpowered for their task, by
early 1943 they had been displaced by Jeeps.
Perhaps Smith’s PR work paid off, as Norton
would also be awarded the contract to design
and manufacture the universal pannier frames,
which, with a pillion pad and passenger rests,
were fitted to all large forcesѣ motorcycles by
mid-1942.
So the 16H (‘H’ stood for ‘home’) was
produced in numbers – more than 100,000,
with the company sloganeering ‘One In Every
Four Was A Norton’. Bracebridge Street had
never produced in such volume before, so it
meant changing from assembly of a whole
machine by a gang, to a primitive production
line, with wooden trolleys carrying bikes being
pushed along a row of benches.
The iron engine, with its classic Norton 79
x 100 internal measurements, had last been
revised in 1931, adopting dry sump lubrication
and moving the magneto behind the cylinder.
Fully enclosed valve gear was introduced
in 1938, but since it was untried, the WD
contract was for the 1937 version with open
gear behind a cover, and that was what was
retained throughout. The engine was put in
a trials frame with slightly better
ground clearance at 5.5in. The
19in wheels were interchangeable,
and Norton girders were strong.
But with weight at 37lbs dry and
compression just 4.9:1, this Norton
was not exactly unapproachable.
While robust and simple, it also
suffered from a number of faults
in service. The four-speed foot
change Norton gearbox would
develop slop in its linkage and wear,
with changes becoming vague, and
the loss of top or bottom. Like the
BSA, the rear hub suffered from
studs loosening off. The magneto
and its platform could also work
loose. But as former DR, the late
‘Titch’ Allen observed: “Nothing
that broke or fell off (a 16H) could
bring it to a halt”, going on to
recall how when the mag platform
worked loose, you jammed a bit
of wood between it and the cylinder
barrel, to keep the drive chain in tension.
For the rider, along with a clattery engine
and barking exhaust, the most uncomfortable
feature was severe vibration. This was probably
due to a combination of the lack of a head-
steady, and the WD 16H having adopted lower
gearing via a 17T engine sprocket, replacing the
civilian pre-war 19T one.
A former DR who fancied the performance
implied by the Norton name, after “some
surgery to the silencer”, remembered “knocking
on 60mph...and the handlebar was vibrating so
much it felt as though I was holding a cocoa
tin in each hand”. Triumph man Ivor Davies,
then a DR, recalled that with the 16H “it was
quite impossible to keep the controls tight on
the bars”, and that ‘one day one of the lads...felt
his false teeth ܫy outѧ The T sprocPet was
restored promptly post-war.‘The G3/L was pretty
much right from the start,
and unquestionably the forces’
favourite’
Just under 30,000 were
produced, mainly for the
Royal Navy. Triumph produced
the 350 side-valve 3SW and
then from 1942 at Meriden,
mainly ohv 3HW 350s singles.The Matchless was described as the Spitfire of
WD motorcycles’ and the superbike of the war