How Would You Resurrect A 1953 Norton Dominator 88?
California bicycle framebuilder Todd Ingermanson did it his way.
This article originally appeared on the Cycle World website in February 2018, when I was Senior Editor.
The bike had been raced. The frame was stripped to the bare minimum. No brackets, centerstand lugs removed, extra holes for rearsets drilled in the frame’s webbing for mounting the swingarm, etc. The frame—one of the first-generation Norton featherbed frames—had a bolt-up subframe (exactly what BMW did on its boxers from the ’70s) and was the year before the British company braced and gusseted the headstock on the road-going bikes.
Not only had this frame been raced, it appeared to have been crashed a time or two. The subframe was twisted, as was the swingarm, and there were a few small scattered dents. In the crate with the frame was a 500cc iron head motor from a Dominator 77, an AMC gearbox, some mismatched wheels, a Lucas magneto, a pair of rusty Roadholder forks, and a handful of parts for Todd Ingermanson to try and make a motorbike out of. Of all the contents of that crate, only the front half of the frame remains on the bike.
Ingermanson is the sole proprietor of Black Cat Cycles in Aptos, California, where punk rock, surfing, and chasing grins on dirt and pavement are a priority of most folks in this Santa Cruz County outpost of nearly 6,500 souls.
“My bike started as a 1953 Norton Dominator 88,” Ingermanson said from his workshop on a cold February morning. “I acquired it by chance. My girlfriend and I spent the spring of 1999 traveling New Zealand in a gutted passenger van with a foam mattress on the floor, with our mountain bikes jammed in to make sure it was as uncomfortable as possible. One rainy day in Dunedin (they’re all rainy days in Dunedin) our timing belt broke while we were pulling into the only garage in town with a mechanic on duty on a Sunday. A friend of Sandy the mechanic showed up; his name was Martin. He happened to be into the same motorbikes I was into, Honda CB350s.
“We hit it off over the next 10 to 12 hours while Sandy struggled to make sense of all the botched repair attempts, stacked 20 years deep, on our poor van. We ended up staying with Martin for a bit and had a great time.”
Ingermanson had always been fascinated with British bikes, so in the age before eBay or Craigslist, these bikes were really hard to find for a young man. He mentioned to Martin—knowing Nortons found more homes in New Zealand than the US—that if he knew one to come up, he’d like to get his hands on it. Sure enough, six months after returning home to the US, Ingermanson got an email about one for sale in the Christchurch newspaper.
He called Ossie, the owner of the basket-case Norton, and asked if he’d sell it to a Yank, and he said no problem. Ossie had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to take his wife on a cruise. Ingermanson bought it with a wire transfer and a suspiciously small crate showed up at the Port of Oakland a few months later in May 2000.
Sixteen years later, Ingermanson began breathing new life into his Norton basket case. I recently joined him on the first shakedown ride on the roads near his home on the hill just a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean. Here’s a detailed list of his work so far:
Fork: 1975 Honda GL1000 fork, an eBay find in as-new condition. Stock lower yoke with fabricated upper. I also fabricated the brace/fender mount.
Wheels: Front hub is a 1975 GL1000 dual disc hub and rotors (lightened and cross drilled by Godffery's Garage). Rear hub is a Triumph Conical with SLS drum brake. Both laced (by me) to a pair of 18-inch Sun rims using Buchanan's stainless spokes.
Tanks: Central oil tank and Lyta-style "sprint" tank made by TAB II Classics in Wales (second-generation tank makers for these bikes). They supplied the seat as well, though I don't know who made it.
Brakes: 1990s Brembo 30/34 "Goldline" brake calipers, from one of a billion Ducatis of the era, attached with fabricated adapters.
Part 2 will highlight Ingermanson’s other upgrades; short of the tanks and fenders, if it’s raw aluminum or steel, he made it.