HOW YOU FIND THEM #16

A friend who is deeply and professionally involved with motorcycles has been looking for a good, unmolested Norton Manx for a couple of years now, and his search has yielded results beyond my imagining.

The machine is a matching numbers, barely used 1962 Manx 30M, the last year of full production at the factory, with the best equipment of this long-lived series. Double-overhead camshafts, rotating-magnet racing magneto, fabulous double-sided four-leading shoe magnesium front brake, long-range (Isle of Man) petrol tank, and the list goes on.. it even sits on the original triangular Dunlop racing tires.

As you can see from the photos, there is a hint of corrosion on the cadmium-plated (or is it satin chrome?) nuts and bolts, and the paint has oxidized a bit, but those are necessary clues to the bike's originality, strictly as per factory catalogue.

My friend says he'll replace the perished fuel lines, but that's about all - it's perfect as it sits.