A Rare 1949 Norvin Cafe Racer - The Lovechild of a Norton and a Vincent

Reading time: about 3 minutes |Written by Ben Branch|October 24th 2019Norvins are exceedingly rare motorcycles, no one is entirely sure how many actually exist because they were never made by a manufacturer. They were mostly built by amateurs in their garages using what was widely considered to be the best engine and frame combination in the world at the time – the 998cc Vincent V-twin and the Norton Featherbed frame.The Vincent V-twin was first fitted to the Rapide series of motorcycles before being modified for use in the revered Black Shadow and Black Lightning. There were the fastest motorcycles of their day in the late 1940s and 1950s, their performance was legendary. Men like Hunter S. Thompson and Rollie Free have added to the fame of the Vincent over the years, and today they change hands for eye-watering figures.The Norton Featherbed frame is probably the most famous motorcycle frame of all time – I certainly can’t think of many other frames that people know the name of. The F...