The Norton Shrike was designed and built in 1984 by Dave Norton of San Diego CA

Genesis of the Shrike:

Early 1F2R (1Front/2Rear), monocoque chassis, Honda Civic drivetrain, 1980:

This arrangement, while quite intriguing, was discarded due to expected poor overturning resistance in accident-avoidance maneuvers.

Early 2F1R concept sketch, 1980:

Tubular space-frame, single seat, wide track, motorcycle drivetrain, reclined driving position, strong roll-cage and racing restraint system for driver protection.

Model made of paper and soda straws, driven by GI Joe, 1981:

This model allowed me to visualize the Shrike in 3D, and was a constant source of inspiration during design and construction.

Ink layout for SAE Technical Paper, 1983. Power is Honda CX-500:

Prototype Shrike, 1983, power by Yamaha Maxim 650:

Prototype was air-cooled. To provide adequate cooling, a large oil cooler with cooling fan was mounted ahead of the motor, with a rubber air scoop hanging below the bottom of the chassis. This arrangement worked very well.

Prototype Shrike in 1985 with final fuel tank:

Yamaha motor went 78,000 Shrike miles before expiring with a BANG! The Shrike took about 15 years off, until the New Millenium when I bought a crashed BMW K1200RS and started the redesign.

AutoCAD layout and 3D rendering of Shrike .01, 2000:

1/8 scale wood model modified for BMW K1200 power, 2001:

The fun begins…

Fortunately, BMW provided a dozen mounting holes on each side of their lovely cast aluminum chassis, making it (relatively) easy to carry the loads from the rear suspension into the main chassis:

At the steering head, a rather complex bracket was milled from billet aluminum and carefully fitted inside the complex shape of the bike chassis, forming a secure connection between bike and car chassis:

Fitting tubes for the rear subfame:

Note the extreme steering angle needed with such a long wheelbase:

The chassis construction is actually quite simple, all straight tubes, well triangulated:Note the space behind the driver’s seat, for luggage or an occasional passenger.

The body material is an architectural material called Alucobond (also Dibond), a composite of two sheets of .020” thick aluminum sheet bonded to various thicknesses of polypropylene. It provides a very flat surface that is easily worked with. The first step is making a foamcore template of each piece, then duplicating the templates in Alucobond:

This part of the construction is a lot of fun. Only two panels are curved, done on a simple sheet roller, the rest are cut using a metal sheer.

This part of ssls

Building the rear cover:

Gimmee some skin…

Lots of drilling and pop rivets. The panels are held in place with ¼ - 20 screws, covered with snap-on plastic caps.

Shrike with BMW K1200 power, 2002:

Shrike with partial bodywork, 2003

Shrike at SCCA Solo II Autocross, 2004:

Shrike finally gets some COLOR, 2005:

Note addition of inlet air scoops, solving cooling problems.

0-60: 6.4 sec, ¼ mile: 14.8 sec. at 96 mph:

First trophy, Knott’s ‘04

Yes, Virginia, two can play:

First parade, United We Stand, Murrieta, 2005:

A good idea, with this much power/weight ratio…

The chassis construction is actually quite simple, all straight tubes, well triangulated:

Note the space behind the driver’s seat, for luggage or an occasional passenger.

The car:

The model:

Cooling Problems / Solutions (the devil is in the details…):

The original body configuration (above) had flush inlet ducts for the twin BMW coolant radiators. Cooling was inadequate. The first fix was adding scoops to the inlet ducts:

This proved unsuccessful as well, so internal ducts were added to direct air onto the radiators:

This was fairly complex, and was too restrictive.

At this point it became evident that the radiators would have to be moved to a location in line with the inlet scoops:

The final touch was adding screened outlets on both sides of the rear cover to allow the radiator air to exit the cramped space around the engine:

This finally provided adequate cooling under all circumstances.

Moving the radiators up forced the addition of a coolant reservoir with a fill point higher than any other point in the system in order to vent properly.

The original donor bike’s instrument panel didn’t survive the crash, so brother Dan called in some favors and obtained a new panel, zero miles on the clock:

I consider the lean angle to be excessive for optimum cornering capability, but the low spring rate and generous vertical travel do provide a comfortable ride.

The Shrike is cornering at approx. .95 G in this photo.