Its so much smoother its hard to believe that your riding a vertical twin. I don't see any need for Norts to have isolastics any more. The vibration is reduced to the point where you can forget about it. The mirror dosen't blurr and you don't need gloves. It seems to be smoothest in the mid RPM range - probably because of the 70% balance factor. There is the expected increased intensity at high RPM but you don't feel like somethings going to break. You can leave it in a lower gear more often and just enjoy the smoothness of the ride.

I remember how it used to be - itchy butt, shifting early to keep the revs down. Things cracking & falling off. All that has disappeared. Its a whole new bike. I wish I'd had this years ago when I was racing.

The Atlas also has special tappet blocks for lightweight BSA lifters with stock BSA A65 profiles ground onto the cam lobes so I can wind it to the max without worrying about valve float. Mild porting, 32mm carbs & lightened crank (4 lbs less) help it rev freely. It revs out but still has plenty of low end grunt for torquing around. See below to view tested/used piston, pin & rod.

SEE DEMO VIDEO

That's one happy Norton rider (Jim on Wideline).

Photos below show used piston, pin and rod end after a year of testing in the bike shown above. Throughout the year the engine was subjected to 7500RPM, high speed runs (130mph+ top speed with racing crank and valve train), freeway cruizing, canyon racing and all around riding. There is no odometer on the bike (just a tach) so I don't know the milage - but I did nearly go through a rear tire. I only drill my own pistons so you don't have to worry about that. Parts were checked for wear and appeared to be in perfect condition. There are some wear marks on the pistons but no indication of anything unusual other than polish streaks from not enough break in time before giving it full throttle (abusive testing). The DLC coated pin shows no wear, stain or galling whatsoever. They are just like new, The small end of the rod shows the original micro finish hone polish without wear or galling. There is some darkening of the bare metal inside the pins and the rod ends because of hot oil but there appears to be no metal to metal contact.

Note - I only drill my own personal pistons - never a customers

Note original hone marks on the proprietary Carrillo bushless rod ID - no wear at all. Click for larger photo

Like new after a year of use. Click for larger photo

GO HERE TO PURCHASE PISTONS AND RODS

The black Parkerized coating that comes on a new cam hasn't completely worn off the base circle.

A year of carbon coating on the pistons tops. Note the minimal wear on the cam - the advantage of lightweight radiused BSA lifters.

For comparison - here's the same piston and pin after just one month of use.

The BSA radiused lifters appear to be barely broken in - they always show much less wear than flat lifters..

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