For the early 16H that didn't have a side stand, The footrest lug was used and a special clamp on lug was fitted just forward of the original for the footrest to be remounted. Some years ago, I managed to borrow an original and had a few cast and machined. All gone now. Ron
Re: Side stand fitting on a Norton 16H WD (Edited by Author)
Ah,
Ron your remark may be a little confusing. It should have started "For the early 16H that didn't have a pillion footrest lug".
WD16H always had a sidestand lug which was positioned where the pillion footrest lug is on a civilian motorcycle.
Early military frames did not have a left hand pillion footrest lug, unless it was for the India Office.
It is a much beefier lug than the pillion footrest lug and basically the most obvious indication that a frame was a military version.
On the early military MC's there was no pillion footrest lug and that was solved by the clamps you show, exclusively to be used for footrests.
Some people who did not inform themseves properly fitted the sidestand to the position of the pillion footrest lug on a later frame and a footrest on the sidestand lug with the to be expected result that the pillion lug broke off as it was not meant for this use.
It is indeed strange that they fitted any lug at all to the right-hand side. Perhaps with an eye on future surplus sales ? A different policy from BSA with their initially unmachined and then deleted sidecar lugs on the WD frames.
Whatever, the Norton Field Stand is dreadful thing and no real substitute for a side prop stand. To the best of my knowledge, Norton didn't fit a side stand to any pre-war models and the post-war singles all had a full cradle frame that offered a front fixing.
There was a "centre" stand mounted on the frame cross-tube that was actually too short to lift the wheels and which the factory literature described as a prop stand that could be used on the left or the right, but it is so close to the centre-line that I'm not sure how trustworthy it would be in most situations. It may in any case not be suitable for the WD frame with it's higher-mounted engine and presmably altered rear chain and saddle stay geometry ?
Re: Side stand fitting on a Norton 16H WD (Edited by Author)
There is a Dec 1942 snippet shown in the "Winged wheel patch" book stating serious accidents of Norton and Harley Davidson caused by sidestands coming down while in motion.
People were injured and even killed when the stand fell sideways without the rider noticing it.
The remedy given was either check for sufficient clamping force and "in the case of Nortons it might be necessary to wire up the stands permanently."
