235-bhp British Superbike, Reborn: Norton Nemesis V8

Allen Millyard restores the Norton Nemesis V8 for the National Motorcycle Museum…  

In 1998, at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Norton unveiled what was intended to be the world’s fastest production motorcycle, the 235-bhp Norton Nemesis. The one-off pre-production prototype had been designed by British engineer Al Melling. 

As the story goes, an American investment broker by the name of John Silseth II originally approached Melling to design a range of superbikes for the American market, which would carry the name of British Formula One constructor and race car builder March Engineering. Later, Norton — owned at the time by Canada’s Aquilini family — stepped in, offering to have the bikes carry the Norton name instead. Melling was commissioned to design four bikes: the Norton Manx, Nirvana, Buffalo, and Nemesis.

Norton had been founded in 1898, and with the 100th anniversary fast approaching, Melling suggested the Nemesis should be a 1500cc V8 — in essence, a conjoining of two 750cc inline fours already developed for the Manx. What’s more, this V8 could be made into a 2-liter engine perfect for small sports and race cars.

When the Nemesis broke cover, it boasted a 1.5-liter 235-bhp V8 engine with three spark plugs per cylinder, carbon fiber fairing, magnesium wheels and swingarm, F1-style active suspension, rim-mounted front disc brakes, rear-looking cameras instead of mirrors, push-button shifting, and more. The bike weighed 478 pounds and boasted an estimated top speed of 224 mph. If produced, it was to cost around £32,000.

Unfortunately, Norton went out of business before production could ever commence, and the only Norton Nemesis ever built ended up in the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, England.

Fast forward more than 25 years, and the Nemesis was in dire need of TLC. Now, if you were on the board at the National Motorcycle Museum and had to single out the UK bike-builder best suited to refurbish a one-off V8 motorcycle, who would you choose? We’d look to none other than Allen Millyard, the mild-mannered tea-drinking madman behind such creations as his V8 Kawasaki Zed, V10 Viper bike, and all kinds of other one-off multi-cylinder creations. The NMM bods had the same idea, and Millyard was commissioned to do the restoration work on the Nemesis.

As it turns out, it’s good they enlisted someone with such superhuman attention to detail, as the Nemesis is incredibly complex. Allen has been documenting the entire process — he’s currently up to 17 episodes — and it’s one challenge after another. In the first video, he works to get the front brakes and suspension functioning correctly, but it was a mammoth task just to remove the front wheel.

“First off, the brakes need to be disconnected, and the entire front end assembly taken apart. This is because the front fender, axle housing, and brake calipers are all cast in a two-piece assembly that splits in the middle… If that’s not complex enough for you, you’ll also notice that the brakes are very unique, with the rotor mounts on the outside rather than the inside. This means that the caliper bites onto the inner part of the rotor rather than the outer part like other bikes. Because of this quirky design feature, the rotor has to be removed from the wheel before the wheel itself can come out.” –RideApart

We highly recommend you make your way through the episodes, joining Millyard as he strips the bike, pulls the engine, splits the cases, and looks at the heads, coolant system, fuel injection, wiring, and more. He works out problems with the oil pump / starter clutch / gearbox / alternator drive gears, fits new liners and main bearings, refits the pistons and conrods, mates the V8 block to the gearbox, bench-tests the engine, and starts it on stage at the National Motorcycle Museum.

Millyard is ready for his first test ride of the bike:

“A new Canems ECU has been especially made to replace the old and unsupported ecu so I now have a chance of getting the engine to run well, and the bike is now finally ready for a proper test ride on a private road.”

First Start up in the Garden!

First Live Start on Stage at the NMM

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