N15/G15 CS Front Fork/Dampers

[Nomad]

If your N15CS is from 1966, it did not have the external fork springs. The dampers that were used in the 1963 to 1965 bikes used the Matchless G80CS dampers, but they were an inch longer. The 1966 N15CS, G15CS used the featherbed type dampers that were an inch longer but used the standard fork springs from the featherbed bikes. The rest was as per the standard Norton Roadholder forks, but the stantions had the circlip to locate the lower steel bush, and they were longer than the standard Roadholder ones. Berliner issued a service release concerning those external fitted fork springs, used from 1963 to 1965. This explained that damage to the front fork damper tube 030440 and the damper rod 017357 can occur in some instances when the forks are subject to sudden full extension. To prevent this an extension to the damper rod, 031513, which can be fitted to the scrambler bikes. This part number is listed in the 1965 interim parts book, or pamphlet before the master parts book for 1966-67-68 was published. I have them in my own 1963 Norton Atlas Scrambler which is one of the first 200 made and dispatched in October and November 1963. They really do work, as i found out when i went into a water filled pit hole when it was raining very heavily. The 1964 or green covered parts book for the G15CS, or G15CS(N) G15CS(M) was mainly for the earlier 1963 Atlas Scrambler bikes. This can be easily deduced, as the footrest are of the one-piece type, as used on the later G15Mk2, AJS Std and the last of the G15CSR that were sold as street scramblers. As for your question the answer is no, as I have just been refused by Crowood Press.

[Joker_Bones]

Thanks again...
I've looked at some parts listing, diagrams, and photos and concluded... I have the inch longer roadholder type dampers but the earlier nutted stanchions and external springs. So, my hybrid bike has hybrid mix 'n' match forks.
It's not a matching numbers bike. Curiously... The dating certificate from Roy shows the frame and gearbox were dispatched together from the factory 7 March 1966. The engine (in a different frame) was dispatched a week later on 14 March. All went to the same dealer in Toronto and came back 50 years later mix 'n' matched.
Roy also told me there was a note in the records saying it was dispatched in chromatic green. It was black and red when I bought it, when I took the breather hose of the oil tank...

20160826_164655.jpg

There was a trace of green.

Shame about the book.
I've read other posts of yours and you obviously have a wealth of knowledge on the subject. It would be fantastic to get it published for those, like myself, who are interested.
Do you have a plan B?

[Nomad]

If your N15CS was dispatched in green, then that is a very rare bike. Not many were painted in green. My AJS 33CSR or the Hewitt Special was dispatched in red. My P11 book sort of took over, as I was trying to put together something for the G15, N15, and the 33 models. I was in Seattle in 1998, and I was talking to an ex-Berliner employee, and in his recycling bin, were all these ex-Berliner service releases. I got to them before they were thrown out. For the P11 book, I have spent over £3000 on getting component drawings made, as the P11 is notorious for not have that much in the way of drawings. As for a Plan B, well I do not have one. I now use my own books as a reference for myself.