Naught A Norton

NAUGHT A NORTON

SCULPTOR RICK BOOTH had one goal in mind after building the racy-looking motorcycle pictured here. And that was to fool most two-wheeled experts into believing that the machine was real for at least 30 seconds. Has he been successful? And how.

Designed to resemble a Manx Norton, the bike comprises mostly non-motorcycle parts. Booth christened the bike the “Naught” to demonstrate its faux status. But even so, you have to look closely to realize the ruse. Check out the hand-sculpted aluminum fuel tank (which could actually hold gas, by the way), emblazoned with the familiarly flowing Norton-esque script.

The label, however, ain’t the only jig that’s up with this bike. The engine, which does resemble that of an actual

Manx, is made up of a hodgepodge of, well, stuff. The carburetor, for example, certainly looks as if it could suck fuel/air mixture into the engine; only it can't, because it’s what Booth calls a “highly modified meat grinder.” And what passes for the magneto is really a part from a Kirby vacuum cleaner. The motor’s bottom end started out life as a furnace component.

“It's a full-size motorcycle that’s not a motorcycle,” says Booth, 51. who resides in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. He owns his own business, Oddments, Ltd., which is a way for him to create art-some motorcycle-oriented, some not.

But the Naught is Booth’s coup de grace. A two-year project, it was actually an

homage to the Manx as w'ell as a means for acquiring the real deal. “I had always wanted a Norton Manx,” he explains. “The whole idea of this sculpture was to sell the Naught to buy a real Manx.”

So far, there have been lots of lookers but no buyers. At Daytona Bike Week recently. Booth found a fellow who once worked in the actual Norton factory sitting on the bike, trying to understand how Booth fabricated this or modified that. “He just couldn’t get it that it ain’t real,” he laughs.

The Naught, indeed. Aptly named, it seems.

-Wendy F. Black