Dunstall, the Goodies King
DUNSTALL,THE GOODIES KING
THE TAILOR-MADE APPROACH TO MOTORCYCLING
CUSTOMIZER, goodies king, call him what you will, Paul Dunstall has put the quiet south London suburb of Eltham on the map, by catering to the individual tastes of the street riding clan.
The quiet, unassuming 30-year-old, an international class swimmer in his early teens, turned to motorcycling at age 16. When he left school, he spent his first year working with his father building a house. Then he went racing with a Norton Dominator and was soon in the expert class, gaining leaderboard places without actually winning.
He modified the Dommi with a pair of upswept exhaust pipes and that’s where it all began. Other riders wanted them, so he made 12 sets, then 50 and on to 250. They were stored in his father’s scooter shop. As the craze for scooters died, so grew the goodies side. Paul then turned to cam design.
“At first it was done the uncivilized way, by regrinding the base and welding up the profile, but now we use billet cams. The material at first was EN32, then EN36 so to EN33 and now EN202.” Paul explained that a cam must always be a compromise. But a different cam is not necessarily the key to improved performance, so in his
latest catalog is a suggested budget tuning order.
His latest project has to do with noise. Dunstall is working on production of a silencer with a good note at 70 decibels to cover both standard and tuned machines so that they are quiet, quick and pleasant. His first patented silencer, which gave a very definite improved performance, sold 20,000 in the first 12 months. The latest has a diffuser at the back.
None can deny that Dunstall is successful. He has exported his machines to the U.S., Sweden, Australia and even Vietnam and Guam. He prints 30,000 catalogs a year, and is firmly convinced of the value of racing success. Ray Pickrell is the rider of his super-fast 750 Norton which took 17 lsts in 1968, including the Isle of Man TT production race where he set a lap record of 99.39 mph. In addition, a Dunstall Atlas holds the world 750-cc hour record at 126.7 mph.
Dunstall’s work in the past has been centered on Nortons. The surprising thing is that, with the British mania for club forming, there is not a separate one for Dunstall owners. But imagine the chagrin of Dunstall Norton owners when the first Dunstall Triumph comes
along; that will be soon. The 750-cc Dunstall Triumph is a 650 conversion which uses the existing cylinder head but a different gasket, rings, gudgeon pins, circlips, 10:1 Hepolite pistons and light alloy barrel with lip-flanged steel liners. Bore/stroke is 82 by 75.5 mm, yielding 740 cc. An 0.020-in. overbore gives 750 cc; 0.040 in. over opens it up to 760 cc. KK Motorcycle Supply, Dayton, Ohio, will be the U.S. distributor.
In case you wonder why Dunstall provides a 350 Aermacchi for Pickrell to ride, it serves two purposes. The first is to give the rider first-hand experience of race conditions, as the 350 event invariably is before the 750 class. The second is that it belongs to Paul’s wife, Lynne, and so gives her an added interest in the racing. Clever psychology? Maybe, especially as the front room at home is his indoor workshop.
The Dunstall adage always has been to give value for money. That is the basis for real success. He who buys a Dunstall machine almost joins a club, for with it comes a lapel badge and T-shirt, gimmicks which may or may not be original, but it is sound business sense, something that will keep the Dunstall name around for a long time.[Ö]
