'73 850 road test, read and weep (2011)

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Even at that they held on for two more years.

Funny how many times it was called a "Morton" in the article.
Maybe the Morton had the quality control problems and the 73 Norton was actually well made. :wink:

Bob
 
Good description of all the reasons I bought the bike in 74 and why we love them. Describes my 850 to a tee. Could you really ask for more. Of course, Steve, you already know that or you would be spending all your time on a Honda or God forbid a Harley.
 
The comments about build quality sum things up very well. A fairly good overall design mucked up by the gorillas in the shop? There's an even chance that some of the problems were due to very old, worn-out tooling.

There's a legend from the move from Birmingham to Plumstead after Norton became part of Assocoated Motorcylces. Many of the long-time workers declined to move and took retirement. When production started in Plumstead, they had a very difficult time getting the holes in the crankcases, which are used for the barrel tiedowns, to line up accurately. They were drilled by a drillpress with multiple spindles on the main column.

The folks at Plumstead got so fed up, they brought the old retiree down to London to see if he could help. The first thing he said when he got to the machine was "where's my piece of wood?" It turned out that the bearings on which the drill press column moved up and down were so worn, he had a length of 2x4 lumber which he used to force the column over to the same side of the bearing clearance each time. Apparently it made up to 3/16" difference down at the drill tips.

Lack of funding, particularly for capital equipment, was evident to me the first few days I was a Nortonian. I had already interviewed with Boeing before I went to N-V and I had planned to withdraw my application once we'd got settled in Wolverhampton. I'm sure glad I wised up quickly.
 
frankdamp said:
The comments about build quality sum things up very well. A fairly good overall design mucked up by the gorillas in the shop? There's an even chance that some of the problems were due to very old, worn-out tooling.

There's a legend from the move from Birmingham to Plumstead after Norton became part of Assocoated Motorcylces. Many of the long-time workers declined to move and took retirement. When production started in Plumstead, they had a very difficult time getting the holes in the crankcases, which are used for the barrel tiedowns, to line up accurately. They were drilled by a drillpress with multiple spindles on the main column.

The folks at Plumstead got so fed up, they brought the old retiree down to London to see if he could help. The first thing he said when he got to the machine was "where's my piece of wood?" It turned out that the bearings on which the drill press column moved up and down were so worn, he had a length of 2x4 lumber which he used to force the column over to the same side of the bearing clearance each time. Apparently it made up to 3/16" difference down at the drill tips.

Lack of funding, particularly for capital equipment, was evident to me the first few days I was a Nortonian. I had already interviewed with Boeing before I went to N-V and I had planned to withdraw my application once we'd got settled in Wolverhampton. I'm sure glad I wised up quickly.
Click to expand...


JimR wrote:
Good description of all the reasons I bought the bike in 74 and why we love them. Describes my 850 to a tee. Could you really ask for more. Of course, Steve, you already know that or you would be spending all your time on a Honda or God forbid a Harley.
Click to expand...

Yup, that about sums it up.

mike
 
If you are interesting in getting an inside view of what happened to Norton a book worth reading is >Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry< by Bert Hopwood. http://www.amazon.com/Whatever-Happened ... ewpoints=1

He was involved with Ariel, BSA, Norton and Triumph as both an engineer and company director from the fourties until the demise of the British Bike industry.

As a design engineer he advocated for developing the next generation of motorcycles but was resisted by a penny pinching Board of Directors that should have been running a company building washing machines.

Their attitude was anyone wanting a serious motorcycle would buy British so why not just keep cranking out the same old design.
Totally not willing to recognize the threat from the Japanese. Japanes bikes had starters, didn't leak oil or need regular owner tweaking.

Bob
 
rx7171 said:
. Japanes bikes had starters, didn't leak oil or need regular owner tweaking.

Bob
Click to expand...

But they didn't handle, look or have the mystique of a Norton. A man's bike.

Dave
69S
 
What happened to the two Honda riders who accidently got on Ea others bike at the hamburger joint ?

They never even noticed . As thy say . :wink:
 
>>Japanese bikes had starters, didn't leak oil or need regular owner tweaking.<<

Not that that was necessary for folks who like an intimate relationship with their bikes but for your typical potential American bike customer it really mattered. :wink:

Bob
 
I reckon that's why I got a Norton, it wasn't the same thing on the rest of the block, and you actually had to start the bike on your own to prove you owned it. Never did like going with the crowd.

Dave
69S
 
hobot said:
http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/cl ... d-test.php
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"The main bearings are what Nortons describe as "high-capacity, super-blended, large-diameter, roller main bearings", which apart from sounding like an advert for margarine means that the bearings are normal roller bearings with a slight taper on the ends. This will give the advantages of the roller bearing for load capacity and the advantage of taper rollers for isolating the crankshaft from too much endfloat." - This is nonsense isn't it! Shows how little motorcycle journalists understood on the matters they write about. I realise that Norton (or was it Mortons?) advertised their 'superblend' main bearings as having barrel shaped rollers, and i suppose back in the day, jurnalists could be forgiven for swallowing the nonsense whole. As for the diameter, though, the 850 mains are exactly the same diameter as the 750s aren't they?

Interesting to read though.
 
Tigernut said:
As for the diameter, though, the 850 mains are exactly the same diameter as the 750s aren't they?
Click to expand...

It says: "large diameter" not larger diameter (than 750..).
750's had the so-called Superbends first.
 
Pretty much describes my 850. However 73 850's had silver barrells. Maybe it was a Mark II.
Anyone know how much 726.00 Lbs. Sterling was in 1973??
 
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