Norton sent out a blanket email via British Dealer News, inviting people to become "sales partners" (a ridiculous term).
The whole thing reads to me as though the 650 engine required too much work, so they had to scrap the project. They then needed something to sell....after all some time had already past and they had nothing to put up on Facebook....so had a rummage around in the old cupboard and found a dusty 961 sat there. Promptly this reappeared on the website and they back tracked on their initial statement of it having ran its course with no future left for the 961 (which was Garners opinon, hence flogging off rights whilst it was still worth something), updating a few parts, claiming it to be totally redesigned (no Norton, an example of a total redesign is a Ford mk5 Escort v the mk4 Escort) and then flooding social media with it being the new bestest thing available. Sale's obviously weren't as forthcoming as they had hoped, well, why would it be?....its out of date and the market now has much better options available than it did in 2010 for much less (Garners timing there was pretty spot on)....and the used market is also now full of seemingly the same bikes for much less. Brummie Norton tried to devalue the Donington bikes, and to some extent did so....but in the same stroke they made theirs look more of a rip off. So they invite every man and his dog to apply to be "Sale's partners"....and as long as they cleared the back ground checks, paid upfront a nice little sum and also bought a few bikes...they could hang the Norton sign above their door. Norton gets a bit of revenue, and more importantly they get to shift some bikes out the tradesmans back door (not the front door, as that'll be reserved for when they finally sell that out of date V4 to the general public) and let them deal with flogging them.
Of course, you could read into this as just coming from someone very bitter after having his morning wasted by being told he's not allowed on site at Norton to road test their "totally redesigned bike"...and to be honest you could be right. I tried my best to fly the flag for them, in the hope some sort of bridge may be built....but instead they set fire to it. In return, I've lowered their flag at home, set fire to that and pissed on the ashes. If they want me back on side again, they all know where I am....but they need to bring the wood and put some effort in as Ive not got time to build much as present. As far as corporate arrogance goes, they're trying to walk in shoes far to big for them. They talk as though they're exclusive as Brough and as big as Ducati....they're a long way off both.
!! The plastic cowl alone, no fittings or bum stop pad - GBP 616!
