Any Norton Dealers out their care to share their experience?

I was so enlightened by the responses from all the orig owners and riders who returned to Norton.
I was pleasantly suprised at the number of Norton Owners who kept them from day 1 till now.
Do we have any Norton dealers or former sales folks from the day that would like to share their experience.
Kinda cool to work in the dealership in the day I'm guessing.
Thanks I was born to late :lol:
Marshal

In the dying days of norton a retired managing director told me
they didn't call them customers but. " victims ".
If you have'nt read the rise and fall of the British motorcycle industry I suggest a read, very depressing.

Not to hijack this thread, but to me it seems more "victims" survived than other makes of the same era, how often do you see a Honda 450? A Suzuki Titan?, A Kawasaki 900?, a Yamaha YR1? Probably only goes to show that British executives didn't know what they were doing, ever!

While not a dealer, one of my friends has a repair shop fixing anything but specializing in British bikes and he has been in business for as long as I have known him (since the early seventies)

Jean

in the 60's and 70's the uk was in the dark ages the term british excecutive did not exist
looking back it seems a foreign land . to be brutaly frank new commandos were crap ( i now i had one ) and with all the modern tecnology they can be and are now great bikes . ive owned about 8 .
the dealer ( who walked with a limp from a bike accident ) could'nt to wait to sighn me up on the drip as nortons had in a effort to shift stock as it was going bust dropped the price from £ 999.00 to £600.00.
had it for 4 months then traded it for 750 honda four ........................as all the publicity about the combat made me sell.
happy days and on a final anecdote the first col tv i saw was on a visit to states ( the partride family ! )
uk still black and white and one tv station

The stuff I had that was built in 1969 or 70 was not all that bad. I flogged it but it held together pretty well. It does sound as if things went downhill fast after that.

As I lovingly look at my 72 Combat , I can see that it compares to my 303 British bolt rifle.
Both very well made and over engineered for its time ie... you could not afford to buy this bike/rifle today made as such in its day by hand.
The labour hours would kill the final product alone if built as in the day by todays costs.
I know today we have cnc machining that has tighter tolerences than man could ever dream of by hand.
But you are all right, lousy managerial skills and poor timing economically w/ govt liquidation killed a beautifull thing.
And my friend from London rode a suzuki GS 750 when he lived at home not a Norton.
Today, he drives a newer classic looking Triumph. I guess he felt guilty after all these years
A norton dealership must have been like the AMC car dealers in the final days, some great ideas but nothing last forever.
When I decided to get my Norton in 2004, I had been off a brit bike since 1985. I was really suprised in the continual interest and parts dist's avail.
It was like Norton never died in the USA.
Still looking for Mr.Berlinner to respond? :roll:
Marshal

Greetings,
If you haven't seen it, there is a six part series on Youtube called "British motorcycle History" that is very interesting and frequently mentions Norton motorcycles and their racing heritage.

GB

GB,
Thanks for the info.
Definitely going to check it out 8)
Marshal