- Joined
- May 13, 2018
- Messages
- 104
I was at my local Harley shop booking my Ultra in for its first mot and I got talking to the service manager about my Norton and he said "there is one of my mechanics who will be interested in your bike". A young lad came out to have a look and it turns out he was an Academy Student at Norton and worked in the factory for 2 1/2 years after.Obviously as an Ex employee his observations may well be jaded!, but the main points were, Money is a definite issue with nothing spent that can't be justified, and that causes short cuts in manufacturing. I mentioned the cheap pathetic indicators and "Ji Lun" mirrors as an example and he says that they were bought in bulk for next to nothing and there are crates of them in stock. I asked why don't Norton have "After-market up grades for indicators etc and a decent range of accessories" and he said that Norton had originally tried that but he was told that there weren't enough on the road to make a profit. Which brings me to "how many", and he reckons that up to this March when he left, Norton were building no more than 7 to 8 a week.
We were talking about the less than brilliant mechanicals and he said that the factory know all about every issue and despite complaints from customers and input from the work force with practical fixes or improvements, nothing was ever done to rectify the issues because of money. Things such as batteries are the cheapest possible wholesale and has to be left on a decent optimate to last well, and obvious stuff like needing to run the motor frequently to prevent wet sumping and consequently blowing gaskets and seals when it's started with a crank case full of oil are curable and apparently the factory has a proper fix for the air box oiling up but would involve some re-tooling but was dropped due to cost issues. He also said that he had been told that the cost in parts to build a bike was between 3 and 4 thousand depending on the model before staff and overheads etc. He then told me his opinion on the management which I think are best left to the imagination, but he did have some positives. The frames are really well put together and the welders are really good, the alloy tanks are fascinating works of art, he was really enthusiastic about the tanks starting as a flat sheet and ending as the stunning finished article. He said he left because he couldn't see a long term future there and as he was originally from my area he found a job working on some other overpriced crap (my words) and moved back with his Mum.
I don't think he was saying anything we don't all know, but for the foreseeable future I shall have my Rose Tinted Glasses fixed permanently to my face and continue to rattle embarrassingly around leaking oil from my air box until I hit that magical 4000 RPM and the world becomes a better place.
We were talking about the less than brilliant mechanicals and he said that the factory know all about every issue and despite complaints from customers and input from the work force with practical fixes or improvements, nothing was ever done to rectify the issues because of money. Things such as batteries are the cheapest possible wholesale and has to be left on a decent optimate to last well, and obvious stuff like needing to run the motor frequently to prevent wet sumping and consequently blowing gaskets and seals when it's started with a crank case full of oil are curable and apparently the factory has a proper fix for the air box oiling up but would involve some re-tooling but was dropped due to cost issues. He also said that he had been told that the cost in parts to build a bike was between 3 and 4 thousand depending on the model before staff and overheads etc. He then told me his opinion on the management which I think are best left to the imagination, but he did have some positives. The frames are really well put together and the welders are really good, the alloy tanks are fascinating works of art, he was really enthusiastic about the tanks starting as a flat sheet and ending as the stunning finished article. He said he left because he couldn't see a long term future there and as he was originally from my area he found a job working on some other overpriced crap (my words) and moved back with his Mum.
I don't think he was saying anything we don't all know, but for the foreseeable future I shall have my Rose Tinted Glasses fixed permanently to my face and continue to rattle embarrassingly around leaking oil from my air box until I hit that magical 4000 RPM and the world becomes a better place.