Hello, everyone!

Tipping my hat and saying hello to all you good people here - I have just bought a 2022 961CR - picture hopefully attached!

A Beauty ! Enjoy

So, to follow on - I have had various bikes over the years, mainly Ducatis, but have always yearned for a Norton since I saw the likes of Ron Haslam, Steve Spray and Trevor Nation thrashing the rotary bikes around Donington Park in the late 80s. Things never really lined up, though, (I missed out on the "give away" PCP deal literally by an hour...) and it was only just this last week that I was able to finally get the bike of my dreams! I've spent a good few hours fettling to clean it up a bit - there were some horrendous splash stains on the down pipes!

Amongst the jobs were to get the tank off to fit a battery conditioner and have a good look under the seat and cowl. I found some nasty water traps - 6 bolt recesses under the cowl full of rusty water, and a puddle under the seat. Clearly a long established puddle, as the paint had lifted and was starting to rust the plate. I have cleaned it all up in preparation for some preventative medicine, in the form of some of Jenolite's Directo-Rust. A truly excellent product I have used on several things over the years!

Anyway, a couple more pictures, and a salutary warning for those who live in more variable climates to have a look under your seat from time to time!

I will report back with progress...

Wokkadriver said:

So, to follow on - I have had various bikes over the years, mainly Ducatis, but have always yearned for a Norton since I saw the likes of Ron Haslam, Steve Spray and Trevor Nation thrashing the rotary bikes around Donington Park in the late 80s. Things never really lined up, though, (I missed out on the "give away" PCP deal literally by an hour...) and it was only just this last week that I was able to finally get the bike of my dreams! I've spent a good few hours fettling to clean it up a bit - there were some horrendous splash stains on the down pipes!

Amongst the jobs were to get the tank off to fit a battery conditioner and have a good look under the seat and cowl. I found some nasty water traps - 6 bolt recesses under the cowl full of rusty water, and a puddle under the seat. Clearly a long established puddle, as the paint had lifted and was starting to rust the plate. I have cleaned it all up in preparation for some preventative medicine, in the form of some of Jenolite's Directo-Rust. A truly excellent product I have used on several things over the years!

Anyway, a couple more pictures, and a salutary warning for those who live in more variable climates to have a look under your seat from time to time!

I will report back with progress...

Click to expand...

Very nice, and thank you for those pictures they are very helpful. I've never been able to post pictures and had assumed that that was because VIP membership was necessary.
Fortunately I managed to scrape literally a last minute pcp deal. I haven't had the tank off yet because a charging lead was fitted as standard but it's something I'll now be doing.
I'll be interested to learn the way you will be going about removing the back wheel. I had a puncture on the day I collected the bike and had to call the dealer out.

Wokkadriver said:

Tipping my hat and saying hello to all you good people here - I have just bought a 2022 961CR - picture hopefully attached!

Click to expand...

Gorgeous, mate. Looks like it’s low mileage in cracking condition. Enjoy!

Congrats.
Sharp looking machine.

Wokkadriver said:

So, to follow on - I have had various bikes over the years, mainly Ducatis, but have always yearned for a Norton since I saw the likes of Ron Haslam, Steve Spray and Trevor Nation thrashing the rotary bikes around Donington Park in the late 80s. Things never really lined up, though, (I missed out on the "give away" PCP deal literally by an hour...) and it was only just this last week that I was able to finally get the bike of my dreams! I've spent a good few hours fettling to clean it up a bit - there were some horrendous splash stains on the down pipes!

Amongst the jobs were to get the tank off to fit a battery conditioner and have a good look under the seat and cowl. I found some nasty water traps - 6 bolt recesses under the cowl full of rusty water, and a puddle under the seat. Clearly a long established puddle, as the paint had lifted and was starting to rust the plate. I have cleaned it all up in preparation for some preventative medicine, in the form of some of Jenolite's Directo-Rust. A truly excellent product I have used on several things over the years!

Anyway, a couple more pictures, and a salutary warning for those who live in more variable climates to have a look under your seat from time to time!

I will report back with progress...

Click to expand...

Welcome @Wokkadriver, that’s a beauty. You have come to the right place. Whilst looking for rust, check underneath the rear hugger. (I.e. the top of the swing arm).

albional said:

Very nice, and thank you for those pictures they are very helpful. I've never been able to post pictures and had assumed that that was because VIP membership was necessary.
Fortunately I managed to scrape literally a last minute pcp deal. I haven't had the tank off yet because a charging lead was fitted as standard but it's something I'll now be doing.
I'll be interested to learn the way you will be going about removing the back wheel. I had a puncture on the day I collected the bike and had to call the dealer out.

Click to expand...

I'm not planning on taking the wheel off, just getting under the seat and cowl is a worthwhile exercise though. There is an excellent video on youtube from forum member Stu Bodycote about removing the tank - it's exactly the same procedure for both Donington and Solihull bikes and isn't hard. The only fiddly bit is the fuel pipe, which he covers in detail. The other bit to be careful of is how tight the front of the tank is to the fork clamp, so a willing accomplice to wiggle the handlebars and some judicious use of masking tape can prevent a heart-stopping scrape!

Wokkadriver said:

I'm not planning on taking the wheel off, just getting under the seat and cowl is a worthwhile exercise though. There is an excellent video on youtube from forum member Stu Bodycote about removing the tank - it's exactly the same procedure for both Donington and Solihull bikes and isn't hard. The only fiddly bit is the fuel pipe, which he covers in detail. The other bit to be careful of is how tight the front of the tank is to the fork clamp, so a willing accomplice to wiggle the handlebars and some judicious use of masking tape can prevent a heart-stopping scrape!

Click to expand...

Thank you for that information, I'll be familiarising myself with the procedure in case I need to jump start the bike. I didn't plan on taking the wheel off either but with tubes you will need to if you have a puncture (which of course can happen at any time). Having no idea of how to do that, I had to have the bike collected and transported back to the dealer.

The bits of surface rust are so common and quick to appear - short of stripping the entire frame and repainting the only option is to clean and touch up accessible bits of the frame with something like flat hammerite then frequently and liberally spray with either a gt-85 type product or one step further on is the muc-off HCB-1 coating. On my rust-trap Jaguar I used to use some good Dinitrol products of various levels of gloopiness.
I agree absolutely with cliffa - the swing arm under the rear hugger is a water trap and you will probably find the start of rust there. I had to strip it with a little Dremel, put several layers of rustproof primer and hammerite flat paint on it and made a little water deflector sandwiched between the hugger and swingarm then keep spraying with the HCB. It's a bit alarming at first but once you start frequently spraying its no big deal.
Also while you are at it just look at bits of the loom which would benefit from some protection from chafing with a bit of spiral plastic cable covering and fabric loom tape.
Oh and have lots of fun riding it

PS ref paddock stand there have been instances when 961s have had the rear tire deflate which causes the bike to tip over so if left for any period I put mine on a rear paddock stand.
PPS when you take off the tank its easier with two people and the quick-release fuel fitting is really fiddly until you work out exactly the right bit of plastic to press to release it.