Hmmmm.......Where to begin.......14 961sf

Hello fellow members. My name is Jonathan and I recently purchased a 2014 Norton 961sf. I couldn't tell you how extremely excited I was to get my hands on a new Norton. This is where the story goes from extremely excited to extremely disappointed.

I'm a fairly capable mechanic with a pretty decent shop in my garage. I have spent the last 4 years building, restoring, and customizing Japanese vintage bikes. I have always loved British bikes, but heard the griping about wrenching rather than riding. I steered away from them and kept at the Japanese bikes. Here are a few I recently finished:









I thought to myself, how nice would it be to have a brand new Norton. This was like the pinnacle of bike ownership, right? I did a little bit of research, but didn't stumble upon Access till I ran into a problem. I heard about the oil leak issue from the starter, as I learned is due to faulty venting from the crankcase. This was the only complaint I heard online, until I had my own issue and started scouring Access.

Here we go:

I bought the bike from a local owner. The bike had 500 miles on it. I was shocked? I knew it was going to be a limited window to swipe this bike up. We came to agreement on price and I was able to swap out a CT90 I built. It was a win win for both parties. Holy SHIT, I have a brand new Norton sitting in my garage. The holy grail, the purple unicorn, the top of the heap. I was excited to think I didn't have to wrench on it. I was excited to get out and ride. I have a Repsol and other bikes, but a I wanted a super nice daily rider. Well, 50 miles in and I'm getting a nasty grinding noise in 1st gear. I only experience the issue under load from 1k-3k RPM's in 1st gear. I think to myself, your kidding me right? Well, the problem got worse and worse as I got closer to home. I live on a pretty busy street in Denver and it so happens that I'm coming around a corner and the fucking thing stalls! That's right, it does a nice loud skreech noise as I engage the clutch and it stalls. I proceed to grab the bike (making a left hand turn), but no such luck. This bike is way to heavy. Now, to let you know I have NEVER in my life dropped a bike (other than a garage mishap that was on my own accord). The bike proceeds to go down and it's like a nightmare happening right before my eyes. I looked to make sure oncoming traffic is stopped and pick the bike up. I was about 1 block from my house, so I limped it over there and got it in the driveway. I do the, OH SHIT, what is screwed up review. I see a broken clutch handle (right where the indents allow it to snap off), the shifter peddle snapped off, and the muffler bent towards the bike. That was it. I was shocked and feel fortunate to have my life and no major damage on the bike. I thought for sure the tail or the tank took a ding, but the damn bike pivoted off the foot peg. It's got a little road rash, but nothing major that I can't live with. I think to myself, great no service, where do I go?

I proceeded to contact Norton through the website, let's see two months later, and still no response. I got a call from Matt at SBN. He proceeds to tell me he has a muffler in stock (what a nice guy, charges me $150) and a shifter peg. He sends me the muffler, gasket for the crankcase (assuming I'm going to rip this damn thing open), clutch basket holder from Norton (wow, overkill and total crude), and an oil filter. He tells me this is "Part of a new bike, it's standard to hit a few bumps in the road, we will get it straightened out." I thought to myself, what a swell guy! Oh ya, how the hell am I going to figure out my problem. I call Matt from time to time and the guy can't remember who I am? It's like having a conversation with a alzheimer patient. We start the conversation from scratch, who are you, how can I help you, what's the problem. I start to think to myself I'm losing my mind, maybe it's me??? This has been going on for months. I have sent emails with VIN number and pictures, yet we still have to go through the "What is the VIN" every time! I'm not kidding, I couldn't make this up.

Repair:

I swapped out the muffler, just to make myself feel better. I emailed SBN Matt the pictures of the clutch handle, but still nothing. He told he has it on order. It's well over two months now. I'm just going to contact Brembo tomorrow and see if they can't help me track it down. I gave up on the foot peg, whatever, it doesn't make the bike ride better

Clutch Basket: Okay, what the hell am I going to do? I scoured the world wide interweb only to come across Access. I can see that CNW has some tools and I start tracking down ONE7. Yep, the Coote boys are top notch. These guys really care about the brand. I think Stuart should give both of these guys brand new Norton's for free. I doubt they would take one though, since they have spent years figuring out every little problem with the bikes they own and documenting it. I bought the tools from CNW and started conversing with Richard and Dave. Dave would take my calls late into the night (which I think they are two hours ahead of me). They assured me I could fix the bike on my own. I was nervous, but a bike is a bike. I cracked it open and without the Coote manuals I would have surely been screwed. Without there patience and stroking I wouldn't have made it. I pulled it all the way down to the gearbox. I inspected everything and came across one spring on the back of the clutch basket that would rock back and fourth about .125". I had to assume that was the problem. The gearbox was in perfect condition and nothing else was out of place. Dave sends me a basket to swap out and see if that does it. Remember, shouldn't the US Distributor being helping me with this? Oh, that's right, he can't remember who I am. I would still have a VERY expensive boat anchor sitting in my garage if it wasn't for the sheer love of Norton by the Coote's. I swapped out the basket, gave it a rip, and it was fixed. I have over 200 miles on the bike and it's fixed on that front.





Shamelessly Plug the ONE7 Tools:







So, now I'm told I need to swap out the ignition coil, wires, vent trans kit, and ECU remap? Let's get real here? I just paid a fortune for a bike that I have to basically rebuild? If only I would have known I would have spent my money on a Thruxton R.

If it's too good to be true, than it usually is. This was the case. The guy I bought the bike from had a Thruxton R on his floor and I should have known right away that he was selling the Norton due to issues that he didn't want to fix.

Now, the budget:

SBN Parts = $300 (he owes me $119, but won't give me the refund, since the magical clutch handle and foot peg might show up in the next year?)
CNW Tools / Coil / Wires = $675.00
Clutch Basket = $TBD (probably around $600 all said and done, unless I can get Norton to refund me somehow)
Bolt Depot Ring Gear Bolts (DON'T ASK ME ABOUT THAT, 4HRS TO PULL OUT 5 BOLTS) = $40.00

I'm staring down roughly $1700 in tools and parts. Remember, that doesn't include the countless hours I spent trying to track all this shit down and the labor

Issues Right now:

Rear brakes squeeks like a bitch, tried to knock it down at high speed, no luck. Nothing like having such a gorgeous bike only to squeak at a stop light
Have to fire it up 3 times to get it to level off and idle properly without touching the throttle. This is a every morning ritual. Love it.
Bike has died a few times at stop lights, nice little bonus.
Kickstand way to high, need to cut it down this weekend. Another fun chore.

I will do all the upgrades this weekend. I'm already so far into this that I have no choice but to push forward. I don't think SBN is going to be much help at all. He was pretty nice at the start when I told him the issue, but now I'm just someone he pretends not to know when I call. I think I would rather ship my basket back to Dave and let him try and figure out the problem rather than spend another year trying to get Matt to send me a new basket. If the clutch handle and foot peg are any indication, than I surrender. I'm going to proactively post on Twitter and FB about my experience with Norton. You would think someone from England would call me and give a shit, but I don't think so. I wish we had the support of the Coote boys in the US and Peter up in Canada. I have no doubt if I was up there my bike would have been running the day after the problem. It's a good thing I have a shop and some basic skills to work on bikes. I wouldn't have got through it without those skills and the awesome help of the Coote's.

If anyone wants help with the issue, feel free to call me. Richard and Dave are right, very simple to work on. It's like a big CT90, almost shocked me. Don't be scared of the bike, it's easy to work on. The engineering is beautiful and the bike is killer, but being killed by a new bike of this caliber was not what I signed up for? I hope this helps people in the future. I'm more than glad to assist as much as a I can.

IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE THAN IT USUALLY IS! Here are some pictures I took last weekend:

And don't get me wrong. I love the bike. It's a piece of artwork! You don't even need to ride it to enjoy it. I just want to be clear, make sure you are willing to put some elbow grease into the bike out of the gate. It's not a plug and play. If you want one of those buy a BMW or a Japanese bike. They make millions and that is why it's plug and play. They can't afford to piss customers off and not pay the penalty. As I see it right now, Norton can just rely on Distributors to hide behind and hope they get a few of the bikes out the door without issues. Wouldn't someone test drive this bike before they ship it? I build bikes and the last thing I would do is ship it out to a buyer without making sure 100% I'm confident in the bike. They are lacking some things that will keep them from being a premier manufacturer. I own my company and there is no way I would not respond to a upset client, no matter how big or small. Take pride in what you build and stand behind it.

I had a very knowledgeable collector and British bike aficionado tell me something after I told him this story, he says to me "This is why Norton went bankrupt the first time."

I think they have a very good thing going, but the customer service is severely lacking. The support is down right horrible and without the Coote boys I would have been shit up a creek without a paddle (the factory Norton Manual I have is good for one thing, torque requirements). I love the web and I truly love the passion people have for things these days. I hope Norton reads this somewhere along the lines and listens to customers. My battle isn't over. I will keep pressing until someone wants to recognize they need to make the issue right!

You don't have to put up with any more...

But your have put so much of yourself into that bike that I feel you owe it to yourself to make it right for you.

At least your commitment was inspirational to me.

Hello , Have you traced down the problem with the grinding and screeching ? Did you say the clutch basket is faulty ? If this is the 2014 Silver SF that came from MCC when I bought my bike then IT IS STILL UNDER WARRANTY . Did the owner say where the bike was purchased from ? Anyhow , Have you contacted Norton directly via their website ? They have been responsive to me when I reach out to them . Try the contact us on their website or call them first thing in the morning .

Don't bother with the Norton emails on the website. I've used that numerous times. It takes months for a reply. Call them directly. Oh........that leaky starter was not from faulty venting. It was a faulty starter as per Matt Capri at SBN. Norton sent me a new starter and voila...no more leak. Why would you have to remap with the factory exhaust? Go back to the archives and see the problems I've dealt with for two years. Btw the dealership and Norton's service, I was ready to get my legal refund. However, Norton took charge, my dealership got their act together and I'm a happy camper. Unfortunately, I don't have your skills as a mechanic so I'm at their mercy. I'm not going to relist my problems. I'm at peace now. Just research my posts.

Thanks for the kind words Jonathan. We were very happy to help you. I'm sure Norton UK will take care of you. Simon monitors this board too. Please keep in contact and don't forget to get out to visit Matt at CNW. Bit of a hike from your place but will make for a fun adventure. Once you get the new 077 map and BIN file you are going to be in for a shock. A good one this time.. I promise. :mrgreen:

Hi Johnathan

Sorry to hear about your experience, I can with certainty say this is not something we want happening to our customers and will do our best to sort it out.

I have just had a check with the guys sat here at the factory in the UK and to our knowledge we haven't received any communication from yourself on this (apologies if you have and its been over looked at this end) so please DM me your contact number and I will give you a call later today (early morning for you guys).

Frustrating that I haven't heard from you earlier as I have been keeping an eye on this forum for exactly 1 year now, specifically to provide a means for customers to get in touch directly if they feel the dealer / distributor isn't providing the service they should be, and I could of acted on getting these issues resolved sooner.

Look forward to speaking with you.

Simon

I want to post a quick reply and tell everyone that Simon has already called me to start rectifying the issue.
That was much quicker than I expected.

I didn't want this to come across that I was bashing Norton. I feel a few things could have been handled differently from the start, but being so new to Norton I only went with the chain of command I thought was correct. Either way, let's hope Norton makes this right and we move forward.

I'm going to do all the upgrades this weekend that I discussed along with with valve adjustment and re-torquing the head bolts. I have a full set of tools just taking up space in my garage now. Again, these bikes aren't nearly as scary as they look.

I'm going to see if I can get up to the mountains this weekend for a ride, will keep everyone posted.

Norton has called me several times to address my rants, LOL. Don't sweat the ranting. It gets frustrating plunking down your hard earned and things aren't working out. I found 11AM EST was the best time to call. I dealt with Mr. Green, who is no longer there, but Norton really does care. Such a small percentage of dealerships are carrying Norton, and the ones that do are selling Triumphs, Ducatis and Beemers. Already largely established in the US. They tend to sweep our Nortons to the side. Direct communication was key. Great staff at Norton and they goosed my dealership into rolling out the red carpet too. I get great service from them now that they know what they are doing. Eventually, you will be grinning ear to ear like the rest of us. Oh......and thank you, Simon.

Honestly, it was like being at home when I cracked it open.

It's just like a CT90 motor, only bigger and more beautiful........I'm not worried about service, I feel fairly confident I can do anything on this bike that needs to be done now. I have my sights set on a full upgrade this weekend. I emailed Simon and told him I would get the list of things that I need and we will move on. I don't have any doubt he is going to make it right.

I think they should consider having a service / dealership in Denver, just saying???? If I had a dedicated dealership that was just selling Norton than the Duc's and Triumph's wouldn't be a thought to a potential buyer. I have the perfect space scoped out, as my goal is to open up a shop in the next few years. I want to keep communicating with them and see if we can't get the ball rolling! I hope people on this forum see this and help push the idea. They need more support and I'm willing to put in the time and customer service to help each and everyone person who wants it! I'm willing to show them if they want, have a beer, hang out. I can't even get any Norton gear to say the least. I would like a keychain to start? You know, just a few small touches to add to the experience. I think I have made some good friends up north who would be more than willing to help me along the way and I'm guessing would support the idea!

Anyways, we will start with the clutch replacement. Hey, and if anyone wants to send the bike to a dealer PM me. I already have a dedicated transport guy and a slew of tools now. I would be glad to work on any Norton that shows up at my shop. He only moves motorcycles and he is the only guy I use to move my bikes (he moves Ronin's for goodness sakes).

Rubber side down

Sounds like that's exactly what's needed, a genuinely enthusiastic dealer / service agent. Hope it comes good.

SkeletonCycles said:

Honestly, it was like being at home when I cracked it open.

It's just like a CT90 motor, only bigger and more beautiful........I'm not worried about service, I feel fairly confident I can do anything on this bike that needs to be done now. I have my sights set on a full upgrade this weekend. I emailed Simon and told him I would get the list of things that I need and we will move on. I don't have any doubt he is going to make it right.

I think they should consider having a service / dealership in Denver, just saying???? If I had a dedicated dealership that was just selling Norton than the Duc's and Triumph's wouldn't be a thought to a potential buyer. I have the perfect space scoped out, as my goal is to open up a shop in the next few years. I want to keep communicating with them and see if we can't get the ball rolling! I hope people on this forum see this and help push the idea. They need more support and I'm willing to put in the time and customer service to help each and everyone person who wants it! I'm willing to show them if they want, have a beer, hang out. I can't even get any Norton gear to say the least. I would like a keychain to start? You know, just a few small touches to add to the experience. I think I have made some good friends up north who would be more than willing to help me along the way and I'm guessing would support the idea!

Anyways, we will start with the clutch replacement. Hey, and if anyone wants to send the bike to a dealer PM me. I already have a dedicated transport guy and a slew of tools now. I would be glad to work on any Norton that shows up at my shop. He only moves motorcycles and he is the only guy I use to move my bikes (he moves Ronin's for goodness sakes).

Rubber side down

Click to expand...

I really like this idea and enthusiasm. However, with Norton still in the "boutique bike" mode, which provides us with "exclusivity" I doubt they are producing enough bikes for the international market to be able to support a Norton only dealership. I think most dealerships would have to sell multiple brands just to pay the rent. I'm no expert, but I'm really interested to see how that would pan out. A shop stocked with Norton parts like Beemer and Harley would be great. Walk in, mail order, other dealer orders instead of overseas shipping. Not to mention, dedicated knowledge of the machine.
Total bliss.

Britfan60 said:

A shop stocked with Norton parts like Beemer and Harley would be great. Walk in, mail order, other dealer orders instead of overseas shipping. Not to mention, dedicated knowledge of the machine.
Total bliss.

Click to expand...

I think at this point in the Norton brand's evolution, the only way we would see a Norton only dealership is if some wealthy individual, who is also a Norton freak decided to spend his own money to establish the first such dealership. It would have to be a personal labor of love for him because he would most certainly be hemorrhaging money every day that the shop was open.

But it would be cool.

I also build other bikes, so I wouldn't dedicate the back of the shop to just Norton. The front would most definitely be Norton based, clothing, gear, bikes (if they could supply me enough to handle demand) parts, and one of the only few willing to dig in and service them. I already dug pretty far, but no where near the Coote boys. In the end, it would all hinge on supply and demand, as with anything else. I don't think it would nearly involve a full time job and I know my father is looking for something to do now that he is retired (he's an old BSA Lightning Fan). I would start small, than see where it goes, and how well Norton could support it? That is the big question?

It could just be a pipe dream, but the dream has to start somewhere. You have to take risks to reap reward, which I'm sure we are all aware of.

First things first, let's see how they choose to handle my current dilemma. I have been in contact with Simon on phone and email now. I think he is going to actually address the issue and send the parts that I haven't been able to obtain for two months now. I feel like there might be a disconnect of communication across the pond and I'm not sure where that stems from? I don't nearly have the background that SBN or MCC have, so it's very hard to sit here and point a finger. Just want my problem addressed at this point. This type of failure could have been much worse and maybe avoided all together?

Oh my. You might be on to something. Its happening in Barcelona and Soho, London. Check the other threads.

Okay, it's been long overdue, but I wanted to follow up on how WELL Norton has handled my issue!

Simon got back to me right away and took care of the clutch basket along with a few parts that has been ruined during the crash. He assured me that Norton was going to make it right and he did! They went above and beyond communicating with me and making the final transaction of parts a breeze. Callum was a huge help and one part was on backorder for 3 weeks. I told him to wait and sure enough almost within 2-3 weeks the part showed up and they shipped out the boxes. I received the boxes in 4 days (super quick, don't even get ebay items that quick!) and went to work.





I threw on some new Motad shorties that I ordered. I figured since I was making the rest of the upgrades I might as well dive in and do the full overhaul! Again, as Simon and I talked, none of these upgrades are necessary, but holy SHIT it's worth it! They sound so bad ass I don't think I would ever consider going back, not that the look alone is killer. I remapped the computer and went with the Domi Aftermarket 91 program. It's insane! I can see you lose a little power around 7-8 RPM's and you flatten out, but the 3-6 RPM range is so damn fun, it's a smile from ear to ear! This thing is like a whole new machine.



I dug in and pulled the head off. I retorqued the head and made sure the valves were within adjusted properly (yes, they had them dialed in the same as I adjusted them). I polished the head and cleaned it up, figured since I had it off, I might as well jump on that. I upgraded the coil to a true BOSCH coil and the wires. I added the ONE07 battery mat as well as the Trans Vent kit. I also got rid of the standard plugs and went with iridium plugs, these are the standard plugs prior to all the upgrades (you can see some firing differences from one side to the other)

















I can't point to one factor, but now the bike fires on the first push. The gears shift perfectly and the bike idles at 1100 RPM's with no issue. The bike ran like a top yesterday. It got eye balls before, but now with the Motad pipes everyone can't stop staring........almost nervous to leave it anywhere with having my eye on it. I got looks from Harley riders, BMW guys, cafe guys, sport bike guys, you name that thing was like a butt naked super model on the beach. It's a pleasure to work with ONE07 to help make this happen. They have designed a very good setup for upgrades through Colorado Norton Works. I basically bought everything except the tension spring tool, as I don't mind the mechanical noise, it stands apart from all other bikes! You let it idle and it sounds awesome, you rev it up with the pipes, and it's like music to your ears. I wouldn't screw around with any after market pipes, just call Norton and order the Motads.

I want to again thank Simon and Norton UK for making this right and getting back to me immediately. I want to thank Richard and Dave for the massive amount of help. I hope I can meet up with them in the near future.

My initial post was the pure reaction of bad customer service state side. I have expressed my interest with Simon to help with this, so maybe one day he will take me up on it. I also feel confident I can handle any upgrade or remap help you might need. Please feel free to contact me with questions or if you need help. I will probably dig into the bike more as I own it, but right now she is pure pleasure to ride. I have to admit, it's like having a purple unicorn. These bikes aren't out in the wild often and even the non-bike person is caught looking at the 961sf!

Rubber side down!

great!

Fantastic ending!

Awesome you persisted.
I did feel you already invested so much of your time its good to have a great ending.

Can I ask you did your own remaps?
Can you share how? (Software/hardware required)

That's great. There's nothing better than actually getting out there on these beasts and having a trouble free ride. They are truly (albeit arguably) spectacular. Oh....And how do you like your Bell Retro helmet. I've been thinkin about that or now the Biltwell, which may be a better deal.