Hunter Valley NOC Norton Day 14th Nov 04

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If anyone from Brisbane to Newcastle is interested in hooking up to travel to the Norton Day on 14th November please let us know.

I know a lot of Aussies read this forum, so thought I would advise.

3 of us atm going down on Sat 13th to stay at "Reddos" place.
He is president of the HVNOC & has kindly offered accomodation.

We will have a back up vehichle going for emergencys !!

The Norton Day is a big event for ALL British Motorcycle enthusiasts.

To quote Reddo "As usual; Oil leaks ignored, lies about speed and reliability encouraged"
 
Report on HVNOC day !

NORTON DAY 2004 by Reg Ellis.

Friday morning I checked my Interstate over & loaded up the backpack & tools I knew may be required in case of breakdown. It was about 850 klms down to Speers Point, NSW.

Met Kris at the BP Yatala @ 1:00 pm Friday arvo & threw my gear into Kris' boot & back seat. The weather was perfect & 32 degrees. Fuelled up, we headed towards our first stop at Byron Bay, hoping to call in for a cuppa at Bob Beales', a commando racer from the late 60s early 70s. Unfortunately he was away so we headed over to a great spot, Clarkes Beach Caravan Park. The view from the BBQ area is worth a million elsewhere.

From there we headed to Grafton for our next smoke break & stretch. My norton was running perfect. The time spent preparing it was paying off. We put a dozen on ice for our next stop.
On to Coffs Harbour where we arrived just on dark. We had a room booked at the YHA Backpackers & found them soon enough. After the bikes were secured we chatted & had a few drinks with some oversea travellers, 6 Swedish girls & a german !

We awoke to more sunshine Saturday morning & headed off. My Interstate was still giving no problems but when we pulled into Kempsey, I noticed that I had to adjust my clutch cable. mmmmm, I thought this ain't right, this has happened before. So we had a maccas brekky and found a shady park to pull my primary off. Sure enuff, the nut holding the clutch hub on had come loose, despite the "locktab" & loctite in there. I had thought to bring a "clutch diaphram tool" as this has happened to most of us in the past. Fixed it & blasted off once more.

Next thing you see is signs saying "Wild Horses on road", crikey mate, I thought, Why doesn't some one ring that Steve Irwin bloke to get rid of em. Fortunately they were false, just like all those bloody "Speed Limits can be enforced" type signs. I have never seen so many bloody signs going on about speed. Spotted one Big Red Kangaroo also, big bastard just stayed out of the way feeding though.

We could not go past Nabiac without going to the Museum as neither of us had been before.
What an awesome place, the memories, the range of memorabilia !!
They even had a BSA B50SS, which is what I acquired my license on back in 1973. Rang Reddo to apologise for being late as we hadn't planned on stopping, but how could we go past ?

It was smiles all around as we finally met Reddo out on the highway norton to norton :) Got back to Reddos Digs and the first job was cleaning my bike while Trish got us some welcomed coffee. Freshened up, we rode up to Mt Sugarloaf for one of the best views over the Hunter Valley area. Back to Reddos for a couple of ales & then a promise to see "Miss Universe". Sure enuff, she was there to greet us on the balcony :) I couldn't believe the reaction from my missus when I got back. I lied a bit n said that we met Miss Universe, you know the one where the whole world got a look at her bum.....The missus puffed up n said "BIG DEAL", so I reckon I still have a cook for some time yet :)

We then had the pleasure of meeting some of the characters from the MIE forum ! What a mind blowing experience ! The sweeties, pete combat, BP Bob, Bodgie as well as their partners. Beers & tall stories about bikes & events were flowing thick & fast. As Mick Jagger said, It was a gas, gas, gas. They all made us so welcome, very soon it was like we had known them for years. Back to reddos for a couple more & a look at some nortons the MIE blokes/sheilas had been wanting to see. Fire em up they cried ! Our commandos both fired up first kick ! Great Stuff ! To quote the genie(sweetie1) "The QLDers were funny - neither drank XXXX (that spun me out), plus to rub
it in, their Commando's were first kickers with smooth idle and a bitch'n note...... and anyone who bags Reddo that much has got to be alright!"


We awoke Norton Day morning with some pain in our heads as well as the movies BP Bob talks about...
The weather was perfect & we helped Reddo with some final tasks needed for the Norton Day & followed him over to Speers Pt.
What a location & view! We helped set up the area under the covered pergola & started watching all these beautiful bikes arrive. We were not going to be disappointed as more & more lovingly restored nortons & other brands poured in. Every person had a smile on their dials as we all just kept meeting more & more like minded people ! "what have you done here?, how did you do that?, where did you get that from?, Did you blokes come all the way from Brisbane?....You know the stuff I mean.

I didn't know a lot of the older nortons, but all I had to do was ask & the owners were only to happy to tell others about their pride & joy/s. There must have been 15 commandos lined up, 7 or more ES2's, 16H's, Dominators, one Kwakaton ! BSA's, Triumphs(Including a brand new Rocket 3), an Indian, Royal Enfield, MV 175, Ducatis & others I may have missed.

Monday night & I still cannot talk properly, as I spent so much of my time chatting to all the different owners & visitors to the Norton Day. Trying to pick the "Peoples Choice" was the hardest thing to do, there just so many bikes that obviously had had a lot of time & effort put into them. It ended up going to a beautiful ES2 I was tossing up on myself. As I am a commando bloke, it was my second choice when I finally made up my mind to vote for "Petes" combat special.
Anyone can buy new parts for a commando restoration but he has obviously put a lot of extra effort & research into his. Plus he is only about half our age & loves nortons...a great thing.
Having said that, there were many bikes that had had lotsa work done by their owners. Or have I said that already.........

One bloke(Peter) arrived on a brand new Rocket 3 & parked the bloody thing 50 metres away in the carpark ! After strolling over and getting to sit on it, I made him ride it over & put it in the line up. Pretty soon there were people all over it. What a monster of motorcycle they are !

Just like the new rocket 3, the day went so fast, Reddo gave out the trophies to all the proud winners & next thing you know it was time to pack up ! I would like to mention that Reddo made the trophies himself, great stuff....Top bloke & his missus, Trish has repped oz in Soccer !!

Kris & I had one of those movies going on in our heads BP Bob talks about :),on how the day would unfold & we weren't disapointed. As Mr Sweetie has said in an MIE post, the 24 carat mateship was seen everywhere. Isn't it amazing what a love for motorcycles can do for people ?

Days like the HVNOC Norton Day keep the sparkle in your eyes & the grin on ya face, keep up the good work you blokes, we will be back for more of your hospitality. If only the world was run by people like you blokes !!
 
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