- Joined
- Dec 5, 2014
- Messages
- 96
Hello everyone,
Short time member and Newbie Norton owner here. This is also my first post to the forum. So first, let me give you a little background of how I came to this point in time...
My wife and family think I'm nuts. They're probably right.
Over the past year, I've been hunting unicorns. To clarify, a unicorn can be anything. To quality, it has to be something so elusive, so rare to find in the wild, it may as well not exist. My "unicorn" for the past year or two has been a 1973 or 74 Norton Commando 850, black, with low miles, sitting under cover and ridden around the block from time to time. It also needed to be within my budget, which was around $3500. Like I said, a unicorn.
The problem with hunting unicorns is that you start to have other distractions. I have acquired a number of OTHER motorcycles over the past year while in search of my Norton. Some were for pleasure (like my Ural and sidecar), while others were for the purpose of learning. Let me be clear -- I am a seasoned rider, but a motorcycle mechanic I am not. What better way to learn than to buy a cheap motorcycle and tear into it? That's how my first barn-find Honda CL450 scrambler found it's way into my garage. A second, less complete CL450 came just a month or so later. The plan was to do a proper "classic restoration" one one and to make the other into a cafe racer. Two identical bikes, two completely different outcomes. These projects are in-process one is actually running again.
My garage, at that point was holding the "maximum number of allowable motorcycles" according to my wife. The funny thing about unicorns, though, is that you never know when they will appear. Mine came posted by its owner on Craigslist one cold, January morning while most of the east coast was still asleep. I was the first responder among a flurry of other requests to see the bike. With the promise to my wife of selling one of my projects "eventually", I set out to get my black, 1974 Norton Commando 850 with 6900 original miles. It's not as complete as I would like, it's had a bit of a rough life, but it's MY unicorn none the less. I was told it ran about three years ago which gives me hope that I can get her up and running again.
That said, this is a huge project for me. A new idiot is on the block. I will be asking questions that will make you shake your head in wonderment. Please bear with me as I take this journey. It's sure to be a long one.
In the meantime, if anyone has a CL450 they would like to get rid of, I'm sure I could find some room in my garage.
All the best,
Kevin
Short time member and Newbie Norton owner here. This is also my first post to the forum. So first, let me give you a little background of how I came to this point in time...
My wife and family think I'm nuts. They're probably right.
Over the past year, I've been hunting unicorns. To clarify, a unicorn can be anything. To quality, it has to be something so elusive, so rare to find in the wild, it may as well not exist. My "unicorn" for the past year or two has been a 1973 or 74 Norton Commando 850, black, with low miles, sitting under cover and ridden around the block from time to time. It also needed to be within my budget, which was around $3500. Like I said, a unicorn.
The problem with hunting unicorns is that you start to have other distractions. I have acquired a number of OTHER motorcycles over the past year while in search of my Norton. Some were for pleasure (like my Ural and sidecar), while others were for the purpose of learning. Let me be clear -- I am a seasoned rider, but a motorcycle mechanic I am not. What better way to learn than to buy a cheap motorcycle and tear into it? That's how my first barn-find Honda CL450 scrambler found it's way into my garage. A second, less complete CL450 came just a month or so later. The plan was to do a proper "classic restoration" one one and to make the other into a cafe racer. Two identical bikes, two completely different outcomes. These projects are in-process one is actually running again.
My garage, at that point was holding the "maximum number of allowable motorcycles" according to my wife. The funny thing about unicorns, though, is that you never know when they will appear. Mine came posted by its owner on Craigslist one cold, January morning while most of the east coast was still asleep. I was the first responder among a flurry of other requests to see the bike. With the promise to my wife of selling one of my projects "eventually", I set out to get my black, 1974 Norton Commando 850 with 6900 original miles. It's not as complete as I would like, it's had a bit of a rough life, but it's MY unicorn none the less. I was told it ran about three years ago which gives me hope that I can get her up and running again.
That said, this is a huge project for me. A new idiot is on the block. I will be asking questions that will make you shake your head in wonderment. Please bear with me as I take this journey. It's sure to be a long one.
In the meantime, if anyone has a CL450 they would like to get rid of, I'm sure I could find some room in my garage.
All the best,
Kevin
Let us know how it goes and what you need.
