Norton actually has new motorcycles in the USA

City Garage · Jan 16, 2026

speirmoor said:

He was at the AIMexpo. I'm laughing because when he came over, he was like 5 foot tall and didn't look like he could put a leg over the Atlas. If Iconic wants to sell them, I say gooooooood luck. I think they are just looking for "clicks"

Stephen_Spencer · Jan 16, 2026

There are no ‘discerning customers’ yet are there? The bikes are not yet on the market, nor is there a single road test.

Struggling to understand the merit of shovelling soil on top of these bikes before anyone’s turned the key.

NPeteN · Jan 16, 2026

Stephen_Spencer said:
There are no ‘discerning customers’ yet are there? The bikes are not yet on the market, nor is there a single road test.

Struggling to understand the merit of shovelling soil on top of these bikes before anyone’s turned the key.

Its sarcasm Stephen! The man is clearly NOT discerning!

and we are taught to recycle plastic, not bury it.

City Garage · Jan 19, 2026

If you are in the Los Angeles area, Norton dropped the bikes off at Bike Shed.

Stephen_Spencer · Jan 19, 2026

acotrel said:
Is it possible to buy a new Norton motor and gearbox without anything else ? That would be an interesting and easy project. There are still good racing frames and tanks available. In all legislation, there is usually some provision for home-built vehicles. In Australia, it involves an Engineer's certificate.

Not sure you’re talking about the 961, but if you are they pop up regularly for sale. There was one guy last year I think, that had 15 or so original 961s he was trying to sell. Couple of examples:

Norton actually has new motorcycles in the USA

BritTwit · Jan 20, 2026

Didn't Menard Competition Technologies (MCT) recently liquidate a whole supply of 961 engines that Norton (Donington) never purchased?

City Garage · Jan 20, 2026

BritTwit said:
Didn't Menard Competition Technologies (MCT) recently liquidate a whole supply of 961 engines that Norton (Donington) never purchased?

I dont think they were able to "liquidate" them I know a few people bought one or two.

BritTwit · Jan 20, 2026

City Garage said:
I dont think they were able to "liquidate" them I know a few people bought one or two.

These would have been early 961 engines, assembled prior to the switch to in-house assemble at the Donington facility.
They would probably have had many of the initial "defects" that were reported early on.
I wonder what happened to most of them?

TonyA · Jan 20, 2026

BritTwit said:
These would have been early 961 engines, assembled prior to the switch to in-house assemble at the Donington facility.
They would probably have had many of the initial "defects" that were reported early on.
I wonder what happened to most of them?

How quickly we forget

I made the trip and bought two of them. And yes they are early engines with cast iron lined barrels and billet clutch baskets. I have pulled off a head and they look better than my old 2014 head. Combustion chambers are cnc’d and have less valve shrouding. Ports are larger where they meet the valve seats and about 1mm larger than my 2014 where they meet the throttle body and exhaust pipes. I will use this one on my next build !

BritTwit · Jan 20, 2026

Really?
Planning on any performance improvements?

Stephen_Spencer · Jan 20, 2026

Seperate issue stateside - looks like CNW may be ceasing support (by way of tooling) for the 961. Unless there’s some other interpretation of all items being out of stock? Unless they are gonna make/source items when ordered?

TonyA · Jan 20, 2026

BritTwit said:
Really?
Planning on any performance improvements?

Yes , I will practice porting my old head and then on to the MCT head. I want to have a camshaft made by megacycle also. The pistons will need to have valve pockets deepened , the usual stuff.

TonyA · Jan 20, 2026

Stephen_Spencer said:
Seperate issue stateside - looks like CNW may be ceasing support (by way of tooling) for the 961. Unless there’s some other interpretation of all items being out of stock? Unless they are gonna make/source items when ordered?

View attachment 123397

This doesn’t surprise me. The Norton 961 parts demand must be near zero. I don’t know just a guess based on what I have seen and heard. I have not spoken to Cootes either.

TonyA · Jan 20, 2026

TonyA said:
How quickly we forget I made the trip and bought two of them. And yes they are early engines with cast iron lined barrels and billet clutch baskets. I have pulled off a head and they look better than my old 2014 head. Combustion chambers are cnc’d and have less valve shrouding. Ports are larger where they meet the valve seats and about 1mm larger than my 2014 where they meet the throttle body and exhaust pipes. I will use this one on my next build !

When I said MCT Norton head was better for performance I wasn't kidding :
Nearly 2mm larger where the inlet port meets the valve seat .

2014 Head :

MCT :

This shows the 2014 head valve shrouding :

City Garage · Jan 20, 2026

Stephen_Spencer said:
Seperate issue stateside - looks like CNW may be ceasing support (by way of tooling) for the 961. Unless there’s some other interpretation of all items being out of stock? Unless they are gonna make/source items when ordered?

View attachment 123397

Well, I have a Balance Gear Tool, Gear Jam Tool, and Clutch Jam tool, plus one or two starter rebuild kits. If anyone is looking to buy tools, let me know. I wouldn't rebuild a starter since better, more powerful options are available, but the other tools are good.

NorTriDuc · Jan 20, 2026

TonyA said:
When I said MCT Norton head was better for performance I wasn't kidding :
Nearly 2mm larger where the inlet port meets the valve seat .

2014 Head :

MCT :

This shows the 2014 head valve shrouding :

Cnc ported combustion chambers? Are all Donington 961s this way?

TonyA · Jan 20, 2026

NorTriDuc said:
Cnc ported combustion chambers? Are all Donington 961s this way?

The MCT head is at the top , my 2014 head is at the bottom.

NorTriDuc · Jan 21, 2026

TonyA said:
The MCT head is at the top , my 2014 head is at the bottom.

I noticed, but even the carbonated chamber looks like it has cnc cutter marks.

Did you index your spark plug? Or did it just happen to align with the exhaust valve?

TonyA · Jan 21, 2026

NorTriDuc said:
I noticed, but even the carbonated chamber looks like it has cnc cutter marks.

Did you index your spark plug? Or did it just happen to align with the exhaust valve?

The spark plug was like that when I took the head off. I see what you’re saying about the cutter marks. What do you think of the valve shrouding ?

Fast Eddie · Jan 21, 2026

Tony,

As you have both heads off, it would really be ideal to get them on a flow bench to see both the flow and velocity numbers. The shrouding (as you refer to it) ‘may’ be a deliberate move to make the throat smaller in order to increase charge velocity.

Getting a good balance between velocity and flow is the tuners art. We all know flow is important, but at anything other than WOT velocity can be as, if not more, important.

High velocity increases cylinder filling by creating a ‘supercharger’ effect caused by the inertia of the charge in the port forcing in more charge for a longer time after the piston has stopped ‘sucking’.

In simple terms, the bigger the port: the higher the flow and the lower the velocity. A smaller port will have higher velocity and less flow.

Basically the flow needs to support the engines needs, whilst doing so with the highest velocity.

Norton actually has new motorcycles in the USA

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