Norton trouble

It isn’t just the Donnington factory though - it includes the Hotel and associated Norton businesses at Donington.
The business model was/is a little odd - we can’t build your bike until you pay in full as these funds will be used to build, those cancelling their orders then creating a hole in the cash flow meaning they had to get another buyer before building a bike..
 
Time to mothball it and sell it in 20 years for a profit. Damn, just turning 12K and running good too.
Everybody....put it in the corner of your barn.
 
Interesting and not unexpected MCN maintain the fairy tale of the new "investor", and also pretend there was a serious strategy behind what I have always called "the black hole in Donington". Nobody in the industry has ever taken the chimera of Norton's rebirth seriously.
Those who are proud of their "new Norton" should be aware their bike was built with the money of unpaid suppliers, some of which went bust due to their misplaced trust in the new company and the name, with the money of people who had already paid deposits on bikes, and with the money stolen from pensioners who trusted their "trustee" to invest their money wisely.
As good friends of Norton have asked me in the years since Norton went belly-up in 1991: "why is it every time a new Norton rebirth happens the rogue heading it is worse than the one before him?" I except the Kenny Dreer bunch from this. In my dealings with them everything was fair and honest.
A sad day for Norton? I'd say a chance for a new beginning, and as the eternal optimist I hope this time we may see an honest and well-funded effort. It was nice to have a serious and truthful partner in the Norton world again for a change.
 
I must have form..
Bought F1 Sport Norton went bust,
Bought 961 ,Norton went bust..
Pouring a large whisky now!
On the up side have had F1 for 30 years & 961 is definitely a keeper.
Long live Norton.
Yep Iam the same F1 owned 28 years Rotary Classic 18 years Mk 2 961 sport 4 years Model 50 80 years old but still enjoy them and would not part with them, time to have a beer. LONG LIVE NORTON
 
Enfield make more than 800,000 bikes per year......
Nearly as many as Norton exported into the imaginary overseas markets per annum no doubt!

Given I sold 1/3rd of all F1Sports produced in Germany in 1992 the German market is conspicious in its lack of new Nortons on the road. I should think of the very small number of bikes produced the overwhelming majority was sold in the UK, where people are easily swayed by patriotism and/or the hope of buying an "investment" to purchase a new Norton.
 
Last edited:
The daft thing is that Norton actually had a bike that people liked and would buy in the various 961 models. Trying to build a 'mass market' bike with limited funds was always going to be tricky and producing a 'halo' model such as the V4 was sheer stupidity where limited sales would never repay the development costs. Many 'British' manufacturers have been resurrected in the past with similar business models and failed. I loved my 961 but I couldn't put up with an unreliable bike. Lets not forget these aren't the old British bikes anymore - they are complex and full of electronics which needs manufacturer support to be kept on the road. The final straw for me was when i found out I couldn't even get fault codes from the OMEX ECU so it my bike did break down it would be a visit to Donington just to find out what was wrong.

There was little wrong with the bikes that couldn't have been sorted by the factory by paying just a few pence more for better quality components - and when you are already paying over the odds just to get a Norton, who would have complained. Price didn't come into it for me within reason and if I were that cost conscious the 'sensible' decision would have been to buy a triumph.

In the end it's Nortons own doing - they produced a niche product which sold well in a limited market and then they ruined the ownership experience with shoddy finishing and poor customer service - exactly what most Norton buyers thought they were buying in to.
 
Starting to think that although I'm English to the core sometimes my decisions are not "sensible"

Maybe time to park the Norton in the living-room and ride a "Well built" and dare I say it "Good Looking" Bike.

Norton trouble
 
I started to think something was up when the Norton stands at the shows were enormous (as big as Triumph) yet the number of sales of real machines was tiny, and customer service and dealer support were non-existent. Once, when I had a serious oil leak, Norton's response to me was 'We don't have a van you'll need to ride it here, I'll send you a litre of oil so you know you'll make it'.

Twats.
 
Starting to think that although I'm English to the core sometimes my decisions are not "sensible"

Maybe time to park the Norton in the living-room and ride a "Well built" and dare I say it "Good Looking" Bike.

Norton trouble

You can spend an indecent amount of money on extras for those things... don’t ask how I know !

Very good bikes IMHO, but on balance I’d say the Duc 1200 Monster trumps it big style.
 
Back
Top