Nortons In Australia

Just thought I'd share a memory or two with you guys while my mind is at least partially functional.
The 1970 Roadster I now own was bought second - hand by my mate Gary in 1973, with a loan from me. He paid me back promptly. We lived in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown, about a mile from the Australasian Norton Villiers distributor.
I remember going there on at least occasion when Gary needed something, and the one thing that stands out in my mind was that there were crates marked "JPN" stacked up against the walls. That probably didn't mean anything to me at the time; I didn't get my first bike, a Honda 175, until mid 1974. Purely as back - up transport, you understand, in case my old car gave trouble. But I soon caught the bug, as you do.
Anyway, back to the crates. I don't know what ended up happening to them, but I did learn later that John Player Nortons could not be registered for use in Australia because of a design defect.
That defect was, wait for it, TWIN HEADLIGHTS. Our moronic bureaucrats thought it was better for motorcycles to have a single headlight which would leave you with no light if it blew, than to have two. Why? Because the Australian Design Rules stated that motorcycles have one headlight. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it, so I'll get off that point.
I know that Nortons have been in Australia for a lot longer than I can remember - I'm only a boy of 59 - so I'll leave any pre - Commando memories to others if they wish. Oh that's right I just remembered: this is the COMMANDO forum.
I know that a high percentage of Norton (and other British bike) production was exported around the world to boost the British economy for many years. It can't have helped Norton's fortunes that the bikes they shipped here were blocked by red tape.
Damn! there I go again.
I'd better get off. See ya.
Martin

You've got to leave that one alone, it wasn't your fault.

Dave
69S

Thanks Dave. Feeling a bit better now.
Martin

Thats because ' the world is flat ' in most of australia .

Thats because ' the world is flat ' in most of australia

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Most of ~ but it does apply around here !

But then "we' do live on top of the Great Dividing range ~ 600 M above sea level and Cairns in Far North QLD..

Bike riders paradise ~

Ironically there is a single straight stretch about 15 klicks from home and I HATE IT!! Even that is not flat and the &%* Highway patrol radars love it for the obvious reasons! :twisted:

:lol:

Flat is Griffith to Mildura ~ Flat is Woomera to Alice Springs Tennant Creek ~ Port Augusta to Perth~ Been there ~ done that ~

Hi Martin

I was wondering why there wasn't any JPNs in the show room when I brought my new 74 850 Commando Roadster in 76 and look at it now nearly every new bike these days has dual headlights, how things change, I will tell you how I brought my new Norton.

I was 17 years old, skinny as anything (9 stone nothing), my mate Don had a 750 Featherbed (Commando motor) and I had a 250 Honda trials bike, Don liked to ride and play on the trials bike so he swapped me his Norton for the day so he could play on the trials bike, after a full day of ridding his Norton all over the place, I was hooked, with in a week I was at the Norton dealer in Brisbane (Morgan and Wakers, they were the main dealers of Harley, Triumph, Norton and BMW at the time and have been going sinse 1912 to this day but only Harley and BMWs now) it was June 76, they only had one 74 Commando Roadster left but had plenty of 75 electric start 850s but I decided to go with the 74 kick start (just through I be tuffer with the kick start), I put a deposit on it and my dad help me get a loan for $1100 my first ever loan, all up $1,999 on the road, I was only earning $60 a week at the time and payed the loan off in 11 months.

I didn't tell any of my mates that I brought a new Norton, it took about 5 days for the paper work and getting the Norton ready and arranged to pick it up on Saturday morning, got my mates to drive me up town to pick it up and they still had no idea till we pulled up at the bike shop and there it was my black Norton sitting right inside the front door entrance, I still didn't say anything to them, I jump out of the car and while they were parking it I was inside getting the paper work, but they mite have guessed when they saw my helmet in my hands, the shop was packed with harden bikers, they were shocked when they seen this skinny kid getting the keys handed to him from the salesperson and getting instuctions on how to start it, first kick I gave it and it came to life (thank god for that) even my mates were surprised and away I went, but not use to right hand gear change, man did I learn real fast.

I still own the Norton but not the way I brought it, in 1980 I covered it to a 57 Wideline Featherbed frame and haven't looked back, all work gets done by my hands and has been a good learning cuve for me in the 36 years of owership.

Ashley

Fascinating.Discussed this with an Aussie at bike night on Tuesday and he told me the Ducati 916 suffered the same fate and this was the solution.
Shield your eyes ! http://www.ducatinewstoday.com/2012/04/the-ugliest-ducati-916-in-the-world/
Where did all the Australian JPN's end up thats the question?

Where did all the Australian JPN's end up thats the question?

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I saw one ( Less the ful fairing ) ~( resident local ) in Narooma NSW, south of Wollongong and Bateman's Bay about ~ hmm ? :roll: :lol: about 1998 !!! ~~

I lived in Melbourne in the early eighties. The saturday morning ritual was to wash and polish the Trident, then head into Elizabeth street to cruise the bike shops and pick up 'essential' parts. The spares guy at Modak said they were the Norton dealer through the sixties when no one wanted to sell them, and as soon as the Commando took off another dealer came up with an offer the factory couldn't refuse and it was taken off them. Are they still going?

They actually got around the twin headlight thing on the JPN in West Oz at least, by making one of the lights a spotlight, so that it only came on with high beam. So they were sold like that, quite legally. The 916 debacle was another matter, as by that time the headlight had to be in the centre of the bike, so we ended up with the abortion shown.

As I recall.

komet said:

Modak .... Are they still going?

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They were last time i was there, a year or so back. Still the same shop by the look of it.

And still the same old quality of service.

Fullauto said:

They actually got around the twin headlight thing on the JPN in West Oz at least, by making one of the lights a spotlight, so that it only came on with high beam. So they were sold like that, quite legally. The 916 debacle was another matter, as by that time the headlight had to be in the centre of the bike, so we ended up with the abortion shown.

As I recall.

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I was wondering if anyone would mention the 916 Ozzie disgrace.

I couldnt beleive it. One of the most beautiful machines of all time and they did that to it. Tragedy !!!

Confirms everything NZers beleive about Ozzies. (Very sore point in my familly at moment - Oldest son just became an Aussie citizen :-( Tough thing for a Kiwi father !!)

Oldest son just became an Aussie citizen

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Last time I checked there are some 20,000 kiwis flocking over to Ozzie every year ~ some stay ~ but some 19789 go back to NZ again ~ :shock: :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


( Don't worry folks..for thos e that don;t know ~ there is a long lasting term of embitterment between Ozzies and Kiwis ~ and 'bagging' out is common place.. Of course the Ozzies will always win out anyway ~ 8) :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: )

Unfortunately for his poor father this one seems to have it bad. He's got the passport, joined the Army reserves, got the accent

He works in Darwin - which is frankly a pretty "interesting" town - even Australians will admit that !!!!!!!!! - as a site engineer for big construction projects. Most of the NZers I know there work in the mines and outback.

His sister worked in Canberra as a lawyer for a while - she struggled with reconciling seven sets of legislation for 20 MM people - two territories, 6? states to cover every subject - drove her crazy!!!

There's lots of govt servants and some of them seemed much too interested in counting headlights on motorcycles

John, maybe we could send you all our politicians (you can keep them no charge) to make up for the Kiwis that come over here? Just don't let them legislate anything.
NZ is a beautiful place and the people are very friendly. Then there's the fantastic roads!

Maybe those 916 haloween masks will be worth big $ one day?

graeme

Maybe we could send you guys our politicians. You wouldn't even worry about motorcycle headlamps. It would be mostly sex you'd have to worry about, doesn't matter which kind, did I tell you about the Scotsman?

Dave
69S

I know there work in the mines and outback.

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John

I agree there ~ I spent some ten years in the dead heart at Ayers Rock and my most consistent drinking mates were all Kiwis ~ there was definitely a high percentage of Kiwis ~

For the Northern hemisphere locals who dont understand what is going on here NZers and Ozzies have issues over accents which confuse six and sex, fish and chips etc. And for some reason sheep - please note there are more sheep in Oz than NZ

Going back to the original topic and if I expand it to Nortons down under I think there is a differnce to the experiences in the UK at least.

NZ and Oz were used as the testing grounds by the Japanese factories and British bikes were very much the poor cousins.

We had the Castrol Six hours production races in both countries and Grahame Crosby on a Z1 Kawasaki could annilate any Commando with both eyes closed and a stop for afternoon tea!!!!!!! In NZ we had the Malboro series which saw the first track appearances anywhere in the world for TZ 700s. At a tiny little street track in Lower Hutt Wellington. If you wanted the best street racing in the world you went to Wanganui on Boxing Day !!! Crosby would run in the top 5 on his Z1. My absolute favourite was American Pat Hennan. The most gifted rider I think I have ever seen.

My 850 Mk 11 Commando sat for a year in a shop Wellington before it was sold. Any young keen man with racing in mind was going to get a Z1, H2, RD 350 or Honda 4. We were all continually amazed how Nortons could win races in Europe. They must have set the rules to suit and used different machines to the ones sent to the colonies. Mind you when Crosby went to the UK he shock them up a bit too!

And then there was the next issue. Back then there were no HD about so the hoods rode British bikes. And mostly they rode someone elses British bike. It got so bad that if you could keep a Norton or Triumph for six months before it was stolen you were a lucky man. You never rode it to town and you always parked it where you could see it.

And to put the icing on the cake was the "service " from the dealers - especially the likes of Lucas etc. Even today I remember what a bunch of ignorant p**** they were.

So you really had to be keen to ride Brit bikes in NZ in the 60s and 70s.

I rode my 850 every day up until I left NZ in 1981to go to Europe. It was no show pony. I was a seriously broke student and the exhaust pipes were a welded up patched mess. The gear box had shot bearings, the carbs were totally worn out. But I always got home. In fact it wasnt until about 2008 that it left me dead on the side of the road with the standard broken wire in the Boyer pick up Points were always totally fixable by any bankcrupt student!!!!!!!!

The only thing ive known an auzzie to succed at in Newzealand is robbery . :lol: 8)