The Commando years

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Yes, both Bob Trigg and Keith Blair were very sad news. Keith I had known for decades.
Bob I had been introduced to at IFMA in Cologne in the early 1980s but had no personal contact with until he came to our Open Day in Andover and I had the welcome opportunity to ask him many questions you don't find the answers to in the Norton books. He was very fit in body and his mind was sharp and and the memories exact. A conversation that remains a highlight in my Norton career now spanning four decades.

The information about the switch from Andover to Wolverhampton happening in late 72/early 73 tallies with what I heard from other ex-factory people. Amazing nobody has more exact information nowadays.
 
ZFD said:
Yes, both Bob Trigg and Keith Blair were very sad news. Keith I had known for decades.
Bob I had been introduced to at IFMA in Cologne in the early 1980s but had no personal contact with until he came to our Open Day in Andover and I had the welcome opportunity to ask him many questions you don't find the answers to in the Norton books. He was very fit in body and his mind was sharp and and the memories exact. A conversation that remains a highlight in my Norton career now spanning four decades.

The information about the switch from Andover to Wolverhampton happening in late 72/early 73 tallies with what I heard from other ex-factory people. Amazing nobody has more exact information nowadays.
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Mr. Zed (or is that Mr. Day?) I suppose all of us were at the factory and just working day to day. And, if I remember correctly, the transfer was slow and steady up to a point, and then it all slammed into 100% at Wolverhampton. One thing I can place in time is that I was riding my Commando from Wolverhampton to visit an old college friend who was visiting from the US -- had a bit of a whoopsie on the way and rode into London with no clutch lever. I bought an ordinary "aftermarket" clutch lever at the Norton dealer in Ealing, London (I think) and continued on to my friend's sister's house. She helped clean up my skin scrapes, gave me some aspirin, and put me to bed but next day I was pretty sore, so I rode to Andover, John Hudson rolled my bike into the warehouse, and gave me tea. Then, a little later, we put my slighly bruised bike on the back of a lorry with empty engine stillage frames and put my slightly bruised body in the cab with the driver for the ride back to Wolverhampton. That was about late January, 1973, so there were at least some engines going from Wolverhampton to Andover then.

In my 6 years at Norton, I worked in Bob Trigg's office for 4 - two at Wolverhampton and two at Shenstone. The man was a whiz at incisive thinking and problem solving. I don't think that he worked in a way that would make much sense to modern "Project Management" college professors but he sure got things done. My job at Wolverhampton was my first out of college, he helped me start and advance a career in many ways. I learned from Brian Slark just last month that he'd died suddenly and I'm still broken-hearted to think he's gone.
He was right there in every aspect of the Commando, from first "rubber mount" brainstorms to the "Last Day" at Wolverhampton. What a loss.

(PS "Tony" Denniss (A. H. K. Denniss) had been a lead design engineer at AMC for years before coming to Wolverhampton and then also to Shenstone. He and I had offices only steps apart at both Wolverhampton and Shenstone. I think he's been gone for over 20 years but his loss also took away a great reservoir of knowledge about all the days of the Commando.)

Bruce Henderson, now N. Carolina, USA
 
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Makes sense. My ‘72 combat has an ID plate made in Andover Dec 1971. The ‘69 750 S was made in London Mar1969. Really appreciate your enthusiasm and looking forward hopefully to seeing the information. If you need volunteers for any data entry let me know. I did 1000 numbers to a spreadsheet from 1947 during the NOC factory records project some 20 plus years ago.
 
ZFD said:
Yes, both Bob Trigg and Keith Blair were very sad news. Keith I had known for decades.
Bob I had been introduced to at IFMA in Cologne in the early 1980s but had no personal contact with until he came to our Open Day in Andover and I had the welcome opportunity to ask him many questions you don't find the answers to in the Norton books. He was very fit in body and his mind was sharp and and the memories exact. A conversation that remains a highlight in my Norton career now spanning four decades.

The information about the switch from Andover to Wolverhampton happening in late 72/early 73 tallies with what I heard from other ex-factory people. Amazing nobody has more exact information nowadays.
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The date is in the files, I have seen it along with the redundancy information.
 
Sadly, some of what is in the files, a few pages, may will be kept secret as it mentions other marques. This information will need to be seen or released elsewhere or mentioned in Hansards prior to AN releasing it.
If anyone has read the blue book about Meriden, the background to the book is also in the files, and exactly how NV became NVTL parent with two subsiduarys, all the papers relating to the demise of these companies and exactly what happened to NVTL in 1986 and the subsiduarys is all there - sadly, no one I have ever met in the Norton world or anything read including my boss knew what exactly happened to NVTL, shocking, as this is in living memory, but it is in the files. All the experts know is that they assume NVTL was liquidated, but none of them know how.
 
illf8ed said:
Makes sense. My ‘72 combat has an ID plate made in Andover Dec 1971. The ‘69 750 S was made in London Mar1969. Really appreciate your enthusiasm and looking forward hopefully to seeing the information. If you need volunteers for any data entry let me know. I did 1000 numbers to a spreadsheet from 1947 during the NOC factory records project some 20 plus years ago.
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David, My 69 "S" (serial 1317**) was built at Plumstead (AMC factory, Woolwich, London) in early 1969.
 
Blewdy Yaink said:
David, My 69 "S" (serial 1317**) was built at Plumstead (AMC factory, Woolwich, London) in early 1969.
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I see you’re is North Carolina. Too bad, would be nice to get these early “S” together. I’m in Stockton, Ca. Just got mine in October as a basket case. I’ve got it assembled ready to get the numbers checked by DMV next month. Mine is metal flake red, what color is your’s?
 
illf8ed said:
I see you’re is North Carolina. Too bad, would be nice to get these early “S” together. I’m in Stockton, Ca. Just got mine in October as a basket case. I’ve got it assembled ready to get the numbers checked by DMV next month. Mine is metal flake red, what color is your’s?
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Thanks, David, but the "was" is the operative word in my comment. One of the local motorcycle club members thought that it would look better in his garage (or more likely that the parts would look better on his bike) and took it for a ride. Still heartbreaking to think about, but that's life.

(Edit - Yes mine was red metal flake, too. Lovely colour. My "replacement" was a yellow Roadster. I rode and raced that one for a couple of years, sold it when I moved to England - bought a Signal Red Combat Roadster there.)
 
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Blewdy Yaink said:
Thanks, David, but the "was" is the operative word in my post. One of the local motorcycle club members thought that it would look better in his garage (or more likely that the parts would look better on his bike) and took it for a ride. Still heartbreaking to think about, but that's life.

(Edit - Yes mine was red metal flake, too. Lovely colour. My "replacement" was a yellow Roadster. I rode and raced that one for a couple of years, sold it when I moved to England - bought a Signal Red Combat Roadster there.)
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We seem to agree. I bought my signal red combat roadster in ‘97 from Phil Redford and still riding it. It’s in the avatar to the left.
 
Sorry that’s Phil Radford. I see it’s not me. The spell check tried to change again to Redford. Hey L.A.B. How can I turn off the spell check.
 
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