There and back again, a 961 tale...

Having covered 400 leagues on my trusty steed about a month ago, I began my quest for
the book of service. My nearest knights were unavailable until the middle of September so I reluctantly arranged a rendezvous. My steed and I continued to cover the miles and at the weekend I had reached the 540 milepost and concerned that my precious might begin to weep (oil and other fluids) through lack of attention, I contacted the new haven of Norton At Donington Hall. My luck was in, they had a space on Wednesday afternoon. I took my precious out of the stable this morning and started her up whilst putting my helmet and gloves on - al as, she decided to stop before I had the chance to set off. Another gentle push of the starter and up she fired - phew! I set off with some hope and much trepidation. The road was long and full of danger; the giants of Stobart and Daf, the arrows of Citroen, the spinning wheel of BMW and the rings of Audi. We threaded our way through with no issues - no trolls, no orcs, no elves, no dwarves and no hobbits. I arrived at Donington and handed my precious over to two wizards. I spent a few hours in the grounds of the hall, listening to music from an earlier age (The Police, The Clash, The Cure) and watching John McGuinness and his son playing with go carts around the grounds of the hall - there may have been one hobbit...
The chief wizard told me that I had been unintentionally dragging the rear brake, obviously affecting the performance, my punishment was the removal of several of my go faster stripes. He must have had a change of heart as he handed over a rejuvenated steed, pipes suitably shorter, map redone - what a change.
The journey home was much less stressful, the roar of the Norton instilling fear in all who heard it, parting the way to let us through!

All joking aside, I did think that the change had been over stressed - a view through Norton issue rose coloured specs. I take it back, what a change and I now have much more confidence in the bike, I am really enjoying the experience.

The service was first class and I was impressed by the fact the both Clem Croft and Rob Jameson went out of their way to come over and speak to me. The customer service I received from all the staff at Norton today was excellent - a real credit to the company
Thank you Norton.

Sounds very much like my experience earlier in the year, a mixture of trepidation and excitement for the first 500 followed by pleasure and pride. I thought the rose tinted specs were standard issue

Agree, the crew at Donington are a nice bunch

Eljahara said:

Having covered 400 leagues on my trusty steed about a month ago, I began my quest for
the book of service. My nearest knights were unavailable until the middle of September so I reluctantly arranged a rendezvous. My steed and I continued to cover the miles and at the weekend I had reached the 540 milepost and concerned that my precious might begin to weep (oil and other fluids) through lack of attention, I contacted the new haven of Norton At Donington Hall. My luck was in, they had a space on Wednesday afternoon. I took my precious out of the stable this morning and started her up whilst putting my helmet and gloves on - al as, she decided to stop before I had the chance to set off. Another gentle push of the starter and up she fired - phew! I set off with some hope and much trepidation. The road was long and full of danger; the giants of Stobart and Daf, the arrows of Citroen, the spinning wheel of BMW and the rings of Audi. We threaded our way through with no issues - no trolls, no orcs, no elves, no dwarves and no hobbits. I arrived at Donington and handed my precious over to two wizards. I spent a few hours in the grounds of the hall, listening to music from an earlier age (The Police, The Clash, The Cure) and watching John McGuinness and his son playing with go carts around the grounds of the hall - there may have been one hobbit...
The chief wizard told me that I had been unintentionally dragging the rear brake, obviously affecting the performance, my punishment was the removal of several of my go faster stripes. He must have had a change of heart as he handed over a rejuvenated steed, pipes suitably shorter, map redone - what a change.
The journey home was much less stressful, the roar of the Norton instilling fear in all who heard it, parting the way to let us through!

All joking aside, I did think that the change had been over stressed - a view through Norton issue rose coloured specs. I take it back, what a change and I now have much more confidence in the bike, I am really enjoying the experience.


View attachment 6148

Click to expand...

You do have the gift Of writing in a fun way , need more of this

I too have recently undertaken the same quest to Prime Motors in Redhill here in the murky south. Geoff was brilliant, bike has come back even better than before. Personally speaking, and so far - my experience of owning this bike has been superb. I'm at 900 miles now.

Very law abiding (apart from short pipes) I see you have left the cat on along with the standard reg plate and multiple reflectors.

Welshrugby said:

Very law abiding (apart from short pipes) I see you have left the cat on along with the standard reg plate and multiple reflectors.

Click to expand...

They will not remove the cat at the factory?
Has to be homologated apparently
Maybe I forgot to ask...
Runs much better than before and the map is the same with or without the cat

Steve Moore said:

I too have recently undertaken the same quest to Prime Motors in Redhill here in the murky south.

Click to expand...

Steve, thanks for that info. Prime Factors Motorcycles is less than 4 miles from me, and I didn't know they covered Nortons. I thought they were only an Indian dealer, but have just checked their web site when I saw your post. Will have to check them out.