TT 2016: fastest-ever lap for Norton

grandpaul said:
wakeup said:
Maybe they worked out that the 961 Commando isn't suitable for racing?? Imagine the publicity they would get with a 961 rumbling around in last place.............
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Refer to a previous reply: Why isn't Norton offering another new model, replica of the TT race bike? Don't they have everything they need, including a RACE-PROVEN basis machine? Seems like a no-brainer.

Maybe we're all in the dark, and they'll announce an upcoming release right after the Isle Of Man race is done...
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Well it's a well known feature of motorcycle manufacturing, an accountant presses the Big Red Button, and a fully formed, fully developed, affordable motor cycle drops from the sky, along with all of the fully proven, fully optimised drawings and tooling, and the right spread of skilled people to make it all happen. All in a flash.

Of course there are people all over the World who would say, "....but it only takes...something or other". Generally however those people have little knowledge of what is required. From what I understand the Norton racing effort is run pretty much on a shoestring. Running a racing team doesn't have a great deal in common with a production establishment. Anyone (ANYONE) can bodge up a world beater and announce it to the eager public, in a flash (there's that word again) of publicity. But actually taking a concept from the lamp flickering on stage ,to production bikes rolling out of the door takes a huge effort.

cheers
wakeup
 
grandpaul said:
wakeup said:
Maybe they worked out that the 961 Commando isn't suitable for racing?? Imagine the publicity they would get with a 961 rumbling around in last place.............
Click to expand...
Refer to a previous reply: Why isn't Norton offering another new model, replica of the TT race bike? Don't they have everything they need, including a RACE-PROVEN basis machine? Seems like a no-brainer.

Maybe we're all in the dark, and they'll announce an upcoming release right after the Isle Of Man race is done...
Click to expand...

Who's to say they aren't working on a new model based on the race bike?
 
swooshdave said:
Who's to say they aren't working on a new model based on the race bike?
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IF they are, I only have ONE piece of advice to Norton:

DO NOT ANNOUNCE IT, until you have several dozen (100 or more) EPA/DOT approved, ready-to-ship bikes in the warehouse!

(And a decent sized spares supply on the shelves, and techs trained on the new bikes, at your dealerships)
 
Yes I can imagine a 961 running around in last place... Ever heard the Stanley Schofield record of the 1961 250TT in which my hero Bob Mac did a 99.9 something standing start lap on his Honda 4.....one section of the record goes something like....' and here we are at Signpost Corner on lap one and here is Tommy Robb on the Geoff Monty Special already some 3 1/2 minutes behind the leader'..... every time I play it I feel proud proud to be British as the single cylinder lump can be heard firing once every telegraph pole as it slowly heads off towards Governers Bridge...
 
https://www.facebook.com/NortonMotorcyc ... =3&theater

Norton Motorcycles (UK) Ltd
5 March · Leicester ·

Norton has a special day here at the factory today as we concrete the foundations of the new Norton manufacturing facility. A part of the £7.5m investment announced recently. Our successful Commando Mk II and Dominator bikes have grown our Academy and Apprenticeship scheme, with some great young talent already emerging. With the new V4 Norton engined bike to be launched later this year, we need more manufacturing and production skills, which in turn means we need more space. Really positive story going forwards, we're proud of all the team here at Norton. Big thanks to all involved..
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http://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/ne ... 1wi3KLCvAo
 
L.A.B. said:
https://www.facebook.com/NortonMotorcycles/photos/a.10150392841471099.356075.188390371098/10153428446971099/?type=3&theater

Norton Motorcycles (UK) Ltd
5 March · Leicester ·

Norton has a special day here at the factory today as we concrete the foundations of the new Norton manufacturing facility. A part of the £7.5m investment announced recently. Our successful Commando Mk II and Dominator bikes have grown our Academy and Apprenticeship scheme, with some great young talent already emerging. With the new V4 Norton engined bike to be launched later this year, we need more manufacturing and production skills, which in turn means we need more space. Really positive story going forwards, we're proud of all the team here at Norton. Big thanks to all involved..
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

There you go!
 
It has been suggested that an Aprilia engine in a Spondon frame should make it a Sponzilla ??

This engine has been around well before Aprilia had anything to do with the MotoGP.
It won the World Superbikes a few years ago, with Sylvain Guintoli aboard.

It would be difficult to image how Nortons could improve the insides any....
They wouldn't be getting the MotoGP race engines either ?
 
Not the first bike to fail to stop at Sulby Bridge. Bet it was not the first Norton to take that escape route either but I would imagine the drop came as a bit of a suprise. Had it happened in NO LIMIT George would of done it at speed and made it to the river! If memory is correct the film shows one rider entering the pub dtoor at Ballacraine complete with bike and faster than that Italian Engined Norton went on at Sulby!! For those who have NO idea as to what I am talking about and have never seen the film it was a George Formby film about the Shuttleworth Special and the TT. Do they still show the film in Douglas TT time ? Last TT I visited Mr Hailwood was on the MV. Then I realised there were far less blokes and thus more women available at Manx GP time.......
 
They were still showing "No Limits " the last time I was there. ......but that was 1981. I'm going for the Manx (OK Classic)
this year so I'll have a look. ....maybe.
 
It would be interesting to hear from non UK people what they think of George Formby......a very strange man!!
In 1968 at the Production bike TT I was sat on the wall of the beer garden at the Ballacraine Pub, with my feet on the straw bales. A rider on a Triumph Daytona on exiting the corner glanced off the straw bales inducing me to fall backwards off the wall. Fortunately he didn't fall off and I didn't spill any beer!!
cheers
wakeup
 
Tis amazing where people sit..... At Kates Cottage in the days I was marshaling people would sit on trhe right hand bank below Kates with legs dangling over even though it was a restricted area......If a policeman was with us he would move them on but it was a lot easier to wait for someone to run wide and use the bank to keep them on the road ....that did the job for us!!! I was once told...note TOLD...that one rider and bike found their way into the field and that the bull was non too happy about it.
 
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