Where are the VR 880s today?

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mototom

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Hey, everyone. I just saw the thread by nyc10 about his new VR 880 purchase. I'm trying to get together a full list of where all the VR 880s are today. I'm hoping we can incorporate some of them into the film.

If you've got any leads on where one might be, please let me know. If you're currently the owner of a VR 880 and are willing to help us out, please PM me with your info. I'd like to know the following:

1. Kenny's bike number, if it's on there
2. Your name
3. Your contact info -- address and phone number
4. Who you purchased the bike from

Any help would be great. Things are coming along on the film. We're interviewing David Edwards tomorrow and I may get to ride his VR 880.

cheers,
tom
 
Sounds like a great phase of the program.

You know, I tried to buy an 880 for 10 years, and they NEVER came up on the open market. Sometime about 2 years ago, they started trickling out; now there have been 3 or 4 on the market in the just last few months.
 
i sold mine to a museum in birmingham uk
for £12000.00 it had a lot of inherent faults
not a happy experience
they bring it out on the odd day at norton owner events uk
it did about 110 miles then went bang ....................................
worst $30,000 i ever spent

Richard
 
Richard Barks said:
i sold mine to a museum in birmingham uk
for £12000.00 it had a lot of inherent faults
not a happy experience
they bring it out on the odd day at norton owner events uk
it did about 110 miles then went bang ....................................
worst $30,000 i ever spent
Click to expand...

Richard, that's too bad. Most of them sold for less than $30,000 -- was that just the price, was yours secondhand, or did you have some extra work that added to the cost?

Is that the National Motorcycle Museum it ended up in? I'm planning on visiting there.
 
Yes that's the one in Birmingham
I had the vr 880 from new
If you look on the norton owners club site ( uk )
There's a picture of it when I rode it to a norton day
 
Richard Barks said:
Yes that's the one in Birmingham
I had the vr 880 from new
If you look on the norton owners club site ( uk )
There's a picture of it when I rode it to a norton day
Click to expand...

Richard, do you have a link to the picture on the NOC site?

Was this one of the oil-in-frame bikes Kenny did? David Edwards mentioned yesterday there were problems with some of those that resulted in a lot of warranty work for Kenny. It's too bad it turned out that way.
 
mototom said:
...Was this one of the oil-in-frame bikes Kenny did? David Edwards mentioned yesterday there were problems with some of those that resulted in a lot of warranty work for Kenny. It's too bad it turned out that way.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's why Kenny made a couple of us such a good deal on all his vintage stuff, he wanted to close that chapter in his life.
 
Yes it was a oil in the frame bike
Which Kenny in his wisdom saw fit
To line oil tank with a sealing material
Which promptly flaked off unbeknown to me
And blocked in line oil filter hence bike engine went bang
Arriving home in the cab of a tow truck with a $30,000
bike ignominiously strapped on the back is still a memory painfully
Clear 7 years or so later

Richard ( I've seen the light and bought a CNW Norton ) Barks
 
I've got a friend who recently bought a VR880 from the guy who bought
it from Kenny. It's in SC . I'll tell him about your project and hopefully
He'll get on here and give you his and the bike's info or PM you directly.

Ron
 
rond944 said:
I've got a friend who recently bought a VR880 from the guy who bought
it from Kenny. It's in SC . I'll tell him about your project and hopefully
He'll get on here and give you his and the bike's info or PM you directly.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Ron. He can also email me directly at tom@americannorton.com.
 
Richard Barks said:
Yes it was a oil in the frame bike
Which Kenny in his wisdom saw fit
To line oil tank with a sealing material
Which promptly flaked off unbeknown to me
And blocked in line oil filter hence bike engine went bang
Arriving home in the cab of a tow truck with a $30,000
bike ignominiously strapped on the back is still a memory painfully
Clear 7 years or so later

Richard ( I've seen the light and bought a CNW Norton ) Barks
Click to expand...


Did De Lorean have a brother interested in making bikes I wonder?
 
rond944 said:
I've got a friend who recently bought a VR880 from the guy who bought
it from Kenny. It's in SC . I'll tell him about your project and hopefully
He'll get on here and give you his and the bike's info or PM you directly.

Ron
Click to expand...

Greenville SC? there is one there, at least there was 3 years ago - guy who owned it was real nice, but very private.
 
No , this one is in Columbia , SC and was purchases from a guy in New England
a couple of months ago .
 
Richard Barks said:
Yes it was a oil in the frame bike
Which Kenny in his wisdom saw fit
To line oil tank with a sealing material
Which promptly flaked off unbeknown to me
And blocked in line oil filter hence bike engine went bang
Click to expand...

David Edwards mentioned these in his interview. He said there was a batch of contaminated frames that caused a number of failures and resulted in a lot of warranty work for Kenny. So as far as I've heard so far, what you experienced was not a design flaw but a defective component.

What happened when you contacted Kenny about it? Was it cost-prohibitive to send it back to him to fix the defect? Or had he stopped doing VR 880s by then and didn't have anything to repair it with?
 
Here's a few more faults
No side stand ( a real pisser ! )
Failure of the starter mounting, Ie it broke
Fuel tank only secured at the front so in the event of accident
Would detach itself from the bike
Misaligned belt drive ,mine snapped
Extra isolastic mount WHY ?
Failure of mr Dreer to addres the problems
I still have a letter from him promising a new norton
Also I framed the cheque ( now hanging in my garage )
He sent me figuring one day it would be worth something
30 cents on eBay on a good day
Hey but I'm not bitter ..........
 
Here is one of the real early ones, it is now in Paris

Where are the VR 880s today?


Jean
 
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