Your Norton Defining Moment (2012)

I was 12 years old and had just sold my horse for $150. I intended to use the money to purchase a small motorcycle of some sort, probably Japanese. My older Brother, just sixteen and driving, had picked up a near new Honda 90 for three hundred. So with just half the money available, my bike would have to be older, or broken, or both.
I started to ask around and learned that there was a local hippie fellow in his late teens who might have a bike for sale. It was a Matchless G80 basket in many small pieces. He bought the project three years earlier and had done nothing with it. He wasn't quite ready to sell but knew of a 500 Norton single that might be for sale.
I got the address for the Norton and rode my bicycle there, about a ten mile round trip. The owner, Frank, was at work but his wife was home, so she let me have a look at the bike. The head and cylinder were off, other than that the bike was complete and in very nice shape. It was a 1956 ES2.
Frank's wife said that she wasnt sure if he wanted to sell, but might be willing to due to the fact that he had just bought a horse and needed funds to purchase a saddle. I blurted out that I had a saddle for sale. So that ended up being the deal, my Sears riding saddle for the Norton. I hounded my Dad to drive me over there that night with the saddle. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. We visited with Frank for what seemed like an eternity and finally at the end of the evening he looked the saddle over and said " I guess we can load the bike then"
My parents were worried about my 16 year old brother with his Honda, but felt I would be OK with the Norton since it was apart. They were sure that I would never get it running. We brought it home on Friday night and had it together and running by noon the following day!
All hell broke loose after that. We had a large sloping rock in our 1/2 mile long pasture. I learned that I could hit that at 70 mph with a friend on the back and put the bike well up in the air for a long jump, just like the one done by Steve McQeen (Bud Ekins) in the Great Escape. Sometimes the landing was a bit shaky, especially if we came down into a fresh cow turd.
I do not know how we survived! My best friend rode on the back for those jumps, he still talks about how exciting and terrifying it was. Of course we did not know how close to death we were each time, we were invincible!
A couple of years later I bought the G80 Matchless basket owned by the 18 year old hippie. It was a much bigger project, about sixmonths and all my savings to get that one back together.
But the fun I had on that first Norton has always stayed with me. In fact Im still looking for it and probably always will be. Probably best not to find it, the reality will never measure up to the memory.


Glen

Glen that's wonderful tale and glad you conveyed the extra sense of speed and freedom on seas of grass with some wake to cross. My brother would carry me on back of his CB350 on coral rock lanes at edge of everglades at night me facing backwards so not seeing the bumps that caught some air nor the branches he'd duck down for...

"Those bikes are not the same. They actually had some concern for the rider's ergonomics.
Riding a vintage racing style bike in traffic is near suicidal. In Mexico it would be laughable."

I appreciate all the input about what I should/should not ride but I just wanted to know what brand of fairing you have.

swooshdave said:

They are like super models, they look great but once you try to mount one it's all pointy elbows and knees and a lot of complaining. :mrgreen:

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You too?
I thought it was just me... :shock:

DogT said:

Mine was riding over the Key Bridge from Arlington into DC in 1927 test riding the 70S I now have. It was like, 'I need this'.

Dave
69S

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We know you're old, but you must have time machine also.

Make that 72

DogT said:

Make that 72

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We knew, we at the Geriatric Motorcycle Club gave you a pass :mrgreen:

Was when a buddy rolled into the yard with a '74 Norton Interstate in black. The sound, the look and the smile
on Leland's face said it all. I knew this was the bike for me. Another friend had "infected" Leland with the
"need" for a Norton. That mutual friend was Fred Eaton, now owner of Old Britts. Fred and Ell lived in
Fairbanks AK then. Fred had a '75 which he still has.

I had a '72 Yamaha 360 enduro at the time for commute and trail riding. A week after Leland showed off his
Interstate I saw an ad for a '75 Norton for $1500. I really couldn't afford another bike as my wife and I were saving
for property to build a house on. This was June of 1979 and we had been married for a little under two years.
Two weeks went by and the Norton was still for sale. I rode over to see it and bought it for $1400. I was a
happy boy! Wow, I had never ridden anything like this before including some Triumphs in the late 60's.
However, my wife was not so happy to see the home savings account drop by nearly half to buy a motorcycle.
So I sold the Yamaha for a couple hundred bucks to restore some peace in the house.


Pic taken July 1979 with my little sister on back.

So I still have that Norton, I'm still married to the same wonderful girl and she has her own stable of bikes now.
David

I wish I had a photo like that. It shows a lot of love. Both of my sisters died as a result of breast cancer.

My current defining moment was finally putting my motor back in a couple of hours ago!!!

Death is a central theme in my life existing w/o many souls that were part of me, so part of my devil may care attitude because it hurts too much to function w/o a don't give a shit attitude deep inside to cover the bit deeper reality.

I have some horrific flash backs to review in very intense cycle events, like tank slapper view on wheelie drop down on Nina 900 at 120 mph to hi side on head/neck [going straight] or just tooling along mid 30's tank slapper event on my face and cracked ribs while slightly easy slowing for a mild Gravel turn to be extra safe, SPLAT. I must make a bit active effort to change images not to review these flash backs or I get too stirred to sleep with the screaming involuntary reflex noises. You never get over the lose of loved ones till we are done too.

Safe Journeys till the end

My younger sister had her illness when she was 25. Had chemo, and died of an anuerism 15 years later in Thailand . If she'd ever been bitchy, it would have been easier on the rest of us, however she was extremely intelligent and loving, and believed in everyone. It is a privilege to have known her. Several of my friends have died on motorcycles, however they were doing what they loved and had a choice - that is not so bad.

Back in the day, as a Triumph guy, I regarded Nortons as archaic relics, `til those so `70s stylish 'S'-types showed up & went so hard..
Later, even after I `d gone to the [2-stroke] 'darkside' - I always appreciated the style, punchy go, & class of a cool Commando, & thought , one day I`m gonna get me one of those..
Oh, yes, Aco...no disrespect for you missing loved ones, I can empathise, but...[ALL MUST DIE]...its true..so live it up..

I grew up on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, where, during the 60’s and early ‘70s most of the motorcycles were either pre- and post-war British bikes or small-displacement scooters or Jap bikes. I’d read the ‘bike magazines and books avidly and always loved Nortons, even when the large-displacement Hondayamazukis started to gain popularity. The Commandos were what I lusted after – yes, helped by teenage yearnings for the Norton girls, of course. When I finally saw a black/gold one ridden by a British serviceman (a commando on a Commando, no less) I was smitten and pined for one ever after. There was no way that I could afford one, being a student with a part-time job as a scuba-diving instructer, but I did the next best thing. In 1973, I bought a 1949 Model 7 Dominator, tired, but intact. The roar it made with straight-through copper pipes was obnoxious but intoxicating.

After the blindness of initial ownership wore off, I realized that the bike would have a peculiar “weave” as it went over the (very many) bumps of the local roads. Closer inspection revealed the frame was cracked through immediately behind the lower gearbox mount and it would spread more than an inch as the suspension was compressed!! I stripped the bike, had the frame sleeved and welded and rode it every day for four more years. I loved that bike (see first photo). I moved on to other bikes and to the U.K. and Ireland.

Now, after living in the U.S. for almost 30 years, I finally bought a rust-heap of a ’74 Commando. I restored it in my basement and entered it in the Baxter Cycle annual contest in 2009 when it won the “Best Norton” award (second photo). I’ve ridden it regularly ever since and have restored another '74 for a friend – who also spent much of his early life in Malta and now lives in the U.S.

@J.A.W
One thing about life - 'nobody gets out alive ! '

According to current knowledge per Hawkings et al, we`re all recycled super-nova stuff anyhow, & will go back down the cosmic plug`ole [black hole] in due course... Some bloke reckoned he was gonna live forever, or die in the attempt..

This is the picture of two great best Austrians friends taken in Bracciano, Italy, during the english bike rally in 1982.
All european owners of Norton will recognize a young and late great unforgettable friend.

My "defining moment" came when I was running my 250 Ariel Leader as hard as it would go on the way to work and was blasted off by a guy on a Dommie 88 going at least 15 mph faster than I could. A very short time later, another co-worker on a Velocette Venom went by even faster.

Ten years later, I managed to talk my way into a job at Norton-Villiers. I had gained a lot of experience in test instrumentation and methods and it seemed to me that N-V was in the dark ages in that regard. Boy, was I ever right!. Their only "data" was rider verbal feedback. Theyt had no way of measuring anything outside of the dynamometer room.

I embarked on a project, with the Managing Director's approval, to build a test instrumentation set-up that we could take out into the field. I had found a vendor that made instrumentation that fed into a small RF multiplexer/transmitter. It was a bit bigger than a pack of cigarettes and could handle 20 channels of analog information, powered by internal batteries or the bike's electrical system.

I designed a modular mobile test lab, with strip chart recorders, oscilloscopes etc., that could be loaded into the Competition/Development Department's LWB Ford Transit dually van. It all came to a crashing halt when N-V's financial troubles became known. It is to my eternal regret that we didn't get the project done earlier. If we had really been able to measure what was going on, maybe we would have spotted the "widowmaker" frame problem. We had an almost identical failure on what became the AJS Stormer, in motocross competition, much earlier than it appeared in the Commando.

The mis-managed mess that N-V degenerated into in early 1968 made me realise that emigration and a job with a large, well run aerospace company (Boeing) was the way of the future. I retired in 1998 and we still live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, in Anacortes, Washington State.

mike996 said:

"Those bikes are not the same. They actually had some concern for the rider's ergonomics.
Riding a vintage racing style bike in traffic is near suicidal. In Mexico it would be laughable."

I appreciate all the input about what I should/should not ride but I just wanted to know what brand of fairing you have.

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Norvil.

Dang Frank that's like Buck Rodgers meets naked natives. Maybe you can advise me on data logging my Peel special which will blow right up if not monitoring creeping up on potential. Open a new subject on what you wanted to monitor and how please. Sure would be nice to have an accurate fuel flow meter.