Norton in the Isle of Man documentary.

Nice one Bonz, thanks for posting. Roll on summer, see you in August đź‘Ť đź‘Ť
 
There's some Rotary stuff going on at this show soon. I might even go.
 
All that happens with bikes like that is, everybody in a races has to have one to be competitive, so the average race speed rises, and the whole thing becomes the same game, but much more dangerous. DO we need the IOM TT to become more dangerous?
The Landsboro Series makes much more sense
 
.I saw one of those Norton rotary road bikes in out town. It looked excellent, but the petrol bill might be a bit high. I met a guy the other day, who the cops had grabbed for doing 280 KPH om the HUmr Highway in VIctoria. They had chased him but could not catch him. They found him at home, but could not prove it was hin who did it. He was not charged. But why would anyone do that in a land full of kangaroos driving cars ?
 
Nostalgia is a very strange thing. I suggest that in their era Nortons were better than most other motorcycles. Wishing that was true now, will not make it happen, The 961 is a development which uses experience from modern motorcycles. But the 270 degree crank and balance shafts in the motor, have not yet been proven to be excellent, by road racing. If the bike never gets raced, we will never know how good they are, unless we buy one. And then our assessment would be subjective anyway.
An XS650 Yamaha has a crank with a centre bearing, but the cylinder head design is not quite right. The Paton 500 is probably the untimate in vertical twins.
A rotary engined road bike might use too much petrol. And if you need to give it a rebore - might be a problem ?
 
However wishing does not make things happen. When I was a kid, I road raced a lot over about an 8 year period, and I can still ride OK. I would not dream of getting on a modern sports bike and riding it on a race track - let alone a WizNorton. When you ride a classic bike, you cannot get into too much trouble. I recognise my own mentality. It is no good getting on any motorcycle and not riding it at it's limit. You always need a sense of purpose to stay alive. If you ride slower, that is when you crash - with some bikes slow is still too fast. Whatever speed you do - that is the speed at which you must be prepared to crash.
I am not prepared to crash ar speeds above 130 MPH.
 
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