650 Norton mercury?

Has anyone sighted the factory ledgers to confirm this built-in-one-run-story of Mercuries.

~750 Mercuries is a heck of a lot of bikes to store for 6 months or a year. ?
Not to mention financially when they were supposedly in a tight corner....
 
Very shortly after I started at NV in September 1969, we were offered "special" deals on Mercurys & P11s I don't remember anything else, but there may have been. We heard through the grapevine that they were unloading stuff from Plumstead and wanted to get all the old stock off their books before really getting rolling with the Commando. One of the guys bought a P11, I don't think I have ever ridden anything that vibrated so badly. Its probably just as well that I didn't have a ride on a Mercury, or else I would have wanted one!
cheers
wakeup
 
Roy Bacon "Norton Twins Resto" book lists the last Mercury as Feb 1970.

(Build date or despatch date ?)
Thats a long time to stockpile them....

It could be interesting to see the factory ledgers,
and see if Commando production was interweaved with Mercury production ??
 
Not to get picky, but none of those comments are precise enough to add much to the knowledge of this. ?

Mercuries were still being dispatched AFTER the AMC factory at Plumstead was closed down.
How does this fit into this story ?

The answer is in Bob Hollidays Norton history book "Norton Story".
"The Woolwich plant was closed in the summer of that year (1969),
although it remained for a period as a spares depot".

Someone who has sighted the factory records needs to give a detailed account of what it shows.
Sequential production dates and numbers, or random dates on sequential numbers.
??
 
triumph2 said:
That's interesting Glenn. This bike is in Ontario and I wouldn't be surprised if it was original. It is a 650SS in all but the single carb. I'd be interested in knowing the serial number of that bike or at least if it is close to mine which is 18SS/129551
Click to expand...
Hey fellas
Reading the string and had to double check but I have 552 black tank, chrome fenders single carb
 
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