And now for the bad news.....

Britfan60

Britfan60

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Jan 5, 2014
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I know you guts love reading all the positive stuff, but.....Just about turning my first thousand miles. My last 3 miles, bike is slipping out of gear in 5th when accelerating to over 5500 rpm. Back it down to 5k and its fine, goes through all the gears nicely. The bikes been a dream up until this point. At idle, making a loose tranny noise which goes away when pulling the clutch. Bringing it in today before I get stuck or cause any further damage. Funny how this occurred shortly after its first service. I'm a bit pissed off, but something has gone wrong with 2 Aprillia RSV4 (swapped engine and one swapped bike) and a new Duc Monster 1200S. What's going on with these new bikes? Just couldn't bare the thought of a vanilla CB1100. Wish me luck. The half empty glass in me says my season is over. Hopefully not. :evil:
 
It sounds like you are describing clutch slippage, bleed it or adjust, the dealer will just tie you up for a while! If that doesn't work then bring it to the pros!
 
Brought it to the pros. For the record: I still love this bike and would buy it again! I was on vacation for two weeks and really had a ball with it. With 30lbs. in the front and 35 in the rear, she really holds some knee dragging curves. A real delight to ride and performs much better than the expected 80 hp she has. Today, on the way to the dealer (in some light rain) the symptoms changed. Now it just ever so smoothly goes from 5th gear to 4th. She just does not want to use 5th. Well, time will tell. I'll keep you all posted.
 
You cannot slip out of 5th gear at 5500 rpm and slip back into gear at 5000?. Are you familiar with clutch slippage. Did you check the fluid level on your clutch reservoir ( site glass ), did you bleed the system, these things take minutes. I just hate to see them tie your bike up now if it is something simple. Again if its not then you need the pros!
 
it will b interesting to see if any of this is true. doubt any dealer will want to confirm this. so it will have to b a gear head or an in depend shop .
 
internetannoyance said:
Because I live down the street from Dreer, have known him 30 years, bought out his old shop of all his Non Norton stuff. Hosted him 3 times at our museum giving indepth tech talks on this topic, I also own the remnants of the Old Norton America and one of the other former employees there gave me all the Cad files, engineer reports, stess analysis as well as copies of all the internal company documents and vendor lists. I also know many of the vendors as well as the Dealership owner who convinced Kenny it was dumb to design his own tranny when the Sportster trannys were a good product and usable, George also gave Kenny the guts of several to play with.
I also accumulated test parts and development parts from former vendors and employees, and I own 2 prototype Nortons. Does that about cover it? :D You guys should have came to the Norton rally, I didnt take all my toys, but i had a big display of much of this stuff. Talk to Ken Carnaga, or Jim Comstock, they spent a lot of time checking out my stuff.
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I will try to make the next rally. I knew you guys had one a couple of weeks ago. Work prevented me from going. I will make it a point to attend next years. Hopefully I can get a tour your garage?
 
V7Sport73 said:
I will try to make the next rally. I knew you guys had one a couple of weeks ago. Work prevented me from going. I will make it a point to attend next years. Hopefully I can get a tour your garage?
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,
Umm its unlikely you will find me at next years rally. I live in Oregon, this last rally was in Oregon albeit opposite ends of the state, so there was a reason i attended as it was in the same state. So the 2015 rally will be in North Carolina and while I would love to come see NC, I just dont get that much free time. I wish i could. I do promotional work and events for the NW Vintage museum as one of their volunteers and I often can be found at events from California to Canada. I *Might* be going to the Bonneville land speed events in a few weeks, and if not, then i WILL be up at the AMCA regional meet in Tenino Washington, and good possibility of Vashon Island TT and the LeMay museum event the following weekend.
Im near Portland Oregon, I am not hard to find.
 
Yes, BPHORSE. I know what clutch slippage is. I've owned manuals my whole life with the occasional clutch problem. Problem is, I work long hours. I'm not about to investigate clutch slippage on a brand new bike on my own after dumping that much money into it. Been 4 days at the dealer. Going to call them this afternoon. Still odd to me that this happened 250 mi. after its first service. And to the angry nay sayers, I haven't been hearing too much noise about failing Nortons. I wouldn't trash them just because of a slipping clutch.Been hearing more noise about failing Ducatis and Aprillias.
 
I visited the dealership where I purchased the bike. No gaskets yet and haven't checked it. They won't start work until the gaskets have arrived. They're telling me Norton is can't give me what they don't have. Bull. Emailed Dan Van Epps with a gentlemanly worded complaint of how supplies should be sent before the bikes. Anyway, he replied back right away about him calling the engineering dept. at Norton. I really do appreciate that.The gaskets are in the mail and I'll have them early next week and the shifting problem sounds like and adjustment in the gear case, not a clutch issue. Hope he's right. I'm a patient man, but if I get lame answers from a service dept., I don't have a problem being a pain in the ass up the corporate ladder. It sucks being a guinea pig for a new brand, but the bike is worth it.
 
Britfan60 said:
It sucks being a guinea pig for a new brand, but the bike is worth it.
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New in the sense that 961s are finally reaching the USA perhaps, but they have been in production over 4 years now. :)
 
Maybe a guinea pig for seeing how parts arrive in a timely fashion across the pond.
 
On the factory visit last Friday we were told that the starter motor is made locally and has been perfected for this engine. The dowside being that they are tied to this supplier. Im sure they d source the part from somewhere else if they could. The main weakness of a 12 bike a week company is availabiluty of spare parts for repairs.the problem with this part was solved.
Also, the problem of burning too much oil is customers measuring it when the bike is cold and leaned over on the stand and then is overfilled. Go for a run, then do it.
 
mrsimon said:
On the factory visit last Friday we were told that the starter motor is made locally and has been perfected for this engine. The dowside being that they are tied to this supplier. Im sure they d source the part from somewhere else if they could. The main weakness of a 12 bike a week company is availabiluty of spare parts for repairs.the problem with this part was solved.
Also, the problem of burning too much oil is customers measuring it when the bike is cold and leaned over on the stand and then is overfilled. Go for a run, then do it.
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I certainly agree about the oil. I have 5 owners that I communicate with often. Collectively we have almost 14000 miles and we haven't burnt a quart between us all !!!
 
The bikes with the Nikasil bores that got the mixed up rings were recalled and fixed by Norton almost instantly and almost before the owners could put any significant mileage on them! These were not the bikes discussed with oil issues which were 2010-2012 models. Norton did not ship Nikasil bikes till late 2013 and I know this for a fact! I have hands on knowledge of this not heresay!

There were only a few bikes with oil issues and some believe it was the owners checking and over filling the dry sump systems which have a completely different checking procedure!
 
The owner of the dealer told me last Monday that he will call Dan Van Epps and then call me that afternoon. Still waiting. The crickets are chirping. Guess I'll have to take another ride to the dealership for some more lame excuses.
 
^^ what state are you in ?? may i ask what dealer you are dealing with ?? am sure all the members of this forum would love to know.
 
His dealer can not force the distributor to call!

He is not known to return e-mails or calls promptly!
 
I won't publicly post my dealerships name. Van Epps contacted me withing the hour of my sending him an email which I found to be quite impressive. The dealership ordered a spring and gear case gasket set. Its on the way. The dealership, Van Epps and Norton all had a talk about me and my bike and action was taken. Although disappointed the way things were initially handled, I'm satisfied with the action that was taken. Should be a few more days to a week.
 
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