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Clive · Feb 22, 2025

Ahhh - just found the 'Bike-Away' app; free with in-app purchases. Temporarily displaces cyclists into a parallel dimension then returns them two feet to the side....

Or the woman walking down the middle of a Bham city-centre one-way street concentrating on her phone being followed by two amused coppers in a Police car. Even shouting did not get her attention; I had to cycle up to her and put my hand over her phone before she returned to the real world. Got a nice thumbs-up from the Police who thought it hilarious..... Maybe the gun-touting American police would have handled it differently...

BritTwit · Feb 22, 2025

Very suspicious to be ignoring the police, she may have been transporting drugs.
In the US she would have been arrested, and given a body cavity check for cocaine.

Stephen_Spencer · Feb 24, 2025

‘Old hat’ of course but anything that revisits Norton’s most recent racing endeavours is worth a (short) read. Yeh, yeh, we know the engine was an Aprilia but it still counts right? As most certainly do Josh Brookes efforts!

Garner’s history is mainly to his discredit - for this he can take some credit(ish); depending where the money to go racing came from!

Fastest Isle of Man TT lap on an Aprilia, a Norton, an MV Agusta, revealed

Revealing the fastest lap at Isle of Man TT of every bike manufacturer

www.crash.net

Stephen_Spencer · Feb 26, 2025

For those who tend to avoid Fakebook - old post that popped up again. Worth a reminder for newer owners.

Papa Smurf highlights the issue of corrosion under the rear hugger, the result of trapped moisture and road detritous - trapped dirt/gravel damaging the powder coating and enabling water ingress and rust formation.

Definitely worth checking/treating, especially if riding in more changeable climes!

Interestingly, my ‘garage queen’ rarely sees a threatening cloud and even it is loosing the coating from the underside of the seat area. No doubt started by chipping from flying gravel; no rust though.

Worth protecting the rear of the airbox also - mine is wrapped in black vinyl sheet.

jan nelder · Feb 27, 2025

Stephen_Spencer said:
For those who tend to avoid Fakebook - old post that popped up again. Worth a reminder for newer owners.

Papa Smurf highlights the issue of corrosion under the rear hugger, the result of trapped moisture and road detritous - trapped dirt/gravel damaging the powder coating and enabling water ingress and rust formation.

Definitely worth checking/treating, especially if riding in more changeable climes!

View attachment 118634 View attachment 118635 View attachment 118636 View attachment 118637

Interestingly, my ‘garage queen’ rarely sees a threatening cloud and even it is loosing the coating from the underside of the seat area. No doubt started by chipping from flying gravel; no rust though.

Worth protecting the rear of the airbox also - mine is wrapped in black vinyl sheet.

View attachment 118638

I suspect some suitable sealant to stop damp getting in could work there.

Stephen_Spencer · Feb 27, 2025

jan nelder said:
I suspect some suitable sealant to stop damp getting in could work there.

I think the conventional wisdom Jan, is to gap the hugger slightly using rubber/fibre washers to prevent water from collecting and allowing it to dry out. No doubt a sealant would work also. Removing it periodically helps of course.

Stephen_Spencer · Feb 27, 2025

Chatting about a Spondon bike the other day - anybody know whether Spondon actually helped develop the 961 frame? There’s record of everything from spondon ‘tweaking’ the frame for Norton, to it being a Spondon frame in it’s entirety.

Most will know the Spondon story and how the owners of this long established firm were screwed over by Garner - how he managed to fund the initial purchase of Norton. It seems unclear though, just how much development work Spondon did on the 961 frame.

SuperBike Magazine - Norton Motorcycles – was it a fraud from the start? Part one

www.superbike.co.uk

SuperBike Magazine - Norton Motorcycles – Was it a fraud from the start? Part two

www.superbike.co.uk

marshg246 · Feb 27, 2025

Stephen_Spencer said:
‘Old hat’ of course but anything that revisits Norton’s most recent racing endeavours is worth a (short) read. Yeh, yeh, we know the engine was an Aprilia but it still counts right? As most certainly do Josh Brookes efforts!

Garner’s history is mainly to his discredit - for this he can take some credit(ish); depending where the money to go racing came from!

View attachment 118596

Fastest Isle of Man TT lap on an Aprilia, a Norton, an MV Agusta, revealed

Revealing the fastest lap at Isle of Man TT of every bike manufacturer

www.crash.net

I'm more impressed by the 1971-1975 Production TT races where the Trident won them and in 71/72 averaged over 100mph and in 74/75 averaged over 99 mph. In 74/75 the Trident was still 750cc and was racing against up to 1000cc bikes and many did worse than the 500cc bikes.

The reason it is impressive to me is that last year's Superbike TT winner averaged 133.494. That is close to the top end of the TT Trident (stock T150V reported at 119-120.5 depending on where you look). For a 200mph capable bike to only increase the average by 33mph, IMHO, tells you a lot about handling and rider skill. Pretty shocking that the Trident used Dunlop K81 (later called TT100 for averaging over 100mph in the Production TT) tires!

Lots of this from memory - if I have something wrong, just say so

jan nelder · Feb 28, 2025

marshg246 said:
I'm more impressed by the 1971-1975 Production TT races where the Trident won them and in 71/72 averaged over 100mph and in 74/75 averaged over 99 mph. In 74/75 the Trident was still 750cc and was racing against up to 1000cc bikes and many did worse than the 500cc bikes.

The reason it is impressive to me is that last year's Superbike TT winner averaged 133.494. That is close to the top end of the TT Trident (stock T150V reported at 119-120.5 depending on where you look). For a 200mph capable bike to only increase the average by 33mph, IMHO, tells you a lot about handling and rider skill. Pretty shocking that the Trident used Dunlop K81 (later called TT100 for averaging over 100mph in the Production TT) tires!

Lots of this from memory - if I have something wrong, just say so

apparently those Trident motors were seriously powerful: how they kept them legal as production class I don’t know!
Even a 300mph bike would not increase average speeds proportionately, given the course.

Stephen_Spencer · 2025-03-07T19:24:48-0700

Stephen_Spencer said:
Chatting about a Spondon bike the other day - anybody know whether Spondon actually helped develop the 961 frame? There’s record of everything from spondon ‘tweaking’ the frame for Norton, to it being a Spondon frame in it’s entirety.

View attachment 118647

Most will know the Spondon story and how the owners of this long established firm were screwed over by Garner - how he managed to fund the initial purchase of Norton. It seems unclear though, just how much development work Spondon did on the 961 frame.

SuperBike Magazine - Norton Motorcycles – was it a fraud from the start? Part one

www.superbike.co.uk

SuperBike Magazine - Norton Motorcycles – Was it a fraud from the start? Part two

www.superbike.co.uk

A bit surprised if someone doesn’t know how involved Spondon were with the Donny 961 frame? Or has this info been lost over time? Seems we are pretty well aware of the history of the rest of the machine - but the frame?

Afternote. Some frame info included here for those interested.

Thread 'Interesting 961 History Info'
https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/interesting-961-history-info.32156/

Fast Eddie · 2025-03-08T01:08:29-0700

The frame was designed by Kenny Dreer’s Norton in USA, so nothing to do with Spondon.

If you google pics of Spondon frames you’ll see a very strong resemblance to the V4 frame design. I would suggest ex Spondon guys had a hand in that. But by then they were Norton employees and Spondon didn’t exist. So, basically, I’d suggest that Spondon weren’t involved in any Norton frames.

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