Low price 961

comet said:

Richard, have the liners always been the same? When the head gasket blew on my 2013 CR I was told that the liners had dropped in the bores causing a gap, and that they were replacing with Nikasil liners (which lead me to believe that I didn't have these previously). The Norton workshop manual that I got with the bike showed the liners with a lip at the top, so I didn't understand how they could drop anyway. Does this make sense?

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Lipped liners can still ‘drop’ a little, especially from new, if the alloy barrel material crushes or sinks.

Fast Eddie said:

Lipped liners can still ‘drop’ a little, especially from new, if the alloy barrel material crushes or sinks.

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Thanks, that makes sense. I did ask the factory at the time as I'm always interested in understanding the problem, but I didn't get that explanation.

The factory does not have a good track record in fully diagnosing and explaining root cause to problems, unfortunately.

I suspect that they think that keeping quiet will result in people not knowing. And / or not talking about it.

I believe they are very wrong about this. I believe that when they keep quiet, they cause the very internet chat that they wish to prevent, as the self propagating nature of internet chat is fuelled by this silence, and becomes worse than it would have been given proper factory input.

And I hope they are reading this. And I hope they re think...

Something I've never been able to find out from the factory is which map I am running (SC ECU). The map has been changed a number of times (to try and fix an over-run issue) and each time I ask which map is installed I get a vague answer along the lines of "it's the latest one this year....", whereas others on the forum are quoting map numbers and BIN file IDs. Is a dealer able to tell what map is installed if I take it there instead of the factory, or do they only know if they download it?

To be fair, the factory fixed all the major issues i.e. the ones that have disabled the bike. The remaining over-run issue is just annoying.

comet said:

Richard, have the liners always been the same? When the head gasket blew on my 2013 CR I was told that the liners had dropped in the bores causing a gap, and that they were replacing with Nikasil liners (which lead me to believe that I didn't have these previously). The Norton workshop manual that I got with the bike showed the liners with a lip at the top, so I didn't understand how they could drop anyway. Does this make sense?

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I have a 2012 CR. At that time the cylinders had no Nikasil coating yet. My cylinders were rehoned twice and today I have new oversize pistons. There is enough material left to rebore though...

Additional information: In spring 2014 Friz W. Egli was getting honed the cylinders of my CR 961 to a new diameter of 88.05 mm (in other cases even boring to 88.5 mm).
Raphi, Switzerland

Hello,

Thiel Motorsport in Germany have 90mm bigbore kits with forget pistons and a lot of other goods for the 961.


Cheers
Panetone

Panetone said:

Hello,

Thiel Motorsport in Germany have 90mm bigbore kits with forget pistons and a lot of other goods for the 961.

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Same size as hi-compression "clean-up" kit that was planned by SouthBay Norton (SBN) = 1005cc
SBN said that 90mm was as large as the stock liners would safely permit.

comet said:

Richard, have the liners always been the same? When the head gasket blew on my 2013 CR I was told that the liners had dropped in the bores causing a gap, and that they were replacing with Nikasil liners (which lead me to believe that I didn't have these previously). The Norton workshop manual that I got with the bike showed the liners with a lip at the top, so I didn't understand how they could drop anyway. Does this make sense?

Click to expand...

There used to be options. Since 2014-2015 all Nikasil.

comet said:

Something I've never been able to find out from the factory is which map I am running (SC ECU). The map has been changed a number of times (to try and fix an over-run issue) and each time I ask which map is installed I get a vague answer along the lines of "it's the latest one this year....", whereas others on the forum are quoting map numbers and BIN file IDs. Is a dealer able to tell what map is installed if I take it there instead of the factory, or do they only know if they download it?

To be fair, the factory fixed all the major issues i.e. the ones that have disabled the bike. The remaining over-run issue is just annoying.

Click to expand...

There is the map number like 077 or 091. Then there is the air box number after that, Then the revision of the map. As far as I’m aware. 0116 which was is jan 2016 is the latest for SC ECU’s.

Panetone said:

Hello,

Thiel Motorsport in Germany have 90mm bigbore kits with forget pistons and a lot of other goods for the 961.


Cheers
Panetone

Click to expand...

Maybe it’s because I never paid attention in German lessons (amongst others) at school...

All I can find on their web site is links to Norton brochures etc.

Where is the info on the fancy bits?

On another subject, I recently posted this item showing the quart of oil I drained out of the airbox at 461 miles

https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/sensors-trial.23515/page-5#post-362242

I took a little ride today and ran the miles up to 551, and did the first oil and filter change. I measured the oil I drained at 3.5 liters. That, along with the quart I drained out of the airbox gives a total of over 4.5 liters of oil. I think that pretty well explains the large amount of oil in the airbox. I refilled it with about 2.5 liters, and it still seems to be above the full mark. I'll ride it a bit and check again, and pull some out if I need to.

It was a nice ride in our local canyons, and I'm getting more used to the bike. It handles really well, but I think I'll jack up the rear shock height adjustment a bit to see if I can get a little bit quicker turn-in and a little less push coming out of turns under power. Nice to have all those adjustments to play with. And I do have to eventually pull the bars up some more, and back a bit, or I'll end every ride with a sore neck.

Beats the hell out of sitting in a rocker on the porch.

Ken

Nice to hear your riding experience Ken. Please keep em coming.

Now, when are you going to look into the cam timing of these motors and see what can be done to liberate more power...?

Hello,

when liners are right mounted normally they don´t move.
When liners are shrunken into the cylinder/barrel you must wait till they cooled down and then you must press the liners with a hydraulic press again and you will see that the liner is going down 1/10- 2/10 millimeter.
If you do this you will never have problems.

Panetone

Panetone said:

Hello,

when liners are right mounted normally they don´t move.
When liners are shrunken into the cylinder/barrel you must wait till they cooled down and then you must press the liners with a hydraulic press again and you will see that the liner is going down 1/10- 2/10 millimeter.
If you do this you will never have problems.

Panetone

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I put them in the press immediately after dropping the liners in, and let them cool under a little pressure. That seems to work pretty well too.

Ken

lcrken said:

Ask and ye shall receive. The last one shows two small vertical scratches on the seat cowl (the long streaks are just light reflections). He says those are the only scratches on the bike. It has 400 miles on it. He is the original owner. It had the exhausts and a map upgrade installed by GP Cycles in San Diego. He said he will check with Paul at GP to see if he has a newer map, and if so, get it installed before Friday. Can't ask for much more. Only other mods are different turn indicator lights. He didn't like the originals. The low mileage is because he owns something like 38 bikes, and some of them only get ridden now and then.

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Ken

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Congratulations! You stole it! PBS