New 961 SF on Ebay

Britfan

I had not viewed build 53 before. I see what you mean by keeping the original flavor of the Norton. It looks like a Mark 3. Even the Lockheed calipers seem to be kept.

I will be talking to Matt at CNW this weekend. I am going to ask about this bike.

CORRECTION.....It was #55. I found the original listing....I don't get it. CNW has this bike as 53 and the seller says 55. Its definitely the same bike and yes, it has the Lockheeds.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1975-Colorado-N ... true&rt=nc

I do remember seeing that listing. The Longhorn cow behind jogged my memory If it went for $20K that is a great price

It did sell for 19.9. That was original posting, didn't get any bidders. He relisted at a lower reserve and it sold for the same price anyway. Believe me. I tracked it everyday and had to show the utmost restraint, just purchasing a new Norton and a restored Bonnie, which for all intents and purposes, was a better deal than the CNW at 30% of the price. Not to compare the two. Still wish I had it.

Unloaded the new red bi posto last night about 10PM

And of course could not wait until this morning for at least a start up to see how she sounded. I had been prepared by posts here that the mechanical sounds at start up might be disconcerting. I actually thought she sounded quite good. Of course all I ride are old vertical twins with push rods, so my "acceptable" mechanical sound level may be skewed. I will absolutely change the silencers after break in. I want this girl to growl similar to my older Nortons. Current silencers are quite mild, and I like to "bother" my neighbors I assume that the current silencers are used to meet government requirements for decibel output

The idle was already set at about 1200 RPM, so I did not have to get out my metric Allen key set.

Also found out, before reading the manual, that shifting into first gear with the side stand down, will kill the bike. Proximity switch on the side stand prevents engagement of the transmission with side stand down. Nice safety touch.

Unfortunately it is raining this morning, so I am waiting for the weather to clear for the first ride. Will update later

Damn, man. I could have loaned you a cool red rain jacket. Hope the weather cleared. That first ride will make your cheeks hurt from smiling.

Britfan60 said:

Damn, man. I could have loaned you a cool red rain jacket. Hope the weather cleared. That first ride will make your cheeks hurt from smiling.

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What I needed was a cool red rain jacket for the SF. I do not mind getting wet, but I was not going to have the first test ride "foul" that beautiful new bike LOL.

The weather did clear yesterday afternoon (well at least enough for a ride) My next problem was I have no plate for the bike. Now, I am not saying I have ever switched plates on a bike, because that would be illegal. And, all my plate are designated antique (Blue plates in Florida), and even if I switched plate (which would be illegal) nobody (especially the keen eye of a law enforcement officer) would believe the SF was a antique motorcycle.

So I was condemned to riding laps around the loop which is my neighborhood. This loop is approximately 1/4 mile in length. I put 10 miles on the bike at under 40 miles per hour, and never over 3500 RPM. You do the math on number of times I circled the neighborhood.

This is a neighborhood that is mostly accountants, lawyers, business professionals (other than me, a machine shop owner, and my neighbor across the street, who is the sales manager at the Harley dealership) So I am sure by the end of my test ride, the neighbors had confirmed their opinion that the crazy old guy, with a garage full of motorcycles, was completely out of his mind.

But, Britfan, you are correct, my cheeks did hurt from smiling so much