Norton trouble

Norton trouble


https://www.visordown.com/news/general/john-mcguinness-has-message-ex-norton-ceo-garner…
 
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He even ripped off his a girlfriends father using contacts gained to start his own fireworks business - greed comes to mind for that, and I suspect everything that followed was to make money no matter how legally or not.
 
Madnorton said:
He even ripped off his a girlfriends father using contacts gained to start his own fireworks business - greed comes to mind for that, and I suspect everything that followed was to make money no matter how legally or not.
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He actually boasted about that in a talk he gave, I saw a video of it but can’t recall where or when!

Actually doing it is one thing. Activity boasting about it in public is quite another. It shows he actually thinks is a good thing to have done. He’s proud of it and thinks it will impress others.

Almost psychopathic.
 
"There is one ray of hope this for current Norton 961 Commando owners though, in that if Jinlang is indeed the legitimate owners to the engine rights, parts and spares may continue to be found should they be needed."

(me) If they make improvements maybe worth a whole engine swap, just peel off that made in china sticker
 
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Welshrugby said:
There is one ray of hope this for current Norton 961 Commando owners though, in that if Jinlang is indeed the legitimate owners to the engine rights, parts and spares may continue to be found should they be needed. If they make improvements maybe worth a whole engine swap, just peel off that made in china sticker
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I would rather turn mine into a Briggs & Stratton ride-on mower than face that humiliation.... or do the decent thing and put a Kwacka 750 triple in the chassis :)
 
This report leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
OK, so Jinlang claims they bought the rights to the 961 engine, does this mean the rights to just produce the engine, but not to put the Norton name on it, right?
So they will work with their Italian design partners to produce a Chinese Jinlang 961 motorcycle, not a Chinese Norton 961, right?
I could tolerate a Jinlang 961 Panda, but it would make me sick to see a Norton 961 Commando from China.
Gotta get me an SG Voodoo doll.
 
Yes this leaves a bad taste indeed!

It leaves question marks too, I just can’t see the market for the 961 engine being big enough, whatever chassis / motorcycle it is put into, to be exciting enough for a large Chinese company to be interested in ?
 
I wonder whether they paid anything. From other articles it appears that the Riccardo work on the 650/1200 was a joint venture, if SG failed to pay his bills there they could have taken the rights instead? One day we may all find out the full story, maybe.
 
ntst8 said:
I wonder whether they paid anything. From other articles it appears that the Riccardo work on the 650/1200 was a joint venture, if SG failed to pay his bills there they could have taken the rights instead? One day we may all find out the full story, maybe.
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Worrying about unpaid bills isn’t something SG appeared to do...
 
Fast Eddie said:
Yes this leaves a bad taste indeed!

It leaves question marks too, I just can’t see the market for the 961 engine being big enough, whatever chassis / motorcycle it is put into, to be exciting enough for a large Chinese company to be interested in ?
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This might be a masterstroke of SG, he sells to a Chinese company and for all we know gets a proportional payment for each engine, which even if they make it cheaper than he could in the West, would be pretty dam good going. Also in that country, there are millions of more people who would buy one for the right price. And SG will be able to afford not to dine out every night with his wife, but to hire his own chef to come and cook for him. I hear Jamie Oliver is looking for work now he's closed his restaurants . . . .
 
The Chinese economy is centralised like no other, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has decided its policy is to promote car ownership and eventually electric cars, they hate cycles and motorcycles as they see them as reminders of the past failure. As such they positively discriminate against cycle and motorcycle manufacturers, no cheap loans, no local govt shareholders, no special favours. That there is a motorcycle industry at all is purely because the private sector has made it work. There is no private market within China for large capacity motorcycles, this 961 engine will be for export only.
 
Now if someone please explain to me why anybody should be interested in a pretty simple, air-cooled engine of basically pre-historic technical design for a motorcycle, be it Chinese, Indian, or Puertorican? I compare it to a modernized air-cooled Volkswagen original Beetle engine. What car manufacturer would be interested in that?

Kenny Dreer told me it was an evolution of the Commando engine, not a new design, and the original design for that dates back to 1948!

The real story behind that deal with the Chinese, if there was in fact a deal, not a staged photograph needed to pacify our Stu's creditors again for a while, was most definitely not for the 961 engine that nobody needs but for something else. It may well have been for the release of the morsels of IP Garner still had a claim on for the 650 engine.
 
Welshrugby said:
same story: https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/norton-motorcycles
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If he sold whilst under a WUP, then he is in trouble unless the IP was actually owned by him only which he would need to prove. The DHL WUP despite them being paid was still extant, as it seems others had jumped in on it, which would have prevented DHL from withdrawing it. I'm sure they'll dateline his posts, and other items, which will reveal if was actually in China in December.
 
BritTwit said:
Absolutely.
If cheap enough, Triumph buys the Norton trade mark, then re-badges Speed Twin engine and side covers with Norton Commando badges.
Viola! The New Norton Commando 1200.
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You really need to stop dreaming about that. I cannot imagine for one moment that the Bloors are even remotely interested in doing that, it makes no sense, their main competition would be themselves!

I was referring to the idea of a good old fashioned shed built special at such time as the 961 engine expires... shouldn’t have to wait too long before someone becomes ‘eligible’...;)
 

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