Nortons In Australia

I think back int he 1980-90 and into 2000s every major city in Australia had a steady flow of bikes..

Perth where I bought my T160 for $4500 ~ Adelaide ~ Melbourne ~ Sydney ~ Brisbane where I bought my Commando for $3000 in 1992 ~ and especially Goulbourn.

Seems Melbourne is now the heart of it all ~ But the numbers would have to be staggering ~ I wonder if more bikes were imported as second handers than were new ??

In the early 80's Aussie dealers came to the Uk and scoured it for British bikes, I remember my mate selling 2 Commandos to one of them, he got 1000 GB£ for a Mk 3 he had, which at the time seemed a huge amount of money for a Norton. How times have changed, in 83 I paid 250 GB£ for my first Commando, a 72 Combat, and that is the only bike I regret selling to this day.
sam

johnm said:

Fullauto said:

Confirms everything NZers beleive about Ozzies. (Very sore point in my familly at moment - Oldest son just became an Aussie citizen :-( Tough thing for a Kiwi father !!)

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Hey, my aussie daughter married a Kiwi--they settled near Oxford-I bought a bike and stashed it there, planning to go over every year-then economic reality prevailed, and they moved back to Oz, where our first grandchild was born (an aussie)--but I still have the bike, going over in Jan-Feb for Pukekohe, so, sweet as, bro. :wink: And they will move back, eventually.

I've been to NZ a couple of times, and found the people to be sane. I live in NE Victoria and even there, it is difficult to earn an income when you are retired. I still want to race my Seeley, and I would move to New Zealand or Tasmania except for that factor. A friend of mine is racing at Hamilton Downs about now, and I envy him - it would be so good. The Kiwis actually work positively to provide decent competition for old racing bikes. All anyone has to do is keep the grids clear of four cylinder superbikes and two strokes, when thunderbikes are racing. It is not rocket science !
http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/acotrel/thunderbikes/

I'm a Kiwi currently on holiday in Melbourne [motogp] i visited central M/c and Classic style on monday and was stunned with the amount of bikes on offer, yes the prices were up there but it took me back 20+ years to see that quantity and quality of british bikes available.

All anyone has to do is keep the grids clear of four cylinder superbikes and two strokes, when thunderbikes are racing. It is not rocket science !

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An old mate of mine living in NZ and a fanatical vintage racer was constantly at logger heads with the NZ classic & vintage race committees when they would mix things like Norton 1950s racers in with pre-war bikes which was farcical !

Unfortunately for Doug ~ a former NZ national champion him self ~ passed away and never saw a resolve to the illogicals of the issue ~ Sadly missed ~

There will always be rivalry between Australia and NZ as is clear from some of the earlier posts which did seem to get off topic al little, so I guess its ok for me to continue that theme.( Maybe the topic should be Kiwis in Oz). They do have wonderful scenery and deserted roads there but they have been invading Oz for ages so things must be better here. Anyhow back in the 70s Bondi was full of New Zealanders which did seem to upset some of the local police. I was working as a joiner/shopfitter at the time and was doing a shop fitout in Bondi. After work I would park the Norton near the local and call in for a schooner before heading home. The local was always full of rowdy Kiwis and the crowd generally spilled out onto the footpath, so the local police generally made their presence felt and insisted on no drinking on the footpath. One particular afternoon I was sitting outside enjoying my beer when a police paddy wagon pulled up and double parked outside the pub. The coppers were quite aggressive toward the crowd outside, rather than asking us nicely to move back inside, as they had been doing. One little Kiwi guy sneeked around behind the police and made his way to the paddy wagon, quietly opened the door and released the handbrake and then proceeded to the other side of the road to watch the proceedings. The road was gently sloping so the paddy wagon began to roll. One of the coppers continued having a lot to say to the crowd while the other was a little more subdued. Strangely the crowd did not seem to be to be paying attention to the police but were looking somewhere beyond. The second copper seemed to sense that something may have been happening back there so he looked around, uttered the words “O Shit” and took off like a man demon possessed. He sure was fit and could really run and started to catch up to the runaway paddy wagon, but the paddy wagon was gathering speed all the time. Still this copper was determined to catch the paddy wagon so he tried a little harder, got alongside and opened the door when out of nowhere a parked car appeared right in the path of the paddy wagon. At this stage the copper was trying to get into the vehicle but the parked car seemed to stop the paddy wagon instantly and leave the copper flattened against the open door. His mate then left the crowd and ran down to see how his partner was. At that time everyone seemed to think that it might be a good time to evacuate the area. Business at that pub was well down for the next couple of weeks as the rowdy Kiwis seemed to desert the place for fear of retaliation or something.
ando

hey Ando, have lived ,loved, traversed, (Canning Stock Route amongst some others)travelled , had kids and earnt good wages in Oz for 13 + years, had no complaints while doing so, neither did the tax man as he took 40+ % off me for my troubles.
Back in NZ these days, and still work ocassionaly in Oz, but the tax man has decided that I should now pay him 50% at souce for my troubles.
Yes love the NZ/Aust rivalry , rugby, cricket(we suck), Aust V8's et al' and including Ken McIntosh''s Nortons taking some of the Australasian titles recently!!!
love your Bondi story, where would you be without us , bro!!!!
Choice, sweet as, kapai !!!
Regards mike

es love the NZ/Aust rivalry , rugby, cricket(we suck),

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The funniest moment I recall about Kiwi and Ozzie shyte stirring was when I was in NZ on a skiing trip with some North Islanders, And being in the south, the blokes forgot about me being the soul Ozzie present and commenced bagging out each other ~

They luvved me coz here was an Ozzie that did not take any offence when they did turn attentions to one solitary Ozzie ~

I larfed so hard I could drink not my Lion !!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

cricket(we suck)

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Mate I would not lose ANY sleep over that !! Cricket SUXS anyway ~

( I saw a Canadian comedian ~ "Cricket~ The only competitive sport in the World where a restless crowd 'on the hill', runs a serious risk of burning more calories than the competitors on the field !" )


HUH!!

AND BTW ~ just returned from a short ride... on the Commando~ perfect weather ~ building wet season with light over cast ~ about 22 deg C and a pleasant cool breeze ~ Perfect Commando ride in FNQ Australia ~ Utopia ~

But ~ WTF~

I recently renovated the bike with some new bits including new roses, muffler and rear foot peg SS kit ~ and I replaced the rocker shaft end caps with SS bling bits and they woudl not seal ~ first found that the plates supplied were not flat ~ so had to refit the inner end plate as they are thicker !

But on this little jaunt ~ the right hand side and some on the left sprayed with oil ~ AGAIN !! I think the Speedo drive is leaking as well ~ AND I have nto bent over the roses lock tabs while the exhaust settles in,, In stead the &^%&^%& right hand rose completely unscrewed !!

So Home again and a cup of jarva and back to the work shop !!!! ( I am on 3 1/2 weeks leave !!! )

I wanted to ride down to the coast for lunch ~ < 100 km > one way ~ again Utopian ride !! 8) 8)

ando, that's a funny story. The best one I saw was a bunch of guys in a sandwich shop here in the US, getting a bit rowdy and the owner called the cops. Well, the cops tried calming things down, but when one of the coppers swung at one of the customers, he hit the gum ball machine and there were round gum balls all over the floor. You cam imagine what that was like.

The other time was pathetic. My wife and I were in the same place with a couple of friends (they made really good sandwiches) and on the other side was a table of guys/girls having a good time. In comes another young woman with a very young baby on her hip, and starts asking her 'husband' or maybe 'conjugal mate' to come home and take care of things there instead of drinking beer with here friends. Well that was kind of embarrassing, even for us.

Life happens.

Dave
69S

How awful,- being nagged by the missus while in public!
Guess he should`ve negotiated some ground rules in advance...

J.A.W. said:

How awful,- being nagged by the missus while in public!
Guess he should`ve negotiated some ground rules in advance...

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He obviously made the chain from the kitchen too long.......