Response from Norton HOC

I received a response to my email regarding service parts.
Or shall I say lack of.
Mr Hogan literally dodged the questions I asked.

Yup.
But he did invite AccessNorton to visit the plant.
Now, do we all have to vote for an AccessNorton factory Ambassador?

Well unless you are given free access to the parts store during the visit then a visit is not much use when your bike is off the road.

kommando said:

Well unless you are given free access to the parts store during the visit then a visit is not much use when your bike is off the road.

Click to expand...

True, but they threw us, Donington Norton owners, a bone.
They intend to provide at least some parts for legacy owners.

He literally avoided all the questions I asked.

I didn’t realize they built a new facility. News to me.

I must have seen more videos of the Norton factory than a anything else this year!

Count me out of yet more ‘look at our state of the art factory’ talk.

Anyway, I help optimise factories for a living. The last thing you lot want is a LONG list from me about what’s sh*t about it !

Fast Eddie said:

The last thing you lot want is a LONG list from me about what’s sh*t about it !

Click to expand...

Let us have our dreams.
Seems that we will have to be sustained by them for some time still.

Here’s my original email to Mr Hogan

Good day Mr Hogan.
I would first like to say thank you for taking the time to reading my email.

I made a few post and sent a message to your Norton Instagram profile and was provided your email. Thank you.

As a Norton 961 owner of both the Commando and Dominator from the Donington era, I know that the new chapter and future of Norton owes me nothing, I don’t expect anything more.

I myself and many of us on the AccessNorton.com forum page for the 961 and modern Nortons, are feeling pretty left in the dark.
Many of us are disappointed and frustrated by the lack of support and information from the new Norton.

We all have many questions and concerns and can’t seem to get any answers from anyone.

We’d all like to know what parts will and will not work on our own 961, what are “ALL” the improvements made to the new 961 Commandos?
We’re told over 300 parts have been improved, what are those parts? Will these parts work on the Donington era 961 bikes?

For over 2 years I’ve been trying to get parts for my own Commando and get nowhere.
I’m not the only one.

I realize the whole world was in a Covid lock down, the hard work ALL OF YOU have been doing to get a new business up and running etc.

For many many months I was asking for parts with Scott in the parts department and at times he’d ask me for part numbers, none of which I had.
As time passed I’d reach out again and again, and the response was thanking me for being patient.

When he finally emailed me back with part numbers and prices, I tried to make payments and never heard anything back.
I later found out on the AccessNorton forum from another member that Scott is no longer employed at Norton.

I love both of my Nortons and I’ll never part with them. As I said, I don’t expect the new Norton to owe us past 961 owners anything.
But, this makes us all think of how things will be for the future of new 961 bike being bought or needing services.

Members on the AccessNorton forum often discuss why more information isn’t available and why couldn’t a video be made and posted?
This is the era of social media.
It’s very easy to spread the news and to get the word out. Yet we get or hear nothing.

I hate to say this, but when Norton was in Donington and ran by Garner, the information of new bikes and future projects was talked about loudly.

Parts were easily accessible and merchandise was also available. This is totally opposite of the new Norton.

Mr hogans response

That is a pretty long winded email, I’d be very surprised if he they read it from start to finish

He has avoided your questions Voodoo, but attempted to explain why - (they site that) they are just too busy - to address the potentially sizeable task of dealing with legacy owners questions and sourcing/formatting/providing the requested information. I guess we either accept that as fact or choose to keep challenging it; the question has been asked multiple times on multiple forum. They are clearly not going to detail changes until ready to (or have time to) do so - if ever. The reasons are their own I guess - writghtly or wrongly.

Rather than banging our heads against the wall, we may be better just waiting for eventual disclosure over time. It will come from Norton, or the first owner/mechanic to strip a new bike down, or when we attempt to buy spares that have been changed, or if/when they produce an amended workshop manual etc etc.

Until then I guess we still have the ability to purchase common items - people are receiving spares. For those that are off the road for spares they cannot get, why not disclose those parts on this forum and benefit from the brains trust - this forum is pretty good at coming up with a fix. Many, inluding myself, have benefitted from this.

I do not believe that Norton Birmingham are purposefully trying to exclude or disadvantage legacy owners. Why would they, that would clearly be to their detriment in the long run. Hence (maybe), the invitation for Access Norton to visit and reference to ‘in time we’ll announce plans that benefit legacy owners’. I know that we are a loose conglomerate of ageing enthusiasts on a forum, but it may be beneficial if a UK member (or several) wanted to attend the factory. It might demonstrate that we are not just lone voices in the internet wilderness. My thoughts only.

Stephen_Spencer said:

He has avoided your questions Voodoo, but attempted to explain why - (they site that) they are just too busy - to address the potentially sizeable task of dealing with legacy owners questions and sourcing/formatting/providing the requested information. I guess we either accept that as fact or choose to keep challenging it; the question has been asked multiple times on multiple forum. They are clearly not going to detail changes until ready to (or have time to) do so - if ever. The reasons are their own I guess - writghtly or wrongly.

Rather than banging our heads against the wall, we may be better just waiting for eventual disclosure over time. It will come from Norton, or the first owner/mechanic to strip a new bike down, or when we attempt to buy spares that have been changed, or if/when they produce an amended workshop manual etc etc.

Until then I guess we still have the ability to purchase common items - people are receiving spares. For those that are off the road for spares they cannot get, why not disclose those parts on this forum and benefit from the brains trust - this forum is pretty good at coming up with a fix. Many, inluding myself, have benefitted from this.

I do not believe that Norton Birmingham are purposefully trying to exclude or disadvantage legacy owners. Why would they, that would clearly be to their detriment in the long run. Hence (maybe), the invitation for Access Norton to visit and reference to ‘in time we’ll announce plans that benefit legacy owners’. I know that we are a loose conglomerate of ageing enthusiasts on a forum, but it may be beneficial if a UK member (or several) wanted to attend the factory. It might demonstrate that we are not just lone voices in the internet wilderness. My thoughts only.

Click to expand...

For nearly 3 years I’ve been asking for…..
Commando…. carbon rear mud hugger, license plate bracket, carbon chain guard, header pipes, and engine gaskets.
Pretty basic stuff.

Voodooo said:

For nearly 3 years I’ve been asking for…..
Commando…. carbon rear mud hugger, license plate bracket, carbon chain guard, header pipes, and engine gaskets.
Pretty basic stuff.

Click to expand...

Yep that’s gotta be frustrating Voodoo, but in fairness the spares department has only recently opened up and we see some spares starting to trickle through. Others have received the carbon parts you mention for example, less the number plate hanger I think.

Why not draw a line through your original order as there is clearly some difficulty with a part/or parts of it and resubmit. May make things easier for a newly formed spares department that may be struggling to keep up. Request the hugger and chain guard on an individual request and see how you go. Use the same route as Gojuu used successfully.

It’s not how it should work of course but we have to deal with Norton‘s reality I guess, not how we want things to be. Good luck.

Stephen_Spencer said:

Yep that’s gotta be frustrating Voodoo, but in fairness the spares department has only recently opened up and we see some spares starting to trickle through. Others have received the carbon parts you mention for example, less the number plate hanger I think.

Why not draw a line through your original order as there is clearly some difficulty with a part/or parts of it and resubmit. May make things easier for a newly formed spares department that may be struggling to keep up. Request the hugger and chain guard on an individual request and see how you go. Use the same route as Gojuu used successfully.

It’s not how it should work of course but we have to deal with Norton‘s reality I guess, not how we want things to be. Good luck.

Click to expand...

I already cured my needs and went and ordered another bike.

At this point, I give up asking Norton for parts. It’s literally not worth the effort anymore. By the way, I do have a spare single seat tail for a commando in black. If I ever sell these Nortons, you can have the seat tail.

Thanks for that - I’ll definitely purchase that from you if you sell the bikes. Hope you wouldn’t regret the sale though - for all that they are, for all of the frustrations of ownership, these bikes are certainly unique and special by any definition. You may find that ownership difficulties lesson significantly as Norton Birmingham finally get into top gear.

Stephen_Spencer said:

Thanks for that - I’ll definitely purchase that from you if you sell the bikes. Hope you wouldn’t regret the sale though - for all that they are, for all of the frustrations of ownership, these bikes are certainly unique and special by any definition. You may find that ownership difficulties lesson significantly as Norton Birmingham finally get into top gear.

Click to expand...

What’s the point of keeping something you can’t mechanically repair?
I have two that I’m now to the point of hesitating to ride, especially my Domi, I can’t get any chassis or Domi only parts for it.