That’s All Folks

As a very funny cartoon always said at the end, “That’s All Folks”.

Following another batch of failures my head has overruled the heart and called time on my 961 ownership.
Despite the valiant efforts of The Dealer, who have been there for me, I have sold the 961 back to them. Norton factory have assisted but the electrics just kept faulting. Little things, but the little items just got too much for me to continue with.
It wasn’t the easiest decision but I just couldn’t keep calling “Thunderbirds”, well The Dealer.
I cannot fault the looks of the 961, the sound, the sheer delete in riding it, I have to have something that’s more reliable for me.

Shame it came to that Gary.

But, as you say, at the end of the day you need to know you’re gonna get from A to B. And if you can’t do that, it’s kinda difficult to stay interested !

A great shame - it is possible to have an acceptably reliable 961 - I've commuted over 6000miles in the last year with one factory return (faulty relay) and some minor assisted home fixes. Hope your next purchase proves to be a good one and you can enjoy your riding again.

Hello Gary , Do you mind running through all the problems you had ? Just make a quick list for us and Norton to see . And the final straw so to speak . Thank you in advance.

Would it be worthwhile to start a "report card" on the new Norton bikes ? For example how many of you Newish Euro 4 owners have NO problems ?

GaryC said:

As a very funny cartoon always said at the end, “That’s All Folks”.

Following another batch of failures my head has overruled the heart and called time on my 961 ownership.
Despite the valiant efforts of The Dealer, who have been there for me, I have sold the 961 back to them. Norton factory have assisted but the electrics just kept faulting. Little things, but the little items just got too much for me to continue with.
It wasn’t the easiest decision but I just couldn’t keep calling “Thunderbirds”, well The Dealer.
I cannot fault the looks of the 961, the sound, the sheer delete in riding it, I have to have something that’s more reliable for me.

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Well keep looking on the forum anyway,u may get reinspired or come to a catch up meet

Sorry to see you leave and sorry to hear of the problems. What you want to do is spend the cash on another norton commando, one that runs well.

Sorry to hear of your frustrating time as an owner/rider. I too would rapidly lose interest if mine became a repeat offender but touch wood I haven't had too bad a time of it.... so far!

Thanks everyone, painful as it was, I had no other choice, well into double figure electrical problems. Never knew if it would start or whether I’d get home.
Basically relay issues, connections to relays, TPS failures, battery failure, fuses blowing.......I really could go on but I don’t want the Norton 961 haters chipping in. I love the 961, just couldn’t live with the electrical gremlins. Everyone who I spoke to, Dealer or Norton did all they could, no hiding just help given. It was fixed in situ, collected, returned etc but the faults remained.
There’s no doubt if I managed to last post warranty I’d had used many of the fixes found on this forum. The knowledge and how it’s freely shared is just fantastic. Problem is I only collected the 961 in July and remember it broke down on the way home!
The ride was great, sounded brilliant and the smile value off the scale.......but to get that the electrics need to perform and they just didn’t.
Perhaps I’ll look for an 850, it will give problems, it’s allowed to it is old. Will get out on it in the sun, or not but that’s excusable.
The sheer cost of a brand new Norton Commando 961, by definition new, has to be far more reliable, mine wasn’t and luckily some of you have ones with no issues. Therefore it is a good product, but with everything in this world some individual products fail, I was just unlucky. However I’ve owned the motorcycle of my modern dreams and no one will take that from me.

Safe riding everyone

Nice outlook Gary!
Cheers
Rob

GaryC said:

Perhaps I’ll look for an 850, it will give problems, it’s allowed to it is old. Will get out on it in the sun, or not but that’s excusable....

Safe riding everyone

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From your experiences with the 961 I understand you want to ditch all that electronic devil trickery for something which doesn't require a laptop and security codes to fault find.

I look forward to the day when someone will strip a 961 down to a basic ignition module and carbs - I sense a certain Fast gentleman in the wings waving a pair....

Sorry for your troubles, Gary. I was "this close" too while the warranty was valid, but there wasn't an alternative at that time that I liked. Beemer was bland and covered in cheap stuff, Triumph hadn't come out with the new Thrux or any 1200 and the Monster 1200S, although spectacular, is ugly by comparison and a totally different machine. 5 seasons later, I'm finally catching up on the mileage, fingers crossed, sphincter clenched, smiles from ear to ear. It's a love hate relationship. All the best on picking out a new ride. Sorry it didn't work out.

One more thing...an 850 wasn't the most reliable bike either, but without an ECU, so much more manageable. Have fun going old school.

Clive said:

From your experiences with the 961 I understand you want to ditch all that electronic devil trickery for something which doesn't require a laptop and security codes to fault find.

I look forward to the day when someone will strip a 961 down to a basic ignition module and carbs - I sense a certain Fast gentleman in the wings waving a pair....

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My dad has the FCR’s and will be doing it to his Atlas (1965) with 961 engine. Hopefully sooner than later.

Richard,

Your dad is putting a 961 motor in a 1965 Atlas frame?
You have to create a youtube series on that build.

BritTwit said:

Richard,

Your dad is putting a 961 motor in a 1965 Atlas frame?
You have to create a youtube series on that build.

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We have some plans to document it. And some plans to do some videos of all things Norton that was going to be over the winter but I decided to renovate my home and got a little carried away.... I’ll keep you posted.

richard-7 said:

We have some plans to document it. And some plans to do some videos of all things Norton that was going to be over the winter but I decided to renovate my home and got a little carried away.... I’ll keep you posted.

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Richard, that's FANTASTIC!
Sounds like a great project.
I've done a fair amount of thinking about the FCR conversion myself.
It would go a long way to resolving the funky EFI issues with the bike.
Also, with much better flow of the smooth bore FCR's and eliminating the airbox restrictions, you will get a nice performance boost, and better throttle response, and idling.

We should probably create a new thread for converting the 961 EFI to FCR to discuss the approach.
1. Retain ECU in the electrical system or not.
2. Adapt something new for ignition, like Triumph igniter box from previous generation carb-ed Bonneville Scrambler 270 crank.
3. Changes needed to wiring to eliminate ECU and cut in new ignition system.

and so on..............

Another plus associated with using the Atlas frame - a traditionally mounted oil tank.
Which will help address the engine breather issues.

Hi everyone,

I’ve a few bits for the 961 I’ve listed in the for sale section. Pillion seat, Kickstand shoe and Oxford Heritage panniers plus roll bag. Won’t be needing the 961 specific items and new steed has panniers.
For those of you that are interested I am now riding a Kawasaki Z1000SX, couldn’t go for anything else in the classic range. As you all know, I only wanted the 961 from the modern classic era. A space is waiting for an 850, house move first.

All the best

Gary.

GaryC said:

Hi everyone,

I’ve a few bits for the 961 I’ve listed in the for sale section. Pillion seat, Kickstand shoe and Oxford Heritage panniers plus roll bag. Won’t be needing the 961 specific items and new steed has panniers.
For those of you that are interested I am now riding a Kawasaki Z1000SX, couldn’t go for anything else in the classic range. As you all know, I only wanted the 961 from the modern classic era. A space is waiting for an 850, house move first.

All the best

Gary.

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Will have a look. So???? Whadja get???

Britfan60 said:

Will have a look. So???? Whadja get???

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This.....

Did you get that from Aylesbury?

I was there yesterday, me and my mate were looking at one of those in that same colour is the showroom. We weren’t convinced by it.

My mate knows the salesman and asked him “what’s going on with this colour”.

He said “I know, a lot of people say that, be we’ve sold one already”

Was that to you?

I think you’d struggle to have bought something more different to the 961 !!