"Just an Aprilia RSV4 motor in a Spondon frame"
If it was that easy to build a 230bhp+ race bike, everyone would be doing it lol.
The Norton V4 TT bike was built, it was ready to go....all cleared to race the TT. McGuinness nagged and whinged about not doing the NW200, saying those that dont do the NW, enter the TT on the back foot. SG had no interest in doing the NW.....I'd imagine for cost reasons more than anything. But ended up entering. The NW regs were 1ltr max....so a bike had to be cobbled together quickly...essentially/predominantly Josh Brooks old bike. The TT organiser's then did a 180° turn, and decided that Norton couldnt run the 1200cc (the small print for each class allowed pretty much any bike in at the organiser's discretion)....so the old Aprilia engined bike had to run at the TT as well. When running the Aprilia motor, the swingarm also has to be changed back to the twin spar standard swingarm, as the different V angle meant the exhaust headers would foul on the single sided swingarm design of the V4ss. So a lot of very old and tired stuff has to be reused at short notice. Each year the motors would go back to Aprilia Racing to be refreshed....I doubt they got that for 2019. Clearly nothing was coming together for the TT though, the Superlight wasn't race ready in a performance sense...although obviously Hickey saw some potential in it....and the final straw was the head popping off a lower engine bolt on Johns v4 bike, as we've all seen in the photo by the Gooseneck. Shame as previous years showed fairly steady progression. Personally, I think bringing McGuinness on board was a big mistake. He's a massive name, so great for the PR etc, but he was also an injured bird that, in my opinon, has struggled to keep up with the new wave of top tier TT riders...confirmed by this years TT.
