What is it about the Norton that gets you hook, line and sinker?

That makes sense, he had already built his own strengthened drive side cases for the old Commandos. It helped until the crank broke!
The 961 was supposed to solve all of those problems.
I will say that in the myriad of issues plaguing the 961, I don't recall reading here or on the NOC of a real old fashioned case destroying blowup.
There may have been one somewhere, but strength of cases and crank doesn't seem to be an issue. All the more reason that it is worth doing the blueprinting. You should have something that is quite durable when done.

But I've never heard of a blown up Thruxton 1200 either. Come to think of it, it's pretty rare for a modern bike, even 250 HP superlight GP bikes, to blow up and leave their entrails on the ashphalt.

Glen
 
The one thing that’s for certain, is it’s not ‘numbers’ that make this bike what it is, irrespective if those numbers refer to power, weight, seat hight, MPG, etc.

I was talking to a modern bike riding mate at the weekend (some kind of Yamaha MT thing? Gotta be the ugliest bike ever) and it reminded me of this thread.

For me, that age old mysterious ingredient ‘character’ is a big deal with these bikes. We can try, and fail (as I have), to define character as noise, vibration, etc. But the real essence of character gets lost when we try to codify it in this way.

I knew the 961 would be a characterful bike, but in actuality this is a far greater thing than I had anticipated. It is a truly characterful ride. A classic motorcycle journalist rode mine recently (more on this later) and he also struggled to define / explain it. The best he could do was to say it felt like “a really well built special, like a Buell engined featherebed” which I can relate to.

So, for me, the power output is enough for 99% of the time during public road riding. The handling exceeds my expectations. The braking exceeds my abilities (kinda glad it’s got ABS to be honest). The riding position, even though it’s a Cafe Racer, is far more acceptable than I had expected. And the character of the whole just makes every single ride an event.

Since getting the 961, my BMW R nine T became totally redundant (I did the same miles on the 961 in 2 months as I did in 1 year and 8 months on the BMW) and has subsequently been sold. My ‘74 Cdo has only been out twice, and even my previous ‘go to bike’ for ‘nipping around on’ my ‘68 Bonnie has also been somewhat neglected.

I’m sure the balance will redress itself somewhat when the novelty subsides, but nevertheless, it seems to show that the 961 has me hooked, and as many of you will recall, I was one of the sceptics.

This is one of those occasions where it’s just fabulous to have been so wrong !!
 
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[QUOTE="
I’m sure the balance will redress itself somewhat when the novelty subsides, but nevertheless, it seems to show that the 961 has me hooked, and as many of you will recall, I was one of the sceptics.

This is one of those occasions where it’s just fabulous to have been so wrong !![/QUOTE]

I completely agree. What is so right about the design that makes non-bikers stop and admire it? it ticks the box for people like me who appreciate old bikes but enjoy the security of the ABS and fantastic handling.

Don't be too sure about the novelty wearing off - I bought my Morgan in 1985 and still stand and admire the timeless design. By the same index I'll be admiring the Norton when I'm 91! There are a lot of similarities between the Norton and the Morgan......
 
Nigel, it occurs that design / build philosophies at the two companies BMW and Norton couldn't be much further apart.
BMW builds extremely well engineered motorcycles with lots of quality control, but they are not asthetically pleasing.
Its as though they don't care on that part.
Either that or they can't figure it out. The Japanese also struggle to build truly beautiful bikes. They might have come closest when they copied old British designs
The Brits and the Italians seem to have had a lock on beautiful MC design, and they have had it for decades.
We used to say BMWs were dead reliable but also dead ugly and slow.
Definitely remove the word slow when describing BMWs lineup today. They've got that power thing figured out!

Norton builds a great looking bike with almost nonexistent quality control and dubious engineering ( eg starter ring gears, cracked forked clamps etc, etc)

So for some the looks trump the reliability and power, for others reliability, power and longevity are king.
It nice when you get all of it, but that package isn't so easy to find, even with the thousands of Mc types available today.

Glen
 
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Not that I disagree Glen, but just for clarity, I never mentioned looks. I was only referring to the riding experience. Looks alone would never swing it for me personally. I ride almost purely for riding pleasure, and I’m seriously impressed by how the 961 puts a big fat ‘tick mark’ in that box!
 
What milage are you upto now FE, I'm sitting at 535, back for service this week and wont be too long before 6000 rpm which I'm guessing you're already at. Have you some good roads nearby to use the range
 
Not sure exactly, but somewhere over 600, so have been enjoying the 4.5-6k range, which is nice!

I’m in Oxford, so whilst I have to ride in the town to get out of it, I don’t have to go far to get onto some nice Cotswolds sweeping roads.
 
Fast Eddie said:
Not sure exactly, but somewhere over 600, so have been enjoying the 4.5-6k range, which is nice!

I’m in Oxford, so whilst I have to ride in the town to get out of it, I don’t have to go far to get onto some nice Cotswolds sweeping roads.
Click to expand...
4800 cruise. Aaah.
 
I took the 961 to a local bike night last night. This is a relative new venue run by SportsBikeShop with live bands, plenty of food outlets and a great turnout of 700+ bikes. The 961 attracted lots of attention, there seemed to be a crowd around it every time I glanced over to where I had parked her. Little did I know but the 961 was one of 5 bikes nominated for 'best bike on the night' and knock me down with a feather.... she was voted the winner, and I walked away with a £100 gift voucher to spend in the shop!

The 961 doesn't just grab me 'hook, line and sinker', it would seem that the 961 grabs the biking fraternity the same way.... so why isn't Norton selling container loads?!?
 
What is it about the Norton that gets you hook, line and sinker?
MxMartin said:
I took the 961 to a local bike night last night. This is a relative new venue run by SportsBikeShop with live bands, plenty of food outlets and a great turnout of 700+ bikes. The 961 attracted lots of attention, there seemed to be a crowd around it every time I glanced over to where I had parked her. Little did I know but the 961 was one of 5 bikes nominated for 'best bike on the night' and knock me down with a feather.... she was voted the winner, and I walked away with a £100 gift voucher to spend in the shop!

The 961 doesn't just grab me 'hook, line and sinker', it would seem that the 961 grabs the biking fraternity the same way.... so why isn't Norton selling container loads?!?
Click to expand...
Think they are Mark , aren’t they ?
 
Because they aren't building container loads. Its still the exclusive boutique bike niche. And when they do, resale will drop like a rock. Congratulations on your win. A hundred bucks in the pocket and an ego boost never hurt anyone.
 
TonyA said:
Hello MX Martin , How does the 961 fuel mileage compare with the Thruxton 1200 R ?
Click to expand...
Tony I don't have the mpg for the thruxton, I'm still filling up from jerry cans in the garage. At a guess I think the Thrux is a little more thirsty but not by much.
 
Britfan60 said:
Because they aren't building container loads. Its still the exclusive boutique bike niche. And when they do, resale will drop like a rock.
Click to expand...
I briefly spoke to Clem yesterday about sales volumes and although we didn't discuss figures he was pretty pleased with how Norton sales are going and re-iterated that the reason we don't see that many on UK roads is because 80% are still going overseas.
 
Fast Eddie said:
The one thing that’s for certain, is it’s not ‘numbers’ that make this bike what it is, irrespective if those numbers refer to power, weight, seat hight, MPG, etc.

I was talking to a modern bike riding mate at the weekend (some kind of Yamaha MT thing? Gotta be the ugliest bike ever) and it reminded me of this thread.

For me, that age old mysterious ingredient ‘character’ is a big deal with these bikes. We can try, and fail (as I have), to define character as noise, vibration, etc. But the real essence of character gets lost when we try to codify it in this way.

I knew the 961 would be a characterful bike, but in actuality this is a far greater thing than I had anticipated. It is a truly characterful ride. A classic motorcycle journalist rode mine recently (more on this later) and he also struggled to define / explain it. The best he could do was to say it felt like “a really well built special, like a Buell engined featherebed” which I can relate to.

So, for me, the power output is enough for 99% of the time during public road riding. The handling exceeds my expectations. The braking exceeds my abilities (kinda glad it’s got ABS to be honest). The riding position, even though it’s a Cafe Racer, is far more acceptable than I had expected. And the character of the whole just makes every single ride an event.

Since getting the 961, my BMW R nine T became totally redundant (I did the same miles on the 961 in 2 months as I did in 1 year and 8 months on the BMW) and has subsequently been sold. My ‘74 Cdo has only been out twice, and even my previous ‘go to bike’ for ‘nipping around on’ my ‘68 Bonnie has also been somewhat neglected.

I’m sure the balance will redress itself somewhat when the novelty subsides, but nevertheless, it seems to show that the 961 has me hooked, and as many of you will recall, I was one of the sceptics.

This is one of those occasions where it’s just fabulous to have been so wrong !!
Click to expand...


So Eddie - if you had to choose, would it be your old Commando, or the 961?

Cheers

Paul
 
It’s a good question Paul!

I honestly don’t know. But, if I really had to choose one...

Currently, it’d be the new ‘un as I really love every ride. In terms of its overal package and the ‘riding experience’ it far exceeds my expectations and is, perhaps, exactly what I’d been searching for.

But it’s still got that new bike ‘novelty’ I guess, how they’ll compare after a little more time we’ll have to wait and see.

Interestingly, in terms of outright performance, I don’t think there’s much between them at all.
 
TonyA said:
Hello MX Martin , How does the 961 fuel mileage compare with the Thruxton 1200 R ?
Click to expand...

Tony, I can tell you what the Thrux R gets as 2 buddies & I just completed 3900 kms of spectacular mountain road riding.
The digital readout for the trip says 4.4 litres per 100 kms which is 65 mpg Imperial or 54 mpg US gallon.
I was happy with that as the speeds were quite high, about 1.2 Harley speed.
We rode in 5 states plus the home province of BC.
BC has some great roads but I think Idaho has us beat.
One day of riding was taken up on 330 miles of twisty Idaho road. You would think one would get weary of the hundreds of corners but it doesn't seem to go that way!


Glen
 
worntorn said:
The digital readout for the trip says 4.4 litres per 100 kms which is 65 mpg Imperial or 54 mpg US gallon.
Click to expand...

I had cleanly forgotten that the Thrux has a digital mpg stored. I just checked mine and it reads 61.3 mpg Imperial. I am not sure if i've ever reset this and I haven't confirmed with a measured fill of the tank so the assumption is that the reading is accurate and is the average for the last 1000 miles since I had the clocks changed under warranty, so that would be post-running in i.e. ridden average to hard on trips of no more than 70 or 80 miles and no highway cruising.....
 
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