Just a great photo and story from back in the day, and nice to know they did the purple in '72.
Also great to know the bike gave such good service. Totally agree about the Combat power delivery - highly addictive!
Wish I could say that this bike gave me great service. Great memories, yes, service not so much. Let me see what I can remember.
3,000 miles the head gasket blew. Head was a bit warped and needed to be resurfaced
8,000 miles the transmission exploded 19 year owner caused- speed shifting with unsoaked Barnett clutch waaay pricey
11,000 miles main bearing failure parts covered by factory but I paid labor
14,000 miles valve guide came loose-head rebuild
18,000 miles new rings and pistons
22,000 miles front wheel bearing failure
28,000 miles alternator nut came off and kinda tweeked pretty near everthing in the primary--primary chain, front sprocket, primary case, stator
32,000 miles auto advance unit self destructed. early Lucas electronic unit then installed
38,000 miles kick starter pawl.
40,000 miles complete top end rebuild
58,000 miles the Lockeed front brake gave up the ghost. Found a near new unit from a guy that had chopped his Combat
No more issues after that. New owner did have a few
All these issues made me a pretty fair Norton wrench as I had to do most of the repairs myself. Never could afford to have someone else do the fixin'. Yet I still own and ride and wrench these darn things. Seems that I've suffered from a specialized form of Alzheimer's since an early age.
