I think that if you've put more th a £100 on a credit card the credit card company has to cover everything you've put in. In this case the full £15.5K TB
Meanwhile in further news this morning https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/2020/01/norton-motorcycles-notice-of-oral-hearing/ Should make interesting listening too if anyone can/wants to attend.
There is only one company that should purchased this wonderful brand and that is Triumph's Nick Bloor.IMO
that was one reason why SG picked up Norton in the first place, he immediately offered it on to Bloor: no can do. tried selling it intermittently since. What he should have done: got Zongshen to do all the bikes and crate them up, just stuck a badge on at this end. That way he would at least have had reliable stock from a reliable production line. Unfortunately dreams and schemes got in the way. Anyone who touches the brand now has to start with a clean sheet and completely new bikes. The 961, and V4 variants are toxic. Actually the whole brand is toxic, sad state of affairs.
Or for the buyer to get them into production, bump the price up so they can offer a 'discount' to those who paid deposits, thereby creating goodwill for the brand. EDIT: BTW, if anyone has a deposit on a new TVR...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the sixth (?) time Norton has gone broke since the original firm went belly-up in 1954. Let us hope the name is carried on, so it can go broke many more times in the future.
Not sure how it's lasted this long. I loved the interstate I used to proddie race in the 70s but there's no way basically the same pushrod twin 2 valver should be on sale as a premium product. Even if it has had glitter sprinkled on it in the shape of Ohlins and an electric start. Sad but inevitable. TB
Having ridden the “modern” Dominator and a 70’s Interstate I can confirm that the 70’s engine was in fact superior!
Perhaps they should have stuck with the Norton Navigator............. ......rattled like a box of bolts; had the same frame as the Francis Barnett Cruiser 80 (both under the AMC company at the time) and leaked oil faster than the Torrey Canyon. It were a right old shite heap. The Vauxhall of motorcycles in the 50s and 60s.
Like this Vauxhall,,, http://vauxpedianet.uk2sitebuilder.com/vauxhall-four---motorcycle-prototype-1923
I think the issue is that they haven’t made any spares to be able to fix bikes, which means the bikes that people own right now are paperweights, unfortunately the best thing they can do it mothball them and not even turn them over for 6-12months bevause if they start and ride them something will go wrong (judging by the norton stories of failures) and then the bike can’t even be sold as a running example of something super rare
Spondon frame makers, owned by SG, now defunct along with the rest of his motorcycling ventures I assume, it was once a separate company that he bought, but if memory serves he moved it in house to the Donington Hall site.
