INOA Rally diary

Friday p.m.

It's a long while later, but with the time shift, still Friday over here now. The flight went well apart from the usual screaming children and US Customs providing just 4 people to handle immigration of an entire 787, but that's nothing unusual.

There has been a slight glitch in that Peter White missed his Heathrow connection by just 5 minutes and has had to lay up in London overnight. He will be coming across on Saturday's flight instead so we can keep to the original schedule although he will miss his acclimatisation day.

Alan Goldwater, VP of the INOA and NOC Northern California (NORCAL) Branch member picked me up from the airport and it was then a drive down to Santa Cruz for a much needed decent sleep.

Saturday a.m.

It's California, so the day has dawned sunny and fine. Today is vehicle preparation day (we have no less than 4 bikes leaving here tomorrow) and that has started with a check over on the Mk.lll Commando I am using.

Everything is looking fine now; n.b. the extra safety device attached to the Krausers as the locks are dodgy.

Hopefully Peter has made the flight today. At the time of writing he is just about to cross the coast of East Greenland.

Saturday p.m.

The Commando has been run, pronounced fit to go and the remaining Nortons have been trailered up.

Now, just 24 hours later than planned, Peter White has joined the party. The beer fridge has been stocked with some Sierra Nevada and New Belgium IPAs which are also helping a lot in the very high temperatures here today.

Sunday

We started out from Santa Cruz exactly on time at 09:00 for the 300 mile ride to the rally site. Towards Sacramento, Alan Goldwater and the trailer with two of the Commandos headed off on a side mission while Peter and I on a Mk.lll and 650 Suzuki twin respectively, went North. With half the distance on the clock, lunch was taken at a local shop well off the interstate; these places are always better than the main fast food outlets.

Peter narrowly escaped being bitten by a so-called friendly mastiff, after which we set off having swapped bikes. It was a reminder of how easy modern bikes are to ride when compared to a Commando.

The last 50 miles or so of the ride went through the Feather River canyon with an absolutely ideal road sweeping up the gorge, changing sides over a number of bridges and all the time running alongside the railroad. At one point the road bridge crossed the rail bridge which in turn crossed the river.

On the final descent in Quincy I kept losing Peter who was by now back on the Suzuki. It turned out that he had been on reserve fuel for over 20 miles and we rolled into the first gas station with his bike running on fumes. After that, it was just a question of stopping off at the local Safeway to stock up on vital materials for later that evening and breakfast for Monday morning.

The rest of the evening was taken up with getting settled in at the rally site and meeting up with a good number of the usual suspects, many of who had arrived a day early as we had done.

Monday a.m.

As usual, I was awake early. The smoke arising from behind the rally ground turned out to be steam from the local plywood factory so it was a relief to see that the Commando in the pickup was not on fire.

A fine tradition at the INOA rallies is the early morning coffee provided by the North West Norton Owners. Joe Smith gets up at an unearthly hour and diligently has it all ready by around 06:30. It's a great way for people to meet before the day gets under way and puts to shame the disgusting apology for coffee usually served up at NOC events.

Monday p.m.

A number of us have just returned from an excellent ride up through the hills, topping out at 7000 ft. altitude. The picture below is the general store in the roaring metropolis of La Porte (population 26) where we stopped for a drink before turning for home.

Tuesday a.m.

A busy day, starting with the first Technical Session at 08:30. The issue under discussion for most of the session was a recently restored Fastback which was smoking badly on on cylinder. The bike was under the scrutiny of no less than Doug McAdam and Ken Armann who led the dismantling of the head to see what might be going on.

The inlet valve rubber seals seemed to be OK and after some deliberation, the problem was put down to some over-zealous honing of the barrel and the problem was expected to go away as the engine was run in.

Mean while, Peter White in his role of International Liaison Officer for the NOC bravely took on not only Mark McLennan from the New Zealand club but also Ben Woolven from Australia. They had a useful discussion about the Norton Owners Worldwide (NOW) initiative launched by the NOC.

Later, we just had to go and ride some of the local roads again. A shorter trip today took us up to a reservoir at Bucks Lake for lunch. As can be seen, we were in good company; a 750 Ducati and an Egli Vincent. On the return journey I had a near miss with a turkey vulture which was on a deer carcase in the middle of the road. You just never know what's going to be round the next bend.

George Molyneaux dropped by and we had a good chat about his rotary special.

Ken Buchanan ran the afternoon Tech Session and told us all about wheels, spokes and associated subjects. Ken Armann had planned his liquid refrreshment well ahead.

There is no rest at these rallies and next on the agenda was the ice cream social.

Together with Ian Loram and George Molyneux we entered the quiz and won ourselves a few goodies on the basis of our knowledge of Norton history. The evening meal was rather late and was ably prepared by the NOC's International Liaison Officer who demonstrated his superlative domestic training.

Wednesday a.m.

This morning, the INOA organised a Skype link-up back to the UK so that the rally could hear from Peter Williams. At the same time, we had John Favill on the telephone from Wisconsin. The audience heard some marvellous stories from both John and Peter.

John told us about some of the development work he undertook on the Commando. I tabled a question as to why the 850 Commando was in fact 828cc and not 848cc. It turns out that the project was in a great hurry as usual, the only suitable piston that the team could get their hands on was a VW one and that necessitated a final capacity of just 828cc.

Peter talked about the development of the PW3 camshaft, the mononcoque Commando racer then went on to tell us about his replicas and his thoughts on electric motorcyles.

In all, it was a brilliant idea to make contact with these two Norton icons and it was hugely apprecaited by all those present.

There were more group rides out to a couple of local places but today we went out on our own in a small group. The picture below shows Jerry Kaplan, the ride leader, looking to see if anybody is following him out of the rally site.

The INOA members do put together some very pretty bikes. Here is a selection from the many at the rally ......

Not so sure about this one though .....

Yes, they have 961s over here as well. $22,000 worth of clothes line.

The afternoon's activities centred around the traditional field games, made all the more tricky this year by the very uneven ground, courtesy of whatever small creatures burrow under the surface in these parts.

Thursday a.m.

I've been riding the Mk.lll a lot of the time but this morning I took out the 1972 Combat Commando ('the green one'). Alan Goldwater had fixed the jetting and this time round it was going much better. The speed limit out of town here is just 55mph but if, hypothetically, I had been going at >4500rpm in top gear, the engine would have been seen to smooth out as its 2S camshaft was working in the area where it was at its most happy.

The ride out was to a railroad museum which was in fact rather disappointing, being mostly a collection of rusting rolling stock. A very good lunch later, we swapped machines and I rode 'the black one' back to the rally site. Alan has never had this one apart but it must have something interesting in the camshaft department as it goes rather better than might be expected.

Thursday p.m.

The nearest that the INOA gets to an Annual General Meeting is its members' meeting at the rally. The officers of the club (pictured below) make themselves available for a question and answer session with anybody who cares to turn up. Although not particularly well attended, a good number of the INOA chapters (Branches in English) were represented and there was some lively and interesting discussion.

Peter White outlined the NOC's Norton Owners Worldwide initiative and took a few questions on the subject. It was also revealed that with the location of the 2017 rally already having been agreed as Virginia, the North West Norton Owners (NWNO) were willing to bid for the 2018 event. The way it works is that other chapters may also bid and that the membership present at the 2017 rally will vote for whichever location it prefers.

With scarcely time to regroup after the members' meeting, it was off down the road to a local motel where the NWNO was holding its now traditional cocktail party. We took the opportunity to have some useful dialogue about Norton Owners Worldwide but the majority of the time was spent answering the standard F.A.Q. for this rally - Brexit.

Friday a.m.

It's the last day of the rally and everything is a hive of activity. This morning's main feature is the concours. At the moment, bikes are being polished within an inch of their lives and then taken over to be lined up. Some machines that have not been seen at all during the rally are appearing from trailers and vans; some owners take it that seriously that these bikes come out just for the concours and are then returned to their hiding place. Thankfully, there are plenty of other classes in the competition to cater for bikes that are ridden.

Peter is entering into the spirit of things .....

I'm fairly certain that this is going to win the Rat Bike class .....

The electrics are worthy of a closer look ....

This is unusual. A Commando crankcase with a 270? crank and a special Model 88 top end. It's geared for 138mph and is going to Bonneville. I hope they wash the salt off fairly quickly. The exhaust pipes (look carefully) are tuned to an exact length and with the fairing on, the rider has to keep his elbows tucked well in to avoid roasting them.

By the look of it, the heat's too much for Ken Armann .....

Perhaps I was wrong about the Rat Bike class. Another worthy contender has entered the competition ......

Take a good look and you will note that Norton gas tanks for the U.S. market were smaller then those for the home market. There is not a lot of tank below the badge.

In the afternoon, Peter and I went out for our last ride and gave the green one and the black one a decent thrashing.

The INOA Rallies always finish with what they term the banquet, where we have dinner followed by presentation of all the wards, a few speeches and the cream of the door prizes. This year, the star prize was a Colorado Norton Works electric start conversion.

The picture shows Harry Bunting, Rally Chairman, directing proceedings ......

While the audience listens .....

After the banquet, some people had already packed their vehicles and trailers to drive overnight and went straight off. For many, it was a case of saying goodbye to friends for at least another year and in many cases two years.

Saturday a.m.

The morning started early for most people with some leaving the site at dawn. The picture below shows Doug McAdam's hearse hauled rig loaded and ready to head back down to Baja.

We left at around 10:00 for the 300 miles back to Santa Cruz. For complicated reasons, Peter and I were riding only one bike between us, with the other one in the truck. We tossed a coin to see who was going to get the first leg as that was by far the better ride back down the Feather River gorge. Peter won with his double-tailed US dollar. Later in the day I took over for the last 180 miles and in contrast to Peter's picturesque ride had not a lot other than roadworks and interstates plus the hotter part of the day.

As we unloaded the bikes from the trailer that evening, we found that the fornt brake on the green one was hardly working so Alan spent some time with tubing and brake fluid refettling it while we walked the dogs. After that it was off to bed after what had been a long day.

Sunday a.m.

We set off for a 50 mile run to the NORCAL Sunday morning meeting at Alice's Restaurant (not that Alice's Restaurant).

Alice's is a biker meet place up in the hills above the Bay area and the run there took us along some wonderful roads and through the woods some not so wonderful very tight bends with no forward visibility. In typical Bay area fashion, the weather went from hot sunshine to fog in a matter of a few hundred yards.

I couldn't resist a shot of the notice in the Gents' toilets ....

We arrived and met up with the NORCAL people for lunch.

On the menu were several burger options - BMW, Ducati etc. but for me it had to be the Norton Burger .....

After lunch, we said goobye and noted the NORCAL contribution to California's litter clearing scheme for its roads.

We made the return journey by dropping down to sea level and then heading South along the coast on Highway 1 before getting back to Alan Goldwater's house for some car maintenance and yes - more dog walking. My hound out-performed Peter's one by 25 to 3 (I will leave the reader to work out the scoring system) plus giving a local cat something to think about.

Sunday p.m.

No Norton content here, but a visit to see some giant redwoods. There was a possible Norton link when we found a narrow gauge train with a drive mechanism with parts somewhat reminiscent of an o.h.c. model .....

Monday/Tuesday

We decided to finish off the post-rally activities with a couple of days in San Francisco, especially as Peter had never been there before. Alan very kindly loaned us his BMW Z3 to get us there.

We had to go and see the Golden Gate Bridge .....

Alcatraz - best avoided .....

Don't go to San Francisco unless you are willing and able to embrace both the unusual and bizarre. This image was taken in one of the very interesting shops to be found in the Haight-Ashbury area .....

The city offers a variety of methods for getting around. This one is the most likely to appeal to motorcyclists .....

On our return to Santa Cruz, it was down to the beach to watch the sea lions, sea otters and surfers as the sun set and the full moon rose. It must be a terrible burden living in California .....

Tomorrow is our last day here before returning home.

Wednesday/Thursday

With the 8 hour time difference, Wednesday and Thursday were conflated into just one strange day. Alan dropped Peter and me off at San JosÃ? and we began the tedious journey back to the UK, arriving on Thursday afternoon.

So that's it. Another very successful INOA Rally enjoyed by everybody and highly recommended if you are thinking of going to the U.S.A.

The rally next year will be organised by the Nation's Capital Norton Owners, the location being in Virginia and the dates being July 17-21. If it's the West coast of the country that interests you, then you will have to wait until 2018. The organising Chapter and location have yet to be decided and we will not know until a year from now which bid will be the winning one. So far, there is just the one offer; that is from the North West Norton Owners who would locate the rally somewhere in the South-East corner of Washington state.

Keep up to date via the INOA Rally site.