The forgotten rigid Model 77 1951/2

From where do you get all this? Unless my memory fails me, you will find that Neville Hinton's research into these machines was published a number of years ago in a magazine entitled Roadholder. I believe his intent was to write them into history rather than out of it.

well he missed this one then its not on the list of models and has you see the poster for this motorcycle , so all this research is clearly not complete by far So it all need looking at Again to get right, yours Anna J Dixon

Anna, I would really like one of these. In fact i've got most of the bits and the old model 7 engine is just so smooooth.

Well that was really informitive it just shows you that information out ther if you look for it, well done that man ! But Guys you have to excuse Me I just do not like to See Our Norton Missed out no mater how many were built, And these Model77 from 1950s would of been good Sturdy Motorcycles and well built too, just like ever thing Built in Bracebridge street works shops they did most of the work by hand and using old Hand Tools or Tooling most of the Tooling in Bracebridge Street was worn out , and was Kept going by the highly Skilled work force, the work they carried out was Very Hard and Dirty too but these men where some of the most higly skilled men of there day and they could turn hands to all most anything, Thats why Birmingham and the area around there was called the Black Country , the real Heart of England, and Heavy Engineering , Yours Anna J

Birmingham part of the Black Country? That's the way to start an argument!

and thats it, heavy industry, black smoke and the like, yours anna j

Maybe but Birmingham isn't in the Black Country! Common mistake though.

Well its the road between Birmingham and Wolverhamton and the west midlands and something to do with a 30 foot seam of coal and the mining of it and heavy smelting works open fires and black smoke the in bodyment of hell , as one columist wrote in London Town in the Mid 18th Centruy , yours anna j

That brochure does not look like other factory literature of the time. It could be that these 237 bikes were not a model but a special order. That brochure could have been made up by the press or the Australian dealers.

If the factory indeed called this the 77 why did they cease production of it for 4 years and then bring it back transformed. They never did that before or after. It is like saying the Electra was really an early version Commando electric start. It just isn't.

Also they didn't have such a small production run of any true model after WW1 (I don't have these figures). I am interested to see how the Roadholder article justifies the true Model 77 theory as opposed to the special order codenamed 77 theory.

The Manxman is also a small production run but there is no doubt that the model continued as the many 650s. This is not true about the rigid 77

The reason why the 650 Manxman had a short run, its was expensive to build, that why is was rejiged to sell cheaper has the AMC board took over Nortons works In bracebridge street 2 years before they closed it down for more saving costs As AMC was running out of steam and the finaces were not good ones and by 1966 they hit the buffers and went bust, Dennis Poore was on the sidelines watching it all happen , a bought Norton , the rest is now Histroy , but in the late 1950s Burt Hopwood and Doug Hele was working away designing the future motorcycles set on the modular design and some of his designs can be seen in these new triumph,s and he designed a V five has well has the 3 cylinder Trident witch was gonig to be a Norton too be built at a new factory on the Isles of sheppy if it had all came off but AMC Board put there spanner in this and robbed Norton of there cash profits from the export machnie the Norton Manxman 650 and models 88/99 All to keep AJS and Matchless afloat, at Plumstead London This is the main reason Hopwood left in early april of 1961, to go to Triumph /Bsa under Edward Turner . It was AMC that killed off the Dream of Hopwood to have built Modern high tech motorcycles the work of the designs were in place and land plot was bought the AMC board Had agreed to this the Finaces was coming in from Berliner Motors exports , all that was needed was new tooling and the new factory to be built, If AMC board had not messed up there finances by Unbusiness like dealings , only to nick the cash for the new factory, things may of been a very diffrent seen with some modern motorcycles with a famous name on the tank , yours Anna J

Previously anna jeannette Dixon wrote:

things may of been a very diffrent seen with some modern motorcycles with a famous name on the tank , yours Anna J

Certainly a tragic waste of talent.

Yes Jonathan Now You All know Why Burt Hopwood was Banging His Head on the Woodwork of AMC Board room , With the shear Incompetence and Unbusiness like dealings they did, was it some kind of shear madness , or did they Not know a thing about what they where doing, there is one clear thing hear They clearly Did Not Know anything about the Motorcycle market and this Business , thats why they went Bust in the first place and They put in next to Zero reseach and development There engineers had been telling them for years But they sit and did nothing ! and then it was all blamed on the militant workforce, just tipical ! of the Elitists managment ! but the thing is this still going on today they realy learnt nothing ! So now you know why there were more Triumphs and BSA,s Built than any other manufacture, in the British Motorcycle industry, , and AMC had swolled up Names like James /Franis Barnett ,DMW, Ambassidor ,Sun ,Dot , Cotton , Norman ,Vincent , AJS , Matchless , and Norton over one half of the British motorcycle industarys all gone too the wall, by the Incompetence and the lack of investment In R&D and Tooling, the government was to blame for not helping and restricting exports licences , And to Boot the British Government Gave more Tax payer money to the japanese Government, and there Industry after the ww2 and then sit back and did nothing to help the british industry, after ww2 they had to struggle the best way they could , and by then the hole British industry was worn out, after the world war 2 just like the railways and from then on this government has not done much since, it private investors that had to get thing going again , this is why the british work force has been had aways up , just take Swindon railway works , the workforce Did every thing aksed of it, only to end up being closed down by the Government, WHY, its was making a profit, Just look around you and see how the Government has closed down Britain ! Yours Anna J