Norton Festival

I'll be going down early Thursday morning as well Chris. Just got the new luggage sorted on the 961 and I'll be going M54, M6, M5. I'll keep an eye out. There are also a few others from the Shropshire branch going down on their bikes, but they are making their own arrangments. Should be a good one

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

The biggest Norton event in 5 years and not a mention of anybody riding down to it?

I'll be setting off from the North West down the M6 early on Thursday morning, followed by the M5 later. Is there going to be anyone else to keep my eye out for, or do I just count the trailers?

There will be 8 of us from the Kent branch travelling from Wrotham Heath 7am Friday .Going along the M25/M3/A303.Looks like rain on the way.

I'm planning on going south from Shrewsbury, Hereford,Monmouth, Chepstow, M4 M5 etc. midday Friday. (work, curse of the drinking class) Can't go motorway all the way Paul, that's not what 961s are designed for.

Previously david_evans wrote:

I'm planning on going south from Shrewsbury, Hereford,Monmouth, Chepstow, M4 M5 etc. midday Friday. (work, curse of the drinking class) Can't go motorway all the way Paul, that's not what 961s are designed for.

From Chepstow, you could swing across to Shepton Mallet, then down onto the A303 to Exeter, to avoid motorways altogether. That is the route, in reverse, some of us members of the Tamar Valley branch will be taking, to get to Heysham for the IoM ferry next month. We will be on old bikes, though!

See you at the Festival. We are going tomorrow from Cornwall; not far....

Ian

I will be riding down from Manchester very early Thursday morning via a westerly A and B road route. A slow journeyas I will be on my 16H and still running in the barrel and piston.10 to 12 hours I quess,should arrive by teatime. I will look out for other speeding passed me.............

I'm afraid I have to admit I will be coming to this one in the van. Having seen Nicholas is going from Manchester on a 16H I have no excuse.

We'll be there tomorrow afternoon sometime, I look forward to putting some faces to names.

Andy

yep i'll be riding dowm from harlow essex about mid day thursday M25/M3/A303 cheers Nick

Afraid i'm coming by van as well - bringing two bikes, an old one for the display, and a new one to play with . .

Leaving south west Wales around mid-day, will keep an eye out.

Roger

we are coming with car and trailer excuse is want to bring manx should be there thursday evening

regards roger

I will be taking my bike in a van. My excuse is,,,, not many people would feel like riding a rigid single 250 miles after enduring the medical treatment that Iv had

I have the sheer luxury of riding a nearly new (1977) commando down the A303 route starting Friday lunchtime without taking any luggage ! My darling wife is taking the car down the Friday morning and meeting me at the B&B. She is picking up Stan Dibben along the way.

See you there.

Regards

Tony

p.s. The commando is now 'naked' as the fairing has been removed after being on the bike since 1978. It's windy out there isn't it !

Let's have a prize for the best Van/trailer. Still reckon Rotaries will outnumber 961s. Most of the 961s are appearing on ebay for sale.

How will we recognise you now Tony amongst the sea of silverInterstates, at least it doesn't look like a crashed ambulance anymore.

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

From the Norton Festival early on Friday morning .............

A large number of people have arrived early and the camping field is already fairly full. A good number of Nortons too, many of them that I have not seen for quite a while.

Yes, there are several 961s here, perhaps half a dozen, including Dom's Domiracer but at the moment, it is rotaries that in greater numbers. I could go over and do an accurate count, but unfortunately it's just started to rain again. There's at least a Commander or two, Graham's Supreme Commander, Billy's rather modified air-cooled, an RAF/Police air-cooled and an F1. I reckon maybe 9 in total so far.

Hi Chris, that's good to hear, I am intending coming tomorrow just for the day on my 961 it's a round trip of about 450 miles from Buckingham.

I don't expect we will see any Manxman's though!

John Mc

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

From the Norton Festival early on Friday morning .............

A large number of people have arrived early and the camping field is already fairly full. A good number of Nortons too, many of them that I have not seen for quite a while.

Yes, there are several 961s here, perhaps half a dozen, including Dom's Domiracer but at the moment, it is rotaries that in greater numbers. I could go over and do an accurate count, but unfortunately it's just started to rain again. There's at least a Commander or two, Graham's Supreme Commander, Billy's rather modified air-cooled, an RAF/Police air-cooled and an F1. I reckon maybe 9 in total so far.

Hi Chris, that's good to hear, I am intending coming tomorrow just for the day on my 961 it's a round trip of about 450 miles from Buckingham.

I don't expect we will see any Manxman's though!

John Mc

You can safely say that My Manxman will not be there as I not well for one and I cannot afford to get there for another , so me and my manxman are grounded for now, we see what the future says yours anna j

Previously anna jeannette Dixon wrote:

Previously John McNicoll wrote:

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

From the Norton Festival early on Friday morning .............

A large number of people have arrived early and the camping field is already fairly full. A good number of Nortons too, many of them that I have not seen for quite a while.

Yes, there are several 961s here, perhaps half a dozen, including Dom's Domiracer but at the moment, it is rotaries that in greater numbers. I could go over and do an accurate count, but unfortunately it's just started to rain again. There's at least a Commander or two, Graham's Supreme Commander, Billy's rather modified air-cooled, an RAF/Police air-cooled and an F1. I reckon maybe 9 in total so far.

Hi Chris, that's good to hear, I am intending coming tomorrow just for the day on my 961 it's a round trip of about 450 miles from Buckingham.

I don't expect we will see any Manxman's though!

John Mc

You can safely say that My Manxman will not be there as I not well for one and I cannot afford to get there for another , so me and my manxman are grounded for now, we see what the future says yours anna j

Sorry to hear that, get well soon.

John Mc

This was the first NOC rally/event Iâve been on. Itâs also the first time Iâve ever camped on a rally, all others being based in B&Bâs or hotels. And on Friday I was starting to think Iâd regret that, it was wet and miserable all day. But we rode over to Ianâs collection of bikes, then onto the Battery museum and back to the campsite via Brixham harbour and the fish and chip shop. Weâd only done about 10 miles all day and that was enough, Iâd also been using my ES2 that Iâd finished putting back together the day before we left and hadnât had chance to ride anywhere, fortunately it was all OK so I didnât have to do any roadside repairs in the rain! Once I got back I had a shower and headed for the beer tent and that made it all seem a lot better!

Saturday the weather was a lot better, I rode out over the moors on my Inter while my parents went on the steam train and boat trip (which they thoroughly enjoyed), the bike went brilliantly and the views where fantastic, I didnât do a poker run as Iâd left my roller route at home, so decided instead of delaying the inevitable Iâd just head out, get lost and see what I found. The riding was brilliant and I got back in time to do a hill climb in Brixham, I followed the Domiracer and a Manx up the hill and as we all went between the houses the noise was incredible. The people of Brixham where lined up to watch and that was a great evening, possibly the highlight of the weekend. Another evening in the beer tent finished of the second day.

Sunday was just a show really. We had a walk round the steam fair and a look at the bikes, another good day capped off by my ES2 getting best OHV in the prize giving. We then decided to head for home last night instead of waiting until today as we hoped the traffic would be better, we got a god run home (in the van Iâm afraid) and arrived just after midnight, very tired and sunburned but having has a great weekend at our first (and not our last) NOC event.

Excellent weekend and very well organised, only real downer for us was the rain, but no-one can be blamed for that, the organisation was excellent throughout!

Was good to finally put some faces to names and see you all next year if not before.

Andy

It was an exellent weekend despite the weather enjoyed doing the hill climb and the real ale steam engines etc unfortunately on my way home along the A303 next to stonehenge a van in front of me did an emergency stop because the car in front of him braked hard to take photos of stonehenge!! and i hit the back of the van ,obviously it was my fault because i hit the van from behind but the van driver appologised to me to me for slamming his brakes on! i have wrecked the front mudguard/handlebar fairing/indicator /scraped my brand new stainless exhausts but worst of all the accident ripped off the points cover and has broken my lucas rita pickup, all i got was a few cuts and bruises so i was lucky!! cheers nick

Not good news.........will your insurance cover the damage???

Al Read and I followed the same route as you but a few hours earlier. He was in front of me by about 15ft and we were following other traffic at about 50mph. Just a few miles short of Yeovilton, a Toyota Overlander overtook me, well over the double white line section and also going up a hill. The driver then had to cut sharply in on me as another vehicle came down the hill. This manouvere was then repeated on Al causing us both to brake sharply. The b*********d then followed the traffic in front for just a mile before turning off to the left.

there was no damage to the van and the driver wasnt worried so that was ok ,and today i had the engine running with a spare timing cover ,the lucas rita pickup wasnt damaged it was just knocked too far away to trigger the amplifier and one of the back plates adjuster bolts sheared off and the other bent ,just need to replace the front mudguard and remove the fairing get a new indicator and i can ride it again i dont want to go through insurance and have the bike off the road for ages! apparently along that stretch of road there are regular crashes due to people gawping at stonehenge! cheers nick

Previously anna jeannette Dixon wrote:

Previously John McNicoll wrote:

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

From the Norton Festival early on Friday morning .............

A large number of people have arrived early and the camping field is already fairly full. A good number of Nortons too, many of them that I have not seen for quite a while.

Yes, there are several 961s here, perhaps half a dozen, including Dom's Domiracer but at the moment, it is rotaries that in greater numbers. I could go over and do an accurate count, but unfortunately it's just started to rain again. There's at least a Commander or two, Graham's Supreme Commander, Billy's rather modified air-cooled, an RAF/Police air-cooled and an F1. I reckon maybe 9 in total so far.

Hi Chris, that's good to hear, I am intending coming tomorrow just for the day on my 961 it's a round trip of about 450 miles from Buckingham.

I don't expect we will see any Manxman's though!

John Mc

You can safely say that My Manxman will not be there as I not well for one and I cannot afford to get there for another , so me and my manxman are grounded for now, we see what the future says yours anna j

sorry to hear that hope you get better soon regards nick

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

The biggest Norton event in 5 years and not a mention of anybody riding down to it?

I'll be setting off from the North West down the M6 early on Thursday morning, followed by the M5 later. Is there going to be anyone else to keep my eye out for, or do I just count the trailers?

Ther were quite a few nortons on trailers on the way to the festival i assume they were all broken down!!!!!! cheers nick

Previously anna jeannette Dixon wrote:

Previously John McNicoll wrote:

Previously Chris Grimmett wrote:

From the Norton Festival early on Friday morning .............

A large number of people have arrived early and the camping field is already fairly full. A good number of Nortons too, many of them that I have not seen for quite a while.

Yes, there are several 961s here, perhaps half a dozen, including Dom's Domiracer but at the moment, it is rotaries that in greater numbers. I could go over and do an accurate count, but unfortunately it's just started to rain again. There's at least a Commander or two, Graham's Supreme Commander, Billy's rather modified air-cooled, an RAF/Police air-cooled and an F1. I reckon maybe 9 in total so far.

Hi Chris, that's good to hear, I am intending coming tomorrow just for the day on my 961 it's a round trip of about 450 miles from Buckingham.

I don't expect we will see any Manxman's though!

John Mc

You can safely say that My Manxman will not be there as I not well for one and I cannot afford to get there for another , so me and my manxman are grounded for now, we see what the future says yours anna j

Sorry to hear that, get well soon.

John Mc

Thanks for this but soon it will be the end of the road for me , but I do hope the old Manxman will roll on , with someone else on this back ,

Just wanted to express how wonderful we thought the event was. Absolutely fab a running it in conjunction with the Torbay steam fair was a really good idea as lots of non Norton people were introduced to the marque and lots of enthusiastic noccers.well done Devon branch it was a triumph (sorry about that! ) obviously huge amounts of work were done.it was my Commandos first proper ride out since a total rebuild and was a truly magical day for me my wife and the bike (which ran faultlessly ) the sound of which made me 17 again.thanks to all who made this event possible.Gary

Hi AllJust a short note to say that it was good to see so many other 961 owners at last weekend's festival.

Hi Lee - I had a great time at Brixham trading stories with friends old & new - sorry I didn't get to chat with you but you can't get round everyone with such numbers present. The highlight had to be the TT bike roaring along Brixham harbour front - certainly must have rattled a few sets of teeth. Off to Bremen & Flanders on the 850 while the 961 has a rest - hope to catch up with you on a future meet.

After months of eager anticipation I have to admit a class one fail in attending the Devon event. Several events conspired against me not least of which is a persistent loss of power on the IP2 after cleaning the carbs in anticipation of a good run out. It was loaded up to the gunnels with camping kit but en-route to work I committed to an overtaking manoeuvre that turned my knees to jelly when the old girl refused to gird up her loins. So after winding up the opposition (961 owners) I have to admit defeat...............................But I'll be back