Roadholder 370 - October 2018

17 Your Letters Email: roadholder@nortonownersclub.org or write to: The Editor, 38 St Andrews Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 7EX Please write clearly! turned out to be well worth it. First I was able to collar hold of Jim for a whole half hour with no interruptions. To say that he looks and sounds good for his age is a massive understatement. It was also wonderful to be able to chat to the Norvil staff and share some of their knowledge and expertise. There was a bargain basement autojumble on site with loads of quality gear at give-away prices. It was also really great to finally meet up with the legendary Pete Lovell, who clearly knew more about my special engine project and me than I did. For me, the only disappointment of The Norvil Experience A big thank you to everyone who helped to run the July Norvil Open Day. The warm welcome and sunny weather all combined to make my long trip up north so worthwhile. This was only my third visit to Norvil in 40 years. However,I did have three good reasons for this visit: a) to collect £290 worth of spares ... the postage for that lot would have been around £30 so the trip paid for itself, b) to see what was going on. The Shenstone Branch had organised half of the event and given it lots of publicity, c) to try and catch some time with the guest of honour ... none other than the legendary 'Uncle' Jim Reynolds. Well the long ride up there and back the big day was the lack of Norton bikes on parade. I think the photos show around 20 or slightly fewer. I foolishly expected to have difficulty parking, bearing in mind the number of NOC branches within an hour's ride. However, I would say that twice as many people turned up in cars, probably to view the bikes on show, see the Norvil workshops and do some serious spending. The queue at the spares counter was quite long for many hours. Much as I enjoyed the day, the 355 mile ride on my Norton 650 Café Racer absolutely wiped me out for the next week. Several people, where I work, mentioned that I looked tired. Exhausted would probably have been more appropriate. I think old age and using clip-ons has finally caught up with me. The good news is that my RGM belt drive conversion has now clocked up 850 miles in total and is absolutely fine. At the Norvil event Les nagged me terribly about not buying one of his 'new -fit in just 10 minutes' conversions. I asked him to lend me one to try out on a long term test but was told not to 'push my luck'. Phil Hannam