Spares availability

Ollie Thiel at Thiel Motorsports has been good to deal with. www.thiel-motorsport.de He has much more than is listed on his website, worth emailing.

I did read on another forum that someone had very recently been able to order parts from TVS Norton.

TVS have a funny idea of what a spares service is, they are finally making parts for the TVS made 961's available but for pre TVS 961's there are no advice or guarantees on fit or function so all the risk is yours if you choose to buy and fit.  

Its normal practise for a good manufacturer to have a strategy in place to keep residual prices high so new owners feel they are buying a slowly depreciating product. Seems TVS have forgotten this lesson, more investment in spares availability for SG 961's and release of improved parts to fix known issues would help them sell more TVS 961's.

Last year sometime I'd emailed Norton TVS enquiring if they offer repair and service to Donington 961's. On 7th March this year received an email from Norton TVS (Service dept - Aftersales Administrator) updating status of the new company and with the following quotes

"... we have taken the difficult decision that we cannot sell any parts we haven't sourced , or tested , nor can we service, maintain or repair any bikes that we have not built. Unfortunately, this includes your motorcycle" , and further

"... we will sell parts that are fitted to our own Norton Commando Classic 961 only. For the reasons set out above we will not be able to guarantee that they will fit your bike, nor that they are suitable or fit for purpose on your motorcycle." Take this second quote to mean they'll sell parts to anybody who wants but no guarantee on serviceability.

Have been collecting info on where parts and tech.services can be had for Donington 961's - currently this lists Krazy Horse , Stuart Bodycote and now Ollie Thiel (see above). Ritchie Engineering also made some machined parts for Norton Donington. Oil Filter is a standard Bosch part no. P9147. Burnet and Hillman make the clutch casing drain plug and g/box level plug.

My own 961 Sport is an early Mk 1 bike , delivered late 2012 , twice factory serviced at Donington. It has been almost entirely troublefree with just a couple of failed relays plus some starting difficulties which were always battery related - either charging or replacing always fixed things.

Ollie is doing some great development work for the 961's....I dropped in on him a few weeks ago whilst I was in Germany. He's passionate about the platform, and this shows with the bits and bobs he was showing me. He seems confident that 961's will be fine for parts....the main issue Ive got is cost. Import duty is a killer. 

Got this from Ducati. It’s a Monster 600 lever I believe- but anyway, it’s the lever used on my 2020 Commando. £120 inc vat

I’ve found them to be very obliging when it comes to spares help. You have to acknowledge that you accept responsibility for their use and that they are not endorsing them being used on the previous Garner era motorcycles. Which I think is fair.   

The fact is the TVS bike is a more reliable (read better built) Commando 961. Everything on theirs should fit ours. I’m not afraid of riding mine and have done a couple of hard riding track days and multiple brisk Sunday rides with zero problems.   

Buy a Norton. 

A few months ago I sent out a "Help" email and was pointed in the direction of  Olli Theil and Stuart Bodicote. The gears on the clutch side had locked up with the help of 2 loosened bolts from starter ring. Major failure and great nashing of teeth, both mine and the Commando's. 

Spares obtained (Olli) and bike fettled perfectly (Stuart). Up , running and a Happy me.

Both guy's are brilliant,especially Stuart. Great depth of knowledge and nothing to much for him to do. He copes with all this and being a new dad.

Any problems with your 961 he's the man to contact.

Oh wow, cheers Brendan, only just spotted this...much appreciated!