But will it do 140mph?

http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com/product.html

 

Who knows, but as there have been so many promises of the Norton being
produced again the idea no longer gets me excited. Especially when
some thieving git managed to sell numerous amounts of tickets for the
Norton FII that never was and ran off with the money.

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

I don't care if it will or not [1], it's bloody gorgeous.

[1] It wouldn't really make much difference to me if it it did do 140, cos
I'm slow anyway.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)
M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R
BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

On http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com/order952.html it says:

"We are proud to offer the first new Nortons for sale since 1976."

That's not right, is it?

 

Ben Blaney says...

Not entirely. Norton did sell the rotary engined bikes in the late
80s/early 90s, but they weren't a roaring success. Dreer seems to have
glossed over that period in Norton's history, but that's something Yanks
do as a matter of course when it suits them.

 

Except on the track, of course.

 

SteveH says...

On the track they were excellent. I saw Nation/Spray on them at the Race
of Aces at Snetterton in 1989 and was blown away by how fast they
accelerated out of the Bombhole and through Coram, scraping the exhaust
mount all the way. I doubt they sold one road bike for every race win
they had though, which is pretty fucking sad really.

 

Indeed. It was mostly down to that venturi exhaust on the racers, which
was *incredibly* loud (remember the flames shooting from it?). The road
bikes couldn't use it and were thus emasculated.

 

SteveH says...

And mine. I lusted after an F1 when they were on general sale back then.
I reckon there must be a few unridden ones sitting about in private
collections around the world that will eventually come up for sale at
some point.

 

Champ says...

But it was a lovely looking bike, nothing like the racer but lovely in
its own right. I'd want that sound the racer made though.

 

They say delivery between June - Deecmber 2004

So , any one know someone with one ?

 

I don't know if I should be offended by this....

 

Hmmmmm. Looks nice.

<gets out chrissie present wish list>

New socks
tangerines
952 Norton
Box of choccies

 

SteveH says...

It came from Bonwick, when have you ever known him be nice to anyone?

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

Is the R1 an emasculated version of Yamahas FI bike?

I've ridden one of the rotary road bikes and it's a bit unfair to call
it emasculated. It still produced more torque than a steam turbine and
wailed up to 130 no problem at all.

The smart move was to put one of the later watercooled motors into one
of the earlier frames with the Marzocchi forks and Brembo brakes. Much
better than the FJ900 running gear used on the later over tourified
effort. I suspect that it was the mundane steering geom and weight of
the later model which made it feel 'emasculated' rather than the power
train.

 

Well in fairness the Commander was Basically a civvy Interplod II, so
it's not surprising it looked a bit similar to military designed bikes
like the Guzzi and BMW.

Like I said, the earlier Aircooled frame was the poor mans route to a
sportier version. Various tailpods etc could be poached of other bikes
to suit the owners taste.

If you ever find an F1, I'd be interested in part owning it though. I'm
on good terms with Graham at Startrights in Leeds who are the main
people for rotary stuff these days. I'll ask if he knows of any.

 

I'm pretty sure you're talking about a different bike to the rest of us.

We're talking about this one:
http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike Directories/Norton Bikes/images/No
rton%20F1_jpg.jpg

What do you have in mind?

 

SteveH says...

That's the F1, the version I want.

 

Aye. They _still_ look good even all this time later.

 

(SteveH) wrote in

OK, I thought we were talking about several models of the rotary here.

When I mentioned the poor mans sportier version, this is what I had in
mind, but with the later 95 horse motor:

http://www.morini-riders-club.com/photos/cadwell/2003/DSC00024.JPG

Very different to the F1 I agree.

By the way of a good popup fact:

The British Motorcycle Land Speed Record was set at 191.89 mph in 1991
using a Norton rotary engine.

http://www.monito.com/wankel/motorcycles.html