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Author Topic: I thought some may enjoy the read  (Read 569 times)
mbramley
Member
*****
Posts: 358


Painesville Ohio


« on: July 30, 2020, 06:27:45 AM »

This is a article a friend of mine wrote. He had a picture with it and I will try to add it later.


My First Norton Ride
It was late summer 1974 when my dad asked me if I would take a ride with him to the locale car dealership where he had just purchased his Datsun pickup truck a few months earlier. I was still living at home at the time just graduated from high school the previous year. I was working full time as a welder. We pulled up into the parking lot of the dealership and then I saw it sitting in the front window. It was a red 850 Commando. I could not take my eyes off of it. It was like no other motorcycle I have ever seen. My dad went to the counter I went straight to the Commando. I had looked at other bikes before  but this was different in every way, nothing boxy about it, the engine It was sleek and rounded. All the polished aluminum shimmered in the light. It looked fast just sitting there. After a few minutes my dad and a sales person came over, my dad asked me what I thought about it and If I liked it. Yes could not come out of my mouth fast enough. Unfortunately the sales person told us that this one was sold but they one more in the back still in the factory crate. We went back to look at it, it was sitting there in the corner, you could barely see the bike because of the crating. I walked around the crated Norton and noticed that it was black with gold lettering. I fell in love with it. I told the sales person that it matched my 68 VW Beetle. Since I had no credit established my dad said he would cosign for me if needed. We finished the paperwork for the deal and the waiting started. The shop only had one Norton technician (who road a Norton himself) and he was backed up with other customers cars and that it would be a good 5-7 days before I could pick the Commando up. The waiting killed me but then the day came, the phone rang and it was ready for me to pick it up. I grabbed my helmet and a pair of sun glasses and off we went. We pulled in and went around back and there it was sitting on its side stand waiting to be road. The technician came out and introduced himself to me. Bruce was his name. (I got a lot of good information from him down the road and he even let me borrow some tools through the years). He started to show me where everything was on the bike lights hi/low, turn signals, horn, petcocks plus reserve, ticklers and all the other good stuff. He asked me what types of bikes I was use to riding, I told him mostly dirt bikes but was on a Honda 750 for a short ride. He then showed me where the shifter and rear brake was. He said that since I was use to riding other bikes this was real important and I understood what he meant. It was that time. Time to start it up. He went through the proceed and on the third kick he had it running. The sound, I could not believe that sound, like no other bike. He revved it a few times and then hit the red kill switch. Ok now it was my turn (ha ha), The first attempt to push down the kick starter I thought I was trying to kick a welded piece of steel. I was only 120 lbs. and he had at lease 30 lbs. on me and he made it look easy. The second time I got it to move but not enough to start it. He could see that it was going to take a more ass than I had but he had an idea. He put the bike on the center stand and showed me a little different way to kick it over. He got on the bike with both hands on the handle bars, left knee on the seat right foot on the kick starter. Arm’s locked head looking at his reflection in the gas tank. He lifted his full weight off his left side and came down hard on the kick starter the second time it started. I tried this technique and on the fifth try it started. A big smile cam to my face. He ask me to take it around the parking lot a few times before I set out to make sure I knew what I was doing since this was my first big bike. I did so and came back to the area that I started. He asked me to shut it off  and put it back up on the center stand. He wanted to adjust the idle speed. After doing so he killed the bike and told me to try and start it like he showed me this time third try and it was running. It was time for some wind therapy. I thanked everyone and told my dad that I wouldn’t be back to the house for a few hours so he wouldn’t worry. I wanted to ride the back roads so I would not hit a lot of traffic. It was great I could not believe the power the Commando had every gear made this bike go faster. I knew that I had to be careful and not let it go to my head. I was gone for a good 45 min. or so and decided that I should head back toward home. I was cruising along fine when I came upon a sharp corner up ahead with some gravel on and on the road. I was not going crazy fast but I was thinking about the gravel and what could happen. I started slowing down but knew I was never going to be going slow enough to make the corner without dumping the bike, And that was not an option. I noticed that right on the curve there was an open field with no ditch. I made the choice to ride into the field coasting to a stop. For me it was the best option. I was not going to crash my new bike on its maiden voyage or any other day after that. It scared the crap out of me but I coasted through the field and came to a stop. I was alive and the bike was in one piece. I probably sat there on the bike for 30 seconds after the fear subsided. I went to put the side stand down but could not. The Commando had been ridden down into the earth. I got off the bike and it just stood there, upright by itself. The ground was so soft that the wheels sank down into it as I came to a slow stop.  My heart was still pounding as I took my helmet off and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A sheriff’s car pulled off the road with his strobe lights flashing. Crap I said to myself not only did I almost wreck my bike but now I going to get my first  ticket. As he got closer he ask me (doing a little dirt bike riding?) then a smile came across his face. I explained what had just happened , he was just glad that nothing serious happened. I asked him if he could help me try to get the bike unstuck. It took us a while but we got it to the side of the road. We both had mud stuck on our boots and pants. I wish I had a camera back then to take a picture of the bike and us but no cell phones back then.  I finally got the bike started he walked back to his cruiser, I was waiting for him to come back with a ticket but he just road off. Luck was on my side that day. I started down the road and mud was flying everywhere. I could not go home with the bike looking like this so I stopped at a friend’s house and washed the mud off the bike and myself. I finally made it home with the bike looking clean again. I have never forgotten my first Norton ride, and I can laugh and talk about it now. I have ridden by that curve more than a hundred times since that first ride. It is nicely paved now and no gravel. The plowed field is now a soccer field. Ride safe.
Anonymous quote: (Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window)
Steve A Movrin
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Oldfishguy
Member
*****
Posts: 722


central Minnesota


« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2020, 07:01:03 AM »


Yes, Norton's are cool machines!  And the sound of one winding up . . . unmistakable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2qzeEypWJg
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0leman
Member
*****
Posts: 2296


Klamath Falls, Or


« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2020, 07:37:43 AM »

Back in the late 60's I was taking a day trip thru the Salt River Canyon in AZ. on my Honda 450.  I came around a curve to see in a pull out a young lad sitting beside his Norton.   He/it had been hit.  Though he came out of it with minor scratches, the Norton was toast.  He was waiting for assistance from his folks coming from Phoenix.  Waited with him for almost an hour.    Said part was he had just purchased the bike and was planning on week long ride. 
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2006 Shadow Spirit 1100 gone but not forgotten
1999 Valkryie  I/S  Green/Silver
hubcapsc
Member
*****
Posts: 16781


upstate

South Carolina


« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2020, 07:38:13 AM »

Norton 850 Commando  cooldude - my High School/College buddy
Rob Wilroy had one.

I used to start my open-class motocross bikes that way. The first time
I took my brand new Honda CR-480 to the track a faster rider
took me out on an "ant hill" (pronounced aint hill  Smiley )  and broke
my collar bone. My buddy Mark, who was there with me at the track,
tried to start my bike in tennis shoes and his shoe came off...

I crashed my brand new first bike (72 yamaha 100) twice before I
got a block from the house. I'm pretty sure, the second time, when
I hit Mark Petropollis' dog, I went over the handlebars...

-Mike
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The emperor has no clothes
Member
*****
Posts: 29945


« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2020, 08:01:04 AM »


I crashed my brand new first bike (72 yamaha 100) twice before I
got a block from the house. I'm pretty sure, the second time, when
I hit Mark Petropollis' dog, I went over the handlebars...

-Mike
Grin sorry to laugh at your story. I didn't go over the bars, but I wiped out on my Suzuki 90 once trying to kick the neighbors dog away.  Undecided
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mbramley
Member
*****
Posts: 358


Painesville Ohio


« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2020, 09:51:35 AM »

 The picture I need to add is of him with the Norton , he still has it and in great shape.
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Gizmo
Member
*****
Posts: 69


Ottawa Canada


« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2020, 10:13:23 AM »

My second bike in England was a Norton Atlas back about '69
I though I was "man" enough for it at 17. This thing had clip-ons, rear-sets and high compression. Flames would occasionally shoot out of the exhaust.
It lasted about a month until I sold it...was WAY too much for me and my shin was bruised to hell. I went over to a nice sedate 250 BSA and I think I'm alive today because of that decision. I think those were the days when we still weren't required to wear a helmet.
Wish I had it now.
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