Newsletter
December 2008
Newsletter
December 2008
Merry
Christmas & A Happy and Prosperous 2009 to all our
readers
Well 2008
is drawing to a close, what a year that’s been, a roller coaster of bad news
and weather. I suppose 2008 will go down in history as the “year of the Credit
crunch” at least that’s taken peoples mind off the constant rain we had in most
of
It’s a funny thing, prices are dropping
everywhere, houses, goods in the shops and importantly for us petrol but if you
look at Commando prices (or Classic bike prices in general) then it would
appear there’s no shortage of money out there. Ebay
has a lot to answer for I suppose, although high Norton prices are good if your selling what does it do to encourage real motorcyclists
to break into Norton ownership. Think of the 20 – 30 year old who comes along
looking for an alternative to pocket rockets, dayglo
leathers and an almost certain ban or of the custom crew on their Harleys and
Harley look alike who are looking for an alternative to looking like a bunch of
gay’s.
They see the Norton scene, good people, great
bikes and great laughs and of course cool as F**k and decide they are
intelligent enough to make the transition from the dark side, they sell their
HD pile of cr*p or R1 and find they have to spend
even more to get a decent Norton will just return to the dark side.
The dark side!!!
What I
suspect is happening is people are buying these bikes as an investment, nothing
wrong with that you may say but Investments don’t get ridden, they don’t wear
out and they don’t need spares, that makes it difficult for those of us who do
ride them if we get to the stage where keeping engine parts becomes uneconomic
in future for the dealers.
My
prediction is that the Classic bike market will crash as well but like in the
80’s will lag the house crash by 3 – 4 years. Remember the last time we went
through this, people were buying investments, I heard £80K for an E type jag,
within 3 years the price was back down to under £20K. The good news for our
Euro cousins is the exchange rate, classic bikes in
the
2009 will
bring more doom for the civilians but for us it will be great, constant
sunshine, the Golden Jubilee of the mighty NOC, a surely sun baked
International in Austria and a heat wave at the Begonia and all of our Nortons
will run like clockwork. Have a great Christmas, a drunken New Year and let’s
look forward to another great year riding the best bike ever made in the
company of some of the best people in the world.
Woe is
me!
Following
last summers epic trip to several countries on the European continent old
faithful MVD wasn’t at all well. After a compression test revealed a distinct
lack of compression on one side I stripped the head off to find the head badly carbon’d up (only 5000 miles since it was spotless) A check of the
valves revealed the Right inlet was badly burnt around the seat so new valves
were ordered along with a new set of rings as I hadn’t been happy with oil
consumption on the trip. Now at this point I must point out that the barrels,
pistons, rings & cam followers came from EBay last winter, they were from a
low mileage (8000 miles was quoted) bike and everything looked good, so good in
fact that I bought the cam that went with the followers afterwards. When I
built the motor everything was checked and was in good condition, Alex provided
the second opinion. The first set of rings that were supplied from my usual
supplier looked a bit home made in the back streets of Mumbai so I ended up
going to Andover Norton direct for a set of GPN rings which were far better
looking and were a perfect fit when gapped in the barrels (so I just saved £4
on the original set and then had to buy the proper ones anyway!!. Valves ground
in, new rings and all was looking well, I had hoped to get it up and running
today (Tuesday) until I spotted one of the followers appeared to have picked
up! Closer inspection of the cam revealed the old favourite lobe 3 was losing
its profile as well.
So that’s it, 5000 miles and I have to take the motor apart
again to replace the cam. I suspect all of these tales of woe could have been
avoided if I’d listened to my own advice which I give out time and time again
“Don’t buy engine spares from EBAY!” “Only use GENUINE spares in your motor
& gearbox” Years ago long standing readers will remember I installed a
second hand cam in my JPN, I had to strip it immediately and replace it +
followers and I swore then never to try and cut corners! Excuse me while I go
and give myself a good kicking. On the positive side, head & barrels off in
an hour, engine out on the floor in 1 hour 20 minutes, that was the easy part!
Thanks to
all that made the end of season party such a success despite the Freezing
weather, cold rooms and cold food! I suspect we need to look at another venue
for next year
And finally
As part of next year’s Golden
Jubilee thing for the NOC we are proposing a camping weekend at Applecross as
our contribution to events. If we can discuss at the meeting and agree a date I
can get it added in to the programme.
The Small Print
The views and opinions contained within this
publication are not necessarily those of the NOC or of the branch but are
probably mine as I wrote it.
No one accepts any responsibility for
anything, if you have a good time don't say I didn't warn you.