A Happy Christmas and a dry and sunny New year to you all, and may all next years roads be dry, twisty and empty

Well that’s another year drawing to a close, 2009 is almost finished. A special Norton year as well with the club’s Golden Jubilee and the launch of the Commando again, as is normal at this time of year it’s a time to reflect on how the year has gone.

My motorcycling year started in early January with a rally, we camped and yes it was cold and yes it snowed overnight, February another two rallies, snow and lower than -6 Deg C was a feature of the first whilst the second nearer the end of February was an amazingly warm Zero degrees. I only share this with you guys, my friends, because if a sane person read it they would surely have me sectioned (sent to the lunatic asylum) Luckily there are enough of us doing this to keep us safe from government intervention and its not illegal (or against the interests of public safety) to camp in the winter.

I attended the most Excellent café racer meeting in Belgium in June on the last weekend of my motorcycle trip to Istanbul and then the week after joined the revellers at the BIG Norton party at Donnington which as I’ve already said was a huge disappointment. The Norton Rotary managed to seriously under perform and embarrass the name at the TT and I suppose now that Brian Crighton has left the new Norton setup, the “New” Rotary will end up being used for holidays to Bonneville salt flats as a plaything for its owner.

Our weekend at Applecross was excellent (naturally) and once again thanks to the people who attended and made it a success. I have been asked by several people to put something on again next year and I think we should, albeit a slightly lower key event in the expenses department.

The International in Austria was superbly organised and thanks must go again to Roland and his team for pulling out all the stops and making it so enjoyable. It was good to visit Wolf and Arno in their home country just so they could have the easy ride home, I did wonder if they would deviate from their normal Rally behaviour in their home country since they couldn’t claim the diplomatic immunity we all have when visiting each other. I’m pleased to report they stayed true to their calling and still managed to drink too much! Some of us also met “Danish John” for the first time, an interesting character who drove me mad for the first couple of days before I realised you need “mad” people to keep the scene alive. An eventful rally though for the Scots with David Templeman grenading his 750 Commando just outside Munich (although I now think it was orchestrated by agents from BMW who were worried about Norton taking over their high profile in the adventure touring market) And Davie Palmer fell asleep at 50mph for a laugh, just to give us something to talk about, but luckily wasn’t seriously hurt when he woke up hitting the crash barrier. Davie was telling me just a couple of weeks ago he is constructing a trailer to tow behind the Commando for next year. A sensible addition would be a sleep sensor built into the top of it which when its activated could send a big mechanical arm to give him a slap in the side of his head to keep him awake!

The Begonia Rally in August, always excellent was enjoyed once again and credit to all who make this such a friendly well run affair

Our end of season meeting was excellent despite the rain and flooding we had to navigate to get there.

Of course there have been other meetings and runs and I’m glad to say we are all still here to enjoy the next couple of week’s festivities.

We are very fortunate to be a part of this big Norton family,, and I often think it really is like a family, from embarrassing Cousins to drunken Uncles and slightly insane siblings (please feel free to choose your own category) But at the end of the day the camaraderie and friendship is true and more genuine than you will find in any other organisation

Enjoy your Holiday and see you next year……….somewhere

Norton Latest

The 961 SE is now sold out, all 200 of them so that’s good news. The UK bike show at the NEC last month showed what a dire state the trade is in when it was universally acknowledged that the Norton stand was the best and most exciting stand at the show. Stuart Garner MD of Norton was very pleased and reportedly sold another 50 of the cooking versions over the show period. That really is good news and I hope we see some in Spain next year. I hope they can get the production flowing smoothly and start churning the bikes out, I do like the design very much but still need to be convinced about the engine. There is a “first ride” Video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQqAVVptHc

This doesn’t inspire, the engine sounds like there’s something seriously wrong in there with more engine noise on the video than a old commando would ever have and ground clearance seems to be poor. However I hope this can all be sorted out and they do become a big success story in 2010.

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.

Gino Rondelli

December 2009