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Old 29-01-2020, 09:07 PM   #1
uncle duke
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norton m/c's goes into administration

Oh dear wasn't expecting that.....
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Old 29-01-2020, 09:24 PM   #2
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Like a story from Roald Dahl's Tales of the Blatantly Obvious!

How do you feel about a career with Norton now Nathan?
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Old 29-01-2020, 11:52 PM   #3
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Is it real this time ?
There have been rumours before which amounted to nothing.
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Old 30-01-2020, 05:17 AM   #4
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It was inevitable ,, Stuart Garner has been out of his depth for a long time, poor managment lack of finance ,robbing Peter to pay Paul, over hyping and also pissing off engineers and investors and customers , OK he has passion for his baby but while The new Atlas may be a sound design, the 961 commandos have never been more than in development even whilst being produced in small quanities , they look fantastic but flawed ,, I test rode the Kenny Dreer prototype in California back in 2005 , kenny told me it was not production ready ,so when Garner took it over he never full completed production development and testing due to time and lack of resources and hubris .
I have ridden a 2013 961 ,, actually I would not buy one ,I would rather invest the money in a older Mk2 850 commando or a Fair spares new one ,,

i expect that the Norton name will continue as the Atlas range is a modern production ready design made in China ,, an investor will come forward and take it on ,, probably Chinese like Benelli and the new HD 400 model . Not sure about the 961 its never been a mature design but under a well resourced company it could be profitable niche model .

There is lots of info out there on Norton owners club and Biker Glory even MCN had some negative articles a few years ago ,, Garner fell out with most of his development engineers and Fritz Egli and most of his distributers in USA over flaws and spares faliures in the 961 ,, yes there are satisfied owners but ????/..........

Shanme as I love Nortons ,, but im sure it will rise again
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Old 30-01-2020, 08:41 AM   #5
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Bloody shame, the new Superlight looked fantastic, 100 people looking for new jobs and lots of customers losing deposits.

It was a £300k tax bill that took them over the edge, I wonder how much they spent chasing the TT recently?
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Old 30-01-2020, 09:50 AM   #6
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Maybe an unpopular opinion, but their TT exploits seemed to be a real red flag for a company like that. To spend SO much money, and coming from where exactly? Not from bike sales, that's for damn sure.
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Old 30-01-2020, 11:23 AM   #7
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they blew a £3m grant /loan from the government which was contingent of building a new factory and an apprentice scheme that failed .the money blown on racing and Garners 5 Star lifestyle did not help.
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Old 30-01-2020, 03:06 PM   #8
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The Telegraphs reports they made £33, 701 profit on sales of £6.7m to March 2018!
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Old 30-01-2020, 08:27 PM   #9
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Also p*ssed away several pension funds run by the owner...
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Old 31-01-2020, 03:14 AM   #10
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i have been following the Norton story for years but some of this is new to me ,, now its a poisoned chalice ,, will a buyer step forward to carry on the technology or is the brand dead????

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ny-and-scandal
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Old 31-01-2020, 10:43 AM   #11
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Having had, over the years, four 850 Commandos I was quite keen on the new Commando when it came out, and did think of getting one.

Like most people I wanted Norton to succeed, 1, because I'd like to see a British company do well and 2, it was good to see the marque revived.

Reading what was coming out in the press etc., especially early on, something didn't seem quite right, info and machines seemed to be vague and rushed. If you are putting a new product on the market it has to be nigh perfect, but!, there will be the odd fault like the gear lever linkage that was at such an angle that it was difficult to change gear, that should have been sorted at the development stage.

Their press releases were a bit haphazard as if they felt they just "had" to release something, just get something, anything out there. Take a look at the picture below, the bike indeed looks good, especially in the yellow, BUT, look at the front mudguard, it's attached to the standing part of the fork! , wheel moves up, fork stays where it is , no more mudguard!
What were they thinking releasing that as a press release picture?

It would have been great if they had succeeded, I wish they had, however in the automotive cut throat world, a 'new' manufacturer has to be nearly spot on with everything, from R&D to public relations, to succeed.
Like an earlier post stated, 100 have now lost their jobs and various other people have lost money they can ill afford, my sympathies lie with them.

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Old 31-01-2020, 11:44 AM   #12
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Maybe -Triumph will step in? rolleyes. It is a lovely looking bike. But even Bimota weren't that expensive by comparison.
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Old 01-02-2020, 01:35 PM   #13
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It's a shame that they didn't use Triumph's example of how to restart a business with modern techniques. As mentioned earlier chasing racing glory was an expensive disastrous mistake . China have recovered MG perhaps they will do the same for Norton.
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Old 02-02-2020, 01:43 PM   #14
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Qiangjing have done amazing things with Benelli production in China and design in Italy , now about to prduce 60,000 bikes a year ,,,,They could easy take on Norton the Atlas is made in China so it would be a relatively easy thing but The Norton legal situation is murky,,, Garner never had the big Bloor fortune and business nous that Triumph had, Garner was ever a chancer ...
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Old 02-02-2020, 05:47 PM   #15
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It was too costly even for watery eyed stalwart reminiscers compared with a Thruxton or other much better for that cash. Raiding the pension pot will see it/him go down big time ... no one will want that liability unless its a big organisation. The new Jawa looked really good but same story, later delivery, under developed and poor post release reports. The look very nice but dropping off the edge at moment.
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