Norton News 201A - Flipbook - Page 34
again, this time l took great care cleaning and lightly emery
clothing the tapers, when l was happy with the timing l also
lightly smeared the tapers with bearing 昀椀t glue, I had to stop
using my strobe light, the damn thing wasn't giving me the
correct setting, l very carefully static timed the engine and it
was spot on as far as running and power output, the strobe
light tuned it to the power of a slug, we also put total faith in
the timing mark on the genuine Taiwan Lucas rotors being in
the correct position, plus who knows if every outer chain case
degree plate was riveted in the correct position, l personally
knew people that worked on the shop 昀氀oor at Norton Villiers
in Wolverhampton, a lot of them had no pride in making a
great British motorcycle, that's another story.
A number of my friends are quite perturbed at my dislike
of Japanese motorcycles. It's amazing that it only takes a few
comments to upset people. For me personally the Japanese
biker crowd gave me such a hard time back in the early
1970's UK biker scene because l rode British bikes, that it
affects me even to this day, it amounted to mental torture and
probably PTSD
When l started riding in 1972 most bikes were still
British, the showrooms of bigger motorcycle shops still had
rows of gleaming Norton, Triumphs and BSA's, Japanese
bikes were mostly Honda's and Yamaha / Kawasaki / Suzuki
two strokes, the guys still wore black lewis leathers adorned
with arm patches and chrome enamel badges, everyone got
on with everyone else, Peter Williams won the 1973 TT on
the John Player Norton, life was good. By 1974 most people
were dumping their brit bikes and buying the latest Kawasaki
triples and Z1's, it was de昀椀nitely a turning point, even black
leather gave way to Kawasaki green and Honda red. The old
camaraderie splintered into loyalty groups, to ride British iron
became an object of ridicule, l could write paragraphs about
things that happened, l will spare you that, just know that it
was a horrible time. l still frequented the same meeting
places and was quite obviously becoming an outsider, l
remember coming out of a pub where the Japanese crowd
frequented and someone had urinated on my commando, it
became almost unbearable, l was 20 years old and had
become a pariah, l knew nothing else, l was a simple guy
Number 201
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Norton News
