Nortons, Nortons, Nortons!!!

It's quite wonderful to wake up and know that you have less than fifty kilometres to drive until you get to the destination that you have been heading to for the past two days and 1100 kilometres.  Medford, Oregon is a quiet little town about 25 kilometres north of Ashland, OR.  After getting a coffee at Starbucks, we quickly got back to I-5 and were soon rolling south at 70 mph. 

A short distance out of Medford we passed a rider on a yellow Norton.  It was then that I got the distinct feeling that I was a 'pussy'.  Here's this guy riding his forty year-old bike on the Interstate while we were trucking our Nortons and sitting in air conditioned comfort.  It wasn't a good feeling, but after thinking of the weather over the past two days, the feeling quickly passed.

As we entered Ashland, OR, we exited I-5 after a day and half and about 800 kilometres to get on to a secondary highway.  Shortly after that the GPS indicated that we should turn left on 'Dead Indian Memorial Road'.  This is probably one of the most unusual names I have ever seen for any road. 

 

Very unusual road name



We carried on climbing and rounding innumerable turns before topping out at almost 5200 feet before dropping down to 4800 feet and arriving at Hyatt Lake Road.  As we approached the rally destination, I became 'giddy with anticipation' before finally arriving to the sight of several dozen Nortons of various ages and conditions.  At any time several of them were fired up and ready to head off on any number of rides through the mountains here.

Classic black & gold Commando

My bike's sister

Nortons, Nortons, everywhere!!



After checking in we drove around until we found out campsite and set up the tents.  The campground is a great place to camp.  The sites are large and at this altitude the temperature  doesn't seem to get above the high twenties while it is in the mid to high thirties in Ashland.  There are quite a few mature pine trees so the sun doesn't shine directly on our site during most of the day.

After getting set up we rode down to the main area.  Jim went for lunch while I attended the first tech session where two guys who knew just about everything about Nortons explained what could go wrong with them and how to fix the problems.  I won a voltmeter as a door prize.  I don't know how to use it but I'll learn.  I stayed for the second session and again won a voltmeter which I gave away to another guy.  He was really happy.  He said that he had already burned up two of them so I wondered if giving him another one was the best idea.

I met a guy from Las Vegas, NV, who had a bike identical to mine.  I checked out his engine number and found that it preceded mine by nineteen numbers.  The bikes were probably built on the same day.  Mine was sent to Canada while his ended up in Nevada.  We put the bikes side by side and took a few photos of the sister bikes which we finally reunited after more than forty years. 

Sisters, reunited after forty years.

Still looking good!

Side by side.



We rode back to our campsite only to find a fat chipmunk running around.  We gave him a few peanuts and very quickly he was running up my leg to grab a peanut from my knee.  Jim put two on his legs and the little guy ran up, grabbed one, sat and ate it then moved on to grab the other one.  After that he ran onto Jim's arm and sat on his hands looking for more.  He was a brazen little guy.

Looking for nuts.

At ease on Jim's knee

Getting really friendly now.

The chipmunk was pretty brazen

Love those nuts!



WE walked down to the main area to get dinner.  Across the road one guy has an early sixties Matchless which he trucks around in a 1967 Chevrolet pickup.  Both are vehicles he wanted as a kid and now he has them.  On the way down we met an Australian guy who had built a bike using a Hillman engine and Royal Enfield frame.  It was a one of a kind and Jim was really impressed.  The guy is a machinist so he built most of the bike himself. 





Early 60s Matchless

Home built Royal Enfield

Jim checking out the home built Royal Enfield

Hillman engine with radiator from a mini cut in half an placed on each side.



Many guys had ridden their bikes there and we saw a wide variety of Nortons including a 1950 ES2 which an old guy named Jerry was riding.  We chatted about GoPros and how to use them as he had a Hero3+ which he was using with a chest mount to record his rides.

 

There was quite a wait for dinner at the big tent and before I joined the line which was barely moving I met a guy from near Courtenay who was attending the rally as well.  Colin Kelly is, I would guess, a transplanted Irish guy who loves Nortons.  He is the Canadian representative on the International Norton Owners Association (INOA). 

 

 

Colin Kelly (l.) chatting with other Norton owners

 

In the last issue of the Norton Owners magazine he made a comment about feeling used by a guy in Campbell River who had stories in two motorcycle magazines about the Norton Racing Team bike he had.  I asked what the story was behind that comment and he said that the guy was passing himself off as a retired guy who was looking for an old Norton to fix up as a project.  His ad had been running on Craigslist for about four years and from time to time he buys one for dirt cheap from someone who thinks they're helping out an old guy.  He then has some work done on it so he can sell it.  Apparently the guy has no love of Nortons and he doesn't even ride.  He just grabs Nortons for cheap, bolts some pieces onto them, then sells them as the real deal.  And he has been using the magazines to give his 'Frankenbikes' legitimacy.  At present he is selling a Norton 'Race Team' bike for almost twenty-five thousand dollars although there is no proof that the bike actually was a team bike.  He is also selling a John Player Norton for more than sixteen thousand dollars.  Without the cosmetic stuff bolted onto them those bikes would probably sell in the eight to nine thousand dollar range.  The guy is running a bit of a scam, if I read Colin correctly, and the author of the piece on the 'team' bike heard what he had to say but didn't include it.  Anyway, as someone who loves the Norton marque, he is pretty steamed at how this guy is doing business.

 

We headed back after dinner but it was getting dark and we missed the turn to our site so we spent a good deal of time walking in the dark hoping to find out campsite.  We finally did and we wrapped up the day just after tem o'clock.  It didn't seem like a long day but we were both bagged so it seemed like a good time to finish up the day.

I have never seen so many Nortons in one place and it does my heart good to hear the sounds of 750 and 850 Commandos, Dominators, ES2s, and other models.  Our campsite is just below the road so when a group ride leaves the sound is really quite impressive.  This is great!  As we arrived we thought that we might be the guys with 'rat bikes', but there are a lot of bikes that don't run or look as good as ours.

Tomorrow a group ride is going out to Crater lake but I'm not sure that I want to do a ride of that distance (168 miles) on a forty year-old motorcycle with people that I don't know so I may just do a shorter self directed ride.  Anyway, Day One was amazing and Day 2 should be just as good.