Start of a new era

[Ian]

If you have the patience, read this article right to the end, then make your own judgement. I am with JH regarding the "Simon Skinner" scenario. I'm sure, knowing this forum that there will definitely be a wide of variety of views.

https://www.superbike.co.uk/article/john-russell-interim-ceo-of-norton-motorcycles

[Smithy]

Hmmm it seems to me as though he is a man who would use 47 words to greet you when a simple hello would do. I also think that when he'd finished you still wouldn't be clear on what he just said as most of it would be smoke and mirrors. Also in my opinion he would be just as happy selling toothpaste as he is selling Nortons.

OK so it seems some form of Norton may emerge but two things strike me. One this is yet another Indian backed company so expect quality issues. Two the possibility is they will concentrate on 'premium' products so expect high-priced show ponies. Either way I'm not hopeful of a great people's Norton comeback.

As I said once before just let these venerable old companies die with grace unless you can actually pull off a Triumph (pun untended).

Ian

[Moto63]

As I said once before just let these venerable old companies die with grace unless you can actually pull off a Triumph (pun untended).

Ian

Yes and quite an amusing pun it is too Ian 😁. Yes I have to agree with you on this one. Let them go gracefully and let the fantastic memories simply live on in ones head. If it does become Indian owened, it will simply be a name on a petrol tank. Very much like what BMW did with the “classic “ mini. The damn thing isn’t even small, so it’s a joke to call it a mini. It’s simply a name, one that they can keep on regurgitating simply to coin it in. Anyway rant over.
Cheers. Michael

[Richard]

Brand loyalty is a strange concept anyway.  What makes a Triumph a Triumph, rather than a Bloor?  What makes a Norton?  If its "built in Britain" then Triumph are in a strange place, and didn't the first Norton TT winner use a Peugeot engine?  British owned?  In terms of modern share international ownership that doesn't mean much any more, if it ever did.

Marketing baloney.

[Moto63]

British owned?  In terms of modern share international ownership that doesn't mean much any more, if it ever did.

Marketing baloney.

Hear, hear... 👍

[CrazyFrog]

I may have related this story before, but about 15 years ago I worked for Avery's, the weighing people. They were one of the oldest company's in the country, and had been family owned until about ten years before I joined. When the family sold out, Marconi bought them, and the a couple of years before I joined, marco I sold out and an American company called Weightronix bought the controlling interest. In actual fact, Weightronix were a much smaller company than Avery and they financed the deal through a loan from American banks. Shortly after I joined the American banks pulled out and Weightronix transferred the finance to British banks. I never did manage to work out if it was a British or American company after that....

[iansoady]

Like so many others - Bush, Goodmans etc in the radio / audio fields spring to mind. These days it's hard to find a true British company. And when you do it tends to be owned by a rabid Tory eg JCB........

[BrendanO]

While there's a general bemoaning if everybody except Triumph, lets remember that the inly thing Triumoh about THEM is the name on the tank. Bloor was very hardheaded, perhaps why it worked, not an engineer, stuck the namea d heritage on bikes more like Hondas than Meridens. I remember chatting to the Edinburgh Meriden dealer at the time, the fsmous Eddie Koski, who who was upset that people like him had kept the flag flying all these yesrs on ly to be betrayed as Bloor gave all the Hunkley Triumph dealerships to Honda dealers. Certsinly happened in Edinburgh.

Alternatively, (Indisn) Enfield made...... Enfields, until just now. With quality issues, but they learned fast.

And now, the Swiss watch that is the KTM390 is Indian-made.

I'm very pleased for Hinkley Triumph (i buy a few clothes from their outlet store when the 200 jackets are 70, or the 30 t shirts are 5). Their bikes seem pretty good.  So does the Enf Interceptor,  and deffo the KTM390 (only sat on one and left a damp patch on the seat).

And i had a T140 for -5 yrs. And a '59 slimline Triton.

[Richard]

I suppose that one thing we should be grateful for is that modern (Hinckley) Triumphs have so little in common with the Meriden models.  Rose tinted spectacles are one thing  but really .........

Of course Triumph were in Coventry before Meriden, before Hinckley and spent some time in Newton Abbot as well - so its not factory location that determines brand.

[BrendanO]

True about Factories - I remember folk looking down on me for having a Meriden (and even worse, an OIF one!!)

The Hinkley Triumphs do seem great; I just wish they did a smaller one. The Bonnies just look too big.

400 single? 500 twin?  Maybe soon the Triumph Ekectro?

[johnr]

i suppose anyone who has followed the whole norton debacle will have the same opinion as i do. that is, 'i'll believe it when i see it'.  talk is cheap and thats all they seem to be doing so far. lets see if they ever actually produce stuff first. i cant imagine too many folks will be putting deposits down against anything with norton on the tank, unless theyre gullable fools, id only be buying one if it was sat on the showroom floor behind me when i put my cash on the counter. lets see what happens eh!