Norton Mike

A couple of months ago I met a neighbor that has an older restoration Norton 850 Commando. We met after I rode my bike through his neighborhood loop, he's probably the only neighbor that doesn't secretly hate me since I got my Triumph. He also owns a couple of modern Japanese sport-touring bikes. He parked the Norton when he bought the first about 6 years ago. He stopped by several weeks ago and suggested I drop by his house to see the Norton. During that visit he mentioned that seeing my Triumph had inspired him to try to get the Commando running again. He also confided that his wife teases him about never seeing projects through and he didn't know how far he'd get. I told him I'd come by to bug him about the Norton if he didn't show up at my house on it in the next two weeks.

I finished up a nice long ride this afternoon and on the way home I remembered my threat. When I stopped by his house I suspect I caught him lounging on the couch watching TV. He seemed a little embarrassed that he hadn't gotten it running, shrugged and mentioned as far as he knew it only needed gas. I told him I had a gas can...

We fetched some gas, hooked the spark plug wires up and made sure it was getting oil. It started second kick! We put some air in the tires and took both bikes through the neighborhood and out around the Academy. It sounded great! Pretty damn good time.

Two more weeks and we are bound for the weekend bike meet-up at "Coffee at Dawn" in Cedar Crest. It may be a challenge to keep up, that thing is pretty quick.