Back On The Road Again

Finally an update! I just brought The Norton back to life this weekend after an extended winter hibernation. The bike performed great last year. I took it to the INOA rally at Mancos, CO and it performed brilliantly there, including a 238 mile loop in some of the worst weather I've ever encountered. The rider suffered on that ride, but The Norton never missed a beat. I rode so much down there I actually wore out the rear tire.

The bike is sporting some updates for this season, including a steel gas tank, that reconditioned oil pump I mentioned earlier, and a nice new set of wheels. The new hoops feature Borrani alloy rims, stainless spokes, and they were expertly built by Woody's Wheelworks. The rear is an 18 incher and I've got Avons on the bike now. They seem like good tires but I never really had any complaints with the K81s. The Avons do seem to track raingrooves a bit less than the K81s.

The new oil pump produces a bit better pressure when hot, but it's not a big difference. It will be interesting to see if it helps with the wetsumping. The bike was wetsumping pretty severely with the old pump. My 850 (I could write another blog about that bike, and probably should) has a pump that was reconditioned by Raber's, and it wetsumps a lot less than this bike.

The new look for The Norton is silver and black. The new tank is silver, and I'm using the same black sidepanels as before. I like it. Looks very elegant.