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Racing 2014
Barber Motorsports Park in October is the pinnacle of any classic motorcyclist's schedule and the highlight of the US vintage racing calendar, but in turn feels a little bittersweet, simply because it punctuates the end of each racing season. The event itself is huge, with 65,000 spectators visiting over the weekend, each year growing more and more. And just when you think it can't get bigger, it does. NYC Norton's representation has also expanded over the years and this year we had 11 bikes under the NYC Norton canopy. And with all that's going on, we rarely get a chance to leave our compound and see all the sights. It's a black hole of laughing, swearing, and sweating. This year was no different. And the intensity that Barber brings started in the shop right after we got home from Miller. Three NYC Norton G50s up on the lifts getting [...]
Racing 2014
Charging down Thunder Alley at Road America at top speed has to be one of the greatest experiences one can ever have on a motorcycle. Doing it on a revving British Single or Twin is even better. This 4.05 mile long course has everything for the bikes the NYC Norton team races – very fast sections, some wavy twisties, and tight little moments. It is without question a top-3 favorite track for all of us. We loaded up the Sprinter and began the drive to the land of cheese curds and brats - Wisconsin! Road America, Elkart Lake, WI, June 06, 2014: This year we brought 4 bikes – Helmut’s G50, Kenny’s G50, Jon’s Atlas, and Magyar’s NRE (again, Kenny riding the NRE on loan while new pistons were being manufactured for his Seeley Norton). Kenny was to run the NRE in Formula 750 and his G50 in 500 Premier. [...]
Racing 2014
Over the last few years NYC Norton has grown quite a bit as a thriving business rebuilding classics and a successful racing team. In 2013 we completed a Seeley G50 build for our client Helmut Niederer and delivered it to him at Barber. Knowing little about Helmut's racing skills (other than rumors he'd taken Kevin Schwantz's racing school at least 30 times), our mission for the weekend was simply to help him get started with his new possession. By the end of the Barber event Helmut's lap times put him within the top 5 riders of the 500 Premier class. We were pleasantly surprised and knew we had a good one here. After Kenny returned from his sojourn to Australia in January, a meeting was held and the 2014 season became perfectly clear - Jon Thorndike, Helmut, and Kenny would do all 10 rounds of AHRMA in the US. [...]
Racing Update
For many years, we've been carrying our racing bikes to the track in a small but very efficient 1999 T4 Volkswagen Eurovan. It served us well and was absorbed into the NYC Norton business as a lithe big-city bike hauler. But the transmissions in these vans are notoriously fragile, and the need to carry more bikes and sometimes tow a trailer was upon us. After much laboring, bean-counting, talking to car dealers, accountants, and shrinks, the business took the plunge and we bought a new Sprinter to carry bikes - race bikes and customer bikes - with reliability. Our maiden voyage would be the beloved Midwest excursion to Road America in Wisconsin, with the week off spent up in Northern Michigan with friends at the wonderful cottage in belonging to John and Jan Ellis, then off to Grattan the following weekend. There had been many test fittings of bikes in [...]
Racing Update
The 2013 racing season got off to a later start than usual, due mainly to work commitments that took precedence over the first two AHRMA rounds happening at New Orleans and Talladega in early Spring. So, when the opportunity arose to ride my old friend Ron Halem's Goldstar out in Sonoma in May, I jumped at the chance. I'd never been to Sonoma and it seemed like a long way to go for a single race weekend, but the chance to race at such a place up in beautiful Northern Cali was too much to pass up. Ron's bike was immaculately prepared, as per usual. The last time the bike had been out was with me on board at Miller in September 2012l, and I'd really shagged the Dunlops that weekend, so we put on some new tires and had at it. This bike has seen a lot of development [...]