Jim Reynolds has stepped up again to choose the Norton that he thought was the best at our open day.  He told me that it doesn't need to be the most polished, though a bit of shine does help catch the eye.  What he wants to see is a bike that is beautifully looked after but ridden and generally, ridden a lot!

This year he picked out the 1972, 750 Interstate ridden by Ian Ryder, who is a member of the local Norton Owners Club branch.

Ian told me that he has owned the bike since 1980 and had it rebuilt by the late Roy Horne in 2003.  He has ridden to France, Belgium and the Isle Of Man TT on it, as well as to Norvil of course.  Well done that man, a well deserved winner and thoroughly nice chap too.

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NORVIL OPEN DAY 2018

NORVIL OPEN DAY - REVIEW
So, we picked to hold our open day without checking the sporting calendar, I'll take ownership of that decision, my fault entirely!  Both the men's tennis final at Wimbledon and the football world cup final were both being held on the same day, both set to clash with our open day.  Well, it would appear that our open day was enough of a draw to bring quite a lot of you out for a visit anyway.  The weather was absolutely wonderful too which allowed loads of you to come and visit us by bike - what a bonus for us, as we love looking at your bikes.  It was great to see so many beautiful Norton's, as well as the huge array of other bikes too.  A big big thank-you to everyone who came, brought a bike, looked around, shared a story, had a cuppa or entered into one of our free competitions, it was great to see you all.  I've taken quite a few photos during the day and I will pick out some of my favourite ones and post them on this page soon.

After talking to some of you at the open day I was thinking, hands up all those of you that only own just one bike ? I'm betting that you are in the minority.  There's just something about bikes that makes us want to own more than one, whether it's one for every day, one for touring, one for the track, one to show, one to restore, we mostly all own more than one and long may it continue I say.  Just about everyone I spoke to who turned up on a non-Norton had a Norton at home, (most being restored).  I look forward to being sent photos of these beauties when they are done so I can share them.

New Bike, Old Bike,
British or Foreign,
We are all united on two wheels

CONCOURS COMPETITION WINNERS
Jim Reynolds came along to our open day and we asked him to pick a couple of winners from the selection of Nortons that had come along for our concours competition, here is what he picked:-

1st Prize - spanner set & trophy went to Robin for his 1995 750 Fastback.  Jim says, "I picked this bike as a brilliant example of a well used Norton that's clocked up 45000 miles in 13 years". 
This bike is well known to us here at Norvil, as we built it new for Robin in 1995.  Robin says, "I love my bike and I've been everywhere on it.  I love its styling and it's so smooth to ride.  I've added a few extra features too, to make it into a pretty good touring bike".

2nd Prize- spanner set went to Wayne for his 1972 750 Roadster.  Jim says, "this is a beautiful example of an original classic that's well cared for and such a striking colour too". 
I totally agree with him there.  Wayne is pretty enamoured with his bike too and says, "I like everything about my bike, it's fast and it's smooth, in fact, the faster you go the smoother it gets".  Many a true word there, Commando's do like to be unleashed onto the open road that's for sure.

GUESS THE WEIGHT OF THE CRANK COMPETITION
We had a huge range of guesses ranging from 3.5kg right up to 17kg.  Well, the exact weight of this crank was 10.2kg and the winner was Mark with a guess of 10kg.  Well done that man, a worthy win as there were around 20 others within 1kg either side of the correct weight. I hope the chocolates didn't end up as liquid with the heat on the way home!

GUESS THE NUMBER OF BALL BEARINGS IN THE JAR
Here we had guesses ranging from 598 right up to 2240. Well, there were 996 in total and the winner was John with a guess of 1000. I hope you shared your chocolates with your other half and didn't hog them all to yourself.  Enjoy!