Rotary owner from the American West

[utahnorton]

Greetings from the USA. I am lucky to own one of few (3 or 4 that I know of) Norton F1's in the US but it is even rarer still! It is one of the original 1989 pre-production prototypes #004 (documented). I have put a little over 20,000 miles on it-it had 7,000 miles on it when I picked it up in the UK. We have had several adventures on it. My first was riding it in London (first time riding left side) to stay with friends in Chelsea, then ride up to Shenstone for a go through at the factory and pick up some spares. A warm reception and overnight stay at some little pub up there (can't recall the name but the race team would stay there and there were F1 race posters and photos on the wall). A rather brisk ride with John Williams on his Classic-took me awhile to get used to the huge hedgerows and blind-spots. To the museum in Birminghamand back to London. Then a fast ride across the channel on a hovercraft to Calais and to Cologne to visit friends there.Then riding for hours on the autobahn to Heidleberg for hours at about 130 mph-smooth as silk-cars still passed me.The bike has been invited (I was just the rider) to the Famous Men and Motorcycle at Daytona where we both experiencedthe famous banks of Daytona Raceway. I thought it was going to just be parade laps until Dick Klamfoth blew by me on his Manx-couldn't have any of that! It has been on display a great many Norton Rallies and bike shows. At the Red Rock Rally in Torrey, Utah (just ouside of Capitol Reef National Park)) the former editor of CycleWorld-Dave Edwards and I swapped rides-he on the F1 and me on his original Kenny Dreer 880 Commando. I tooke it easy on his bike fearing a headline on the editorial page that I crashed the Editors rare Dreer Norton-Edwards on the other hand dissapeared on the F1 with no such concerns. I currently race a Commando in AHRMA in Formula 750 and BEARS. Lately though I am thinking it might be time to pass #004 on to another owner. Battled a rare form of the big "C" this past year-doing fine right now thank you and since I haven't had a chance to ride it in several years, it might be time to thin out the collection. I'm in no hurry and may take itto Las Vegas where no less than 4 motorcycle auctions including Bonham's will be held in January. If anyone knows anyonelooking-have them contact me.Cheers,Tom

[FloridaMike]

Tom,How the heck did you get this thing past the NTSB? "Exhibition only" category? (Or is US Customs still looking for you? )Some years ago I "federalized" a 1968 MB 280SL, got my "one free hit" on emissions but had to change/add a number of very minor things to comply with safety regs. A year later, NTSB decided I hadn't done so and told me to deliver the car to Jacksonville so they could crush it - fortunately I keep EVERY scrap of paper so I had all my documentation and was able to keep the car. The only differences between a Euro-spec 280SL and a US-spec 280SL were seat belts (which I would have put in anyway) and a Dymo label that said "lights" on the dash next to the light switch, yet they wanted to destroy the car for non-compliance. (I wound up exporting it, and let the Bahamas gov't worry about it - and they didn't care, so everyone was happy.)Best Regards,FloridaMike