Gathering of the Norton's 2014 - 2

As promised here's some of the other bikes present at the Gathering of the Nortons at Washington Crossing Park in Pennsylvania.

A beautiful MV Agusta F3 800 with a Ferracci Carbon Fiber slip-on.   Lists on Ferracci website for $1180.
These F3's sound awesome and the Ferracci makes it even meaner.

The Triumph X-75 Hurricane was a 'factory special' motorcycle designed by fairing specialist Craig Vetter. It was ultimately released as a Triumph model in 1973.

There was a time when I was younger that all I wanted was the Kawasaki Z1 but I was too young and couldn't afford one.   The Kawasaki Z1 was a motorcycle introduced in 1972 by Kawasaki. The Z1, along with Honda's CB750 from 1969, introduced the four-cylinder, across the frame, disc-braked layout to a wider public.   The bike was also known as Kawasaki 900 Super Four

The Honda CBX was introduced in 1978 as the first production Honda motorcycle with an inline six-cylinder engine.  The twin-cam 24-valve engine produced 105 bhp and sounded amazing.

This is a custom motorcycle with a Yamaha 750 twin engine

The Kawasaki ZRX1100 (nicknamed the Rex in the UK and the Z-Rex in the US).  I would love to have a Kawasaki ZRX1100 or the later 1200 with this green color

The MV Agusta was the motorcycle upon which Giacomo Agostini, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read won 17 world MotoGP (then 500cc) riders championships

A beautiful Triumph motorcycle, love the exhaust and the paint job

A 4-cylinder in-line engine Indian motorcycle.  In 1940 the Indian 440 cost $1000 while a typical Chevrolet car cost about $700

A little Honda 300cc in immaculate condition

There was a time I was seriously considering buying the Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 NTX before Yamaha announced the Super Tenere was coming to the USA.  This is a beautiful motorcycle.

Not sure what motorcycle this is.  I have asked people on my Google Plus circles and no one could tell me what makes it is.  I loved the helmet.

There were lots more motorcycles at the show.  It seems the show keeps getting bigger which is great for any motorcycle motorhead.

Gathering of the Norton's 2014

Spring is upon us and once again we start the riding season with a great event.  Every year the Delaware Valley Norton Riders organization hosts the annual "Gathering of the Nortons" event at the Washington Crossing Historic Park.  This year's event was the 21st and as usual it was a great event with lots of Norton's on display as well as an assortment of other British, American and Japanese motorcycles.
I rode in with the Monmouth County Kruizers group and later left with the RAT group (Riders Association of Triumph), my usual riding buddies.

As usual, I took lots of photos and obviously had to take a photo of my pride and joy, my amazing Yamaha Super Ténéré.

A beautiful Harley Davidson

The Norton Commando is a British motorcycle with an OHV parallel-twin engine, launched by the Norton Motorcycle company in 1967.   Initially a 750cc displacement but in 1973 it became an 850cc.

There were probably over 50 Norton Commando's on display. The event is always a great get together of Norton's.

Besides Norton's there were quite a few other motorcycles, some well known others not so much.  I had never heard of the Condor A350, a Swiss military motorcycle.
Condor

Two British Matchless motorcycles still in good shape.
Matchless

The Norton Commando VR880 was built by Kenny Dreer in the late 90's.  The VR880 is basically a ground-up rebuild of an old bike using many modern improvements and a bored-out motor.

I will post photos of other motorcycles on a later post.

Gathering of the Nortons

Last year I promised my dad I would take him to Washington State Park for the "Gathering of the Nortons" and then something came up and we missed the show. This time I made sure we didn't miss it.
The 18th Gathering of the Nortons was held at Washington Crossing Historic Park April 17 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  I decided to go with the family instead of riding my bike.  The five of us got on the cage at 9am and headed to the Brass Ring Cafe in Hopewell for breakfast, my brother, on his bike, meeting us there.  I didn't take any pictures but next time I go there I will take pictures as the place is a big hangout place with the bikers on Sunday mornings.  After breakfast we headed straight to the park arriving a few minutes later to see the place packed with Nortons, Triumphs, Vincents, BSA's,  Royal Enfield's and a plethora of Japanese motorcycles.

My dad had a BSA before he got married and all my life I have heard great stories of his rides with friends.  He talks about how great the bikes were back then and how most were single cylinder with the occasional dual cylinders. His BSA was a single and he was all happy when we saw this beautiful BSA.

My dad at 76 is in great shape and remembers all the adventures and road trips he did with his buddies.  BSA's, Norton's and Triumphs all screaming down the road with open pipes he recalls.   Sometimes I think they had more fun with these much simpler bikes than we do today with full fairings, panniers, electric starters, fuel injection, ABS, GPS, satellite radio, IPod and all kinds of technology that detract from enjoying the sounds and scenery of the ride.

Obviously, there were quite a few Nortons at the event, some still in original form, others converted to Cafe Racers.

A Cafe Racer Royal Enfield and a beautiful Triumph Bonneville

A Suzuki RG500 Walter Wolf 2-stroke spewing out blue smoke as all 2-strokes do and a Honda NS400R.  Unfortunately they were surrounded by bikers and I couldn't take a good picture.

Next we see this Triumph contraption, I think it's a custom bike and only the engine is from Triumph

There were quite a few Japanese bikes at the event, 2, 3 and 4 cylinders, 2 and 4-stroke engines.  Some of the nicer examples on display.

As the bikers started leaving, I took a walk to the edge of the main road and took a few pictures as they accelerated out the park, engines screaming and revving to the red line.  The first three pictures will shock my international readers as Pennsylvania has a no helmet needed law if you are over 21 and have operated a motorcycle for at least 2 years.

A Triumph Daytona 955 and a Honda CBX

This beautiful automobile rolls by, not sure what it is but it was well maintained and sounded nice.

Some old timers enjoying the day and the ride, white beard flowing in the wind.

The beautiful Norton John Player Special, air cooled, four stroke, parallel twin cylinder, push rod 2 valves per cylinder.

It was time to go home, but first we walked to the edge of the Delaware River were I managed to convince my beautiful daughter to pose for me.  In the background is one of the bridges crossing into New Jersey and close by is a replica of one of George Washington's boats used to cross the river on December 25, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War.  It was the first move in a planned surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey.  Wikipedia