Yesterday I’ve asked my father-in-law to have a look at the exhaust locking nut and balance pipe, too. Sure, he arrived at a respectable age, but even to find the right N° 10 wrench and figure out if he should turn it clockwise or perhaps better anti-clockwise took him over half an hour. Once back home my wife asked me if it didn’t occur to me that perhaps he was taking his time to make it last longer, because he loves spending time with me? Bottom line, there is not much left to do; tighten the balance pipe collars to keep the exhaust pipe in place was a bad idea anyhow, the mean problem is that damn exhaust locknut and without it, besides the fact that the Norton passes air and creates after ignitions in the right muffler, it swings out too large, such way that the kick starter touches the right muffler.

Today I rode the Norton to Machines & Moteurs while my father-in-law followed me in our car. Through time, I’ve heared good things as well as less good things about this workshop but fact is, they have a lot of work and machines to work on in their shop, so I can only figure that if they would not do a good job, they wouldn’t have a lot of customers, but as they do have a lot of customers… I guess they must be doing quite a good job with english motorbikes. Yet I had a little surprise. Before deciding to proceed with removing the thread and place a new one, I did check some prices. Where I didn’t think about, is that the quoted fees are really only for the work of replacing the thread! Meaning, if you would take the engine apart and bring only the cilinderhead. As I brought the whole bike and they will have to remove the cilinderhead and camshaft (and put it back together), it is additional. In fact, time spend on doing this is way more expensive than the requested work itself! They quoted me a price that scared me at first .. But then again, I don’t feel much for taking the engine apart (and rebuild it) myself. After all, I’m a computer specialist, not a bike mechanic! The given quote is roughly 700 euros over what I estimated but then again, it needs to be done anyhow.

I did call my wife, discussed it, but well, it is my bike and my money, what could she say? I start to get a new feeling about the expression “you bought it, you learn how to fix it”; it isn’t because Nortons are breaking down so often, it is simply because if all workshop repairs are that expensive, one won’t go far not leaving much choice than doing things themselves 😉

At the same time I got new info about my Norton; I went to Machine & Moteurs a couple of times before, but this was the first time they’d actually seen my Norton. It appears that the repaint job has been done quite nicely and she looks to be in good shape. They also explained me that my Norton is a MK1A model, though I admit that it was a bit confusing to me. The engine and frame numbers match, though I don’t remember how they matched them, but there was some confusion about the make, model and year which didn’t seem to match the serial numbers, as she has engine number 306640, an airfilter box that was used as of 306500 on later ’75 and MKIII models. I don’t know and couldn’t tell. To all I know is that my dad bought the Norton start of ’74 and it is supposed to be a ’73 model, but from old photos I’ve seen the Norton with and without airfilters, with and without stearing damper, with blackcap mufflers and dragpipes, with different mudguards, with different fueltanks and different buddyseats, with stearing bars and clipons, with normal suspensions and koni’s … The Norton had many “outfits” and my dad changed her regularly in function of his moods. But as what she looks like now, exactly now though being in black/gold as opposed to red/white colors and having peashooter mufflers rather than the blackcaps, that is how I remember the Norton as “original” and how she looked like in photographs taken in 1982.  To make a long story short, the airfilter I purchased earlier is indeed not the right one for this model, they will exchange it at the same time.

The Norton is likely to stay 2 or 3 weeks at Machines & Moteurs and my wife asked me how I’m going to survive without my Norton? I don’t know, open some old oilcans and snif the smell of oil to remember her?? LOL

This afternoon ended different than I would have imagined; when I was already on my way back with my Norton, traffic slowed down at the quai de Seine, just in front of the camping entrance at Boulogne-Billancourt. Three young men were, somewhat panicked, trying to get the attention of passing traffic. A car, skid of the road on the left side, with behind it a man laying on the ground. I pulled over and quickly it became clear; the young men came running to me asking if I was a doctor and unfortunately I’m not and kept asking if I had seen what happened. The three men explained me that a car, just in front of them, suddenly swerved to the left, over the curb and hit the trees. When I walked over to the accidented car I knew enough, the poor guy most likely had a heart attack while at the wheel, given his position, heavy transpiration over his breast and cramped position of his right arm/hand. I passed them my cellphone to call for medical assistance while I took off my jacket and folded it to serve as pillow for the victim’s head. One of the three young men started heartmassage, probably following instructions from medical personnel on the phone.

Waiting can then take long.. By chance, a policecar in civilian just pulled over a car on the other side of the road at the camping’s entrance, so I ran towards them waving my arms to get their attention. Luckely that didn’t take long and it took even less time to explain them that someone just had a seizure. The policemen in civilian took over the heartmassage and started mouth-to-mouth while one of their colleagues also called in for an ambulance. Meanwhile I gave them their space to do their job, but I didn’t want to distance too far, as the victim was still laying on my leather jacket and I already saw it coming, the confusion.. And I wasn’t wrong.

The first firemen (also providing first aid and medical assistance in France) arrived about 5 minutes later, while I slowed and stopped traffic to give them space to approach and pull over. While they took over and started reanimation in turn, the policemen in civilian started to ask questions about what happened, but I didn’t witness anything, it happened seconds before I got there and I stopped because of the three young men seeking attention.

Meanwhile a second firetruck arrived and just about then, I was just in time; the policemen had found my papers in my leather jacket and while one of them already started using his phone I was just in time to squeeze in that he was holding my papers because I provided my jacket as pillow to the victim. Sure, difficult to see, because first he took out my wife’s driving license that I (often) carry with me to retrieve postal orders for her, but after showing him my passport he was convinced and handed them back. In the meantime, while medical personnel was trying to stabilise the victim, I couldn’t go anywhere, because my jacket also contains my wallet and vehicule registration papers of the Norton that were in the other pocket. About 30 minutes later the victim was placed on a brancard and medical staff handed back my jacket. I asked them if the victim was going to make it but they told me that it didn’t look good. I got cleared and started the Norton and while I was leaving the three young men, still at the scene, thanked me for having stopped.

No pictures; Sure, I was there long enough to take one, but decided that it wasn’t the place nor the time. It was already dramatic enough as it was, it wasn’t a tourist attraction.

Once back and parked the Norton, I still had to go buy some meat. At the butcher’s, they asked if I wasn’t with the Norton. He told me that his brother has a Norton and two Triumphs as well, but honnestly, though I love talking about motorbikes, after what just happened I wasn’t quite concentrated.