Norton 1000 V4 for Moto GP

[rac3r]

https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/racing/norton-v4-motor-motogp/

Looking forward to Moto GP next year and hopefully there will be more than 15 bikes on the grid! Imagine if there were as many bikes as Moto 2
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Bikes : 2006 CBR125R - 2004 Monster 620ie - 2004 ZX-6R B1H - 2005 Monster S2R 800 - 2011 Street Triple - 2009 Streetfighter 1098 - 2014 ZX-6R 636

[Frost]

Max 21 bikes, looks like 1 will be another satelite bike the other 5 will be Moto1 bikes. Kallio went out on one of the moto1 bikes and did a fuck load of laps at the last test. He was 6.342 sec slower than stoner on an 800. So even if the moto1 picks up a bit of pace, that'll be negated by everyone else going up to 1000cc. So i expect there will be 2 divisions on the grid next season with 16 proper bikes and 5 others at the back racing among themselves.

[rac3r]

[Daimo]

Still can't see it.

Heard a few natters on the rumour mill that Norton is very close to going bust again. So how to sort that?

Enter the most expensive motorcycle race series...

Wheres the money coming from? They arn't selling many bikes. Certainly not millions of pounds worth. It'll be a huge failure. They really shouldn't bother.

Arn't we still waiting for the race superbike from 2 years ago too?

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

They can't even make a TT comeback, how are they going to do a Moto GP season?
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[dogbot]

I thought they'd missed the deadline for getting the bike design and finance deal in...?

And indeed, that link is for January. I'm sure Toby Moody was saying Norton had missed out after Le Mans. The teams that did get in were:

Forward Racing
Speedmaster
Paddock GP racing
Marc VDS
Kiefer
Queroseno Racing

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/MotoGO+class+entires+in+2012

It's definitely going to be a two-division class, though, with the Claiming Rule Teams having slightly different rules.

Considering how dull a fair amount of this year's races have been, can't be a bad thing having more bikes in, tbh.

[duhawkz]

[Rowey]

I'm hoping with the move to 1000cc Suzuki can be competitive again. I would like to see some more teams and bike designers step up, but without a lot of money they're never going to be able to run with the big boys.

When I heard Norton were going to join MotoGP, I did think why Triumph doesn't join too. They do make more money than Norton. It would be great if they partnered up and made a Triton race bike.
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[LordShaftesbu...]

I thought Norton were working on a rotary engine?

Triumph don't do MotoGP because they stick to what they're good at - turning a profit and not going bust.

[Frost]

Norton might be using MotoGP talk to try to gain interest and funding to develop a proper engine, but i doubt it'd be as good as what's already out there, race developed well tested high performance engines.
Norton need to make money before doing anything else. They need to either update their old engine designs and start producing those retro bikes they took orders for. Their other option would be to buy engines off another manufacturer and produce some bikes with that.
Sports bike development is expensive and highly competitive in a deminishing market. Norton would be better off developing something niche or different. Much like BMW did with that enduro, KTM with the duke, kawasaki with that 250 of theirs, or ducati's retro sports bike:

https://www.motorcycledaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/10/102203bottom.jpg

Perhaps a retro tourer?