On 8/8/2018 10:48 AM, Tim wrote:

8:47 AMMr. Luddite
- show quoted text -
The original Mini Cooper is cool but it's a death trap, especially for
rear seat passengers, much like the original split window VW buses were
for the driver and front seat passenger. Vehicles like them could never
be produced today.

I had a '65 split window VW bus for a while. Looked good but it needed
more work to the suspension than I was interested in having done. A
car/motorcycle nut guy saw it, wanted to buy it but ended up trading a
fully restored 1974 Norton 850 Commando for it. I had ridden a Norton
750 Commando earlier in my past but quickly realized that a Norton is
a young man's motorcycle, not for a middle aged plus old fart like me.
Plus, having the rear brake on the left side and the shifter on the
right was too confusing, being used to Harley's at the time.

......

I remember your norton. When I found out it was up for grabs it was too late. I would have ridden it home. I have a ‘74 Triumph 500 so I’m used to the shift/brake layout. What’s fun in the old Guzzi v7 ambassador which was standard layout but shift was one up, three down.... hmmm



The '74 Norton shifted that way ... first was all the way up and then
down for the rest. That was another thing to get used to, unlike the
Harley I had at the same time.

I think in 1975 Norton was forced to adopt the left foot shift, right
foot rear brake setup in order to continue selling bikes in the USA.