Is there a growing issue with manuals? Several recent posts seem to have been placed by new owners who don't seem to have a manual for Dominators in particular. RGM list the Hayne, but Haynes don't list it as far as I cam see. An the Neill book seems be out of print. Should this be a matter of concern for the Club? Prewar ones seem to e available on the Net, but not the Dommie ones.
Only ranting
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My impression is that there…
My impression is that there was little in the way of explicit manuals from Bracebridge St , and my early Norton work was mostly facilitated by a Haynes manual. Some makers produced really good information ,I can remember being utterly astonished by the detail on some BSA literature. Woolwich manuals were better (although John Hudson was not at all impressed by them).
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My manuals and Parts Lists
I posted my Excel list of factory Norton manuals/owner's handbooks and Parts Lists a while ago and it gained no interest ,so I'm not sure why people think there wasn't much forthcoming from Bracebridge Street. I've accumulated a fair collection of post-war (WW2!) publications. I also have various Haynes, Mick Walker, Roy Bacon and Steve Wilson books.
I attach a PDF of my own, accumulated over the years from autojumbles and shows as well as electronic versions from the interweb. It's scary how much some people are trying to sell them for on eBay! £50 or more!
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Lionel...the problem that…
Lionel...the problem that concerns me is that new owners, especially of Dommies, will discover that the manuals are all out of print. Profiteering on Ebay will be the result.
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What’s wrong with making them public then?
I have often transferred documents to other users if required. Our job is to share that knowledge. John and Simon have a great library of prewar related docs. on line at their site.
I’m sure there are plenty of postwar docs that could be made available without infringement…
Jon
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The problem with making them…
The problem with making them public is that they are nearly all likely to be covered by copyright. Who currently owns the copyright may be obscure, and hence the potential subject of litigation, but in principle someone does.
UK copyright currently is for the life of the author plus 70 years; however, items such as workshop manuals have probably been produced by employees, so the original copyright is likely to have been vested in the factory. Since copyright can be sold, the possible current ownership is anyone's guess.
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Haynes is not the force it…
Haynes is not the force it once was. The days when many (most?) buyers of used cars went straight to Halford's to buy the Haynes manual are long gone. My Dommie manual is a proper printed copy, but the last one I saw isa facsimile with relatively poor pictures. The numbers being sold in recent years have probably been too small to justify publishing it any more. I wonder how much its copyright is worth, and if NOC might consider it to be worth finding out? "Lodgemark Press" published the F.Neill manual "with cooperation of Norton Villiers". Again...might it be worth finding out if its rights might be obtained from the descendents of Lodgemark Press? Isn't it at least as important as providing a spares service?
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Copyright...
... doesn't seem to bother some people. Check out the AMC stuff on Christian's archive - much of which is applicable to Nortons. http://archives.jampot.dk/
There are also pdf Norton manuals around such as here: https://www.wdnorton.nl/
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1960 also covers earlier bikes
I have a copy of this (plus other manuals) in F. Neill's hardback publication "Norton Service And Overhaul Manual". His book has better photo reproduction as the pages have been properly scanned in greyscale. The photos aren't "sooty" like Classic Bike's.
It is published by Lodgemark Press Ltd. but there is no printing or edition date. It's a compilation of several original Norton Manuals so is very useful.
It's pretty generic for all twins and Model 50 & ES2 Singles.
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Other sources
A quick search on Google (which anyone can do!) shows that manuals are available from Amazon (F.Neill) and Andover-Norton.
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Luckily, we see some new Norton owners. Some quite young. When new to Nortons, you probably don't know many people to ask.So you have to find and read printed manuals and part lists. Or going for information on the web. Except for us elderly folks who had no other option than reading printed matter to learn about the bikes, most people today goes to the web for info. So I don't think that it's a lack of manuals that is the problem. It's only the way how to search for answers. Although most needed information is in the manuals, it is not always easy to find and understand it.