One good turn deserves another – rescuing a Nav

Les Orme concludes his story about restoring a Norton Navigator that managed to tow his stricken Model 14 AJS 180 miles across France back in the 1960s.

By 1993, with marriage and two children taking precedence over motorcycling, I found myself taking my 17-year-old son, who was more interested in old cars than modern ones, to a classic car show at Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire.

To call the Navigator’s restoration merely a labour of love would be a gross understatement.
To call the Navigator’s restoration merely a labour of love would be a gross understatement.

There, I came across a display of classic British motorcycles that suddenly rekindled an interest, and I wondered whether the Norton Navigator that had rescued me in France many years ago might still be in the family of another friend, Maurice, who’d bought it from Pete. I knew my AJS and the C15 were long gone.

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I’d lost touch with Maurice over the years, but knew he’d moved to the Isle of Man and worked for a division of Short’s of Belfast. I contacted the head office in
Ireland and managed to make contact with him.

Read more in September’s issue of OBM


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