About Me
Hi, I'm Dave Norton. I'm a design engineer in my late '60s, retired and living in Rogue River, OR. I have a wonderfully understanding wife, three grown kids and two grands. Long Beach State College prepared me for my career, though I bailed out early, lured away by a love of motorcycles. I've been remarkably fortunate to have done so well without a degree. My design experience includes aerospace (I still have hardware flying on the Lockheed C-5), two Indy cars (one powered by steam), two steam-powered road cars and an SCCA H-Modified road racing sports car designed and built from scratch and several prototype recreational vehicles for Yamaha. Racing experience includes ametuer road racing in Lotus 31 F3 and the H-Mod, and motocross racing on Yamaha and Honda bikes. I've owned 14 bikes, and thoroughly enjoyed 'cycling for 20 years. I started at the bottom (Honda Trail 50), then up through 65, 120, 160. 175, 250, 360, 750, 1000 and 1300 cc bikes. That all ended with a bad crash in '79, which led to the design and construction of a safer motorcycle and affordable sports car, the Norton Shrike, in 1983. That was 28 years and 140,000 miles ago. The Shrike is still my daily driver, rain or shine. The fun never stops!
