International Dealer News IDN 155 June/July 2020 | Page 48

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Internationally recognised German
BMW parts and accessory specialist
Wunderlich was Motorrad Magazine
readers' choice as Best Brand in the
"Accessories/Conversions" category.
In the United States, chain
manufacturer D.I.D is to sponsor
the MotoAmerica Mini Cup by
Motul, the youth oriented racing
series, in 2020. "The D.I.D brand
has long been known for its
exceptional performance and
quality. All D.I.D chains are
engineer-developed and
manufactured in Kaga, Ishikawa
prefecture, Japan, by skilled
technicians whose goal of
perfection is to provide
outstanding performance chains
for all riders," said Clay Solise of
D.I.D North America. "Progressing
the sport by being an
encouragement to younger riders
is exactly what we're all about."
Swedish off-road, motocross and
ADV/Enduro spoke set specialist Cross
Center reports strong importer and
dealer demand from all around the
world in recent months through its
award-winning website. The company
has just added its 600th spoke set - 50-
0600 spoke set for KX 250/450 18"
74-76, rear 9G/275-36 - made in
Sweden by Cross Center using top grade
Swedish steel. The company also
recently added spoke sets for 17" and
18" applications on the Bonneville T
120 18" 2016 and up.
India's TVS buys Norton
Motorcycles' assets
India's TVS Motor Company has
emerged as the buyer of Norton
Motorcycles - or at least of the
brand, design IP and viable
current models.
In an all-cash deal of around €18m
(GB£16m/$20m), the assets have
been acquired from Norton
Motorcycles (U.K.) Limited (in
administration) through one of TVS
Motor's overseas subsidiaries.
Norton went bankrupt in January after
several months of becoming
increasingly "creative" (and
desperate) in its attempts to secure
additional funding. Indeed, even
when the brand was originally
acquired from Kenny Dreer in 2008, it
was alleged that the approx. $1.5m
that then new owner Stuart Garner
used to fund the deal was the
proceeds of a tax fraud.
There had been widespread industry
scepticism about the financial and
strategic stability of the project to
revive the brand in Britain under
Garner's ownership ever since - with
reports of embezzled customer
deposits and dealer inventory full prepayments
with no bike deliveries,
pension funds fraud and repeated
misuse of public monies raised from
naïve politicians and overly optimistic,
poorly informed government
sponsored seed corn funding
schemes.
Throughout Garner's 12-year
ownership of the Norton brand and
his efforts to build motorcycles in a
former airline call-center office behind
Donington Hall in Derbyshire,
England, it had often felt like Norton
was a place where fiscal rectitude and
'due diligence' went to die.
In January 2020, after a flurry of failed
efforts to raise cash in 2019, Garner
inked an apparent firestorm sale of
Norton Commando 961 cc engine
design rights and tooling to Chinese
scooter and engine designer and
manufacturer Jinlang Science and
Technology Co., Ltd - its scooters sell
under the Jinlang and Ariic brand
names.
Additionally, Jinlang also
Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing
Director, TVS Motor Company: "This
is a momentous time for us at TVS
Motor Company. Norton is an iconic
British brand celebrated across the
world and presents us with an
immense opportunity to scale
globally."
manufactures some ATV engines for
Polaris and supplies parts for other
companies, including Zongshen, with
whom Garner signed a "Design and
John Russell, former VP and
Managing Director of Harley-
Davidson Europe (1998-2007),
has been hired by TVS as interim
CEO for their newly acquired Norton
subsidiary.
Licence" deal in 2017.
That deal involved a Ricardo 650 cc
engine design that had, apparently,
theoretically, been slated to power
two additional new middleweight
models that Garner intended to build
under a comeback for the Norton
Atlas name - last seen when the aircooled
Atlas 750 was replaced by the
Commando in 1968.
However, in 2018 Norton showed two
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