unworthy1

Picked up from the CR list:
"Sadly Norris's son Damian just informed me that his dad has just passed
away. He was 87. No details except that Norris was in the UK rather than
France."
He occasionally posted to this group, but he certainly was a fount of knowledge, wherever he wrote.
To say nothing of his "Bespoke" brand of bespoke frames made in Settle, Yorkshire.
RIP Norris!

repechage

oh snap. He was an interesting fellow, much information. Many facts, a few fancies.
I gathered some insight from him on a few French bikes I have.
hopefully his son is willing to sort through the container(s) and sell off his accumulation, not dispose of it as recyclables.

I do not recall if his Flickr account was pro or not - cyclecrank

the Flickr account was pro, hopefully it will be paid by his son, if Norris retained even half the bikes and mostly frames imaged, oh my! A museum worth.

merziac

RIP Norris, Godspeed.

juvela

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Thank you for sharing this sad news.

Have pleasant memories from all the times member CV-6 shared information he gleaned from reading Norris.


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Markeologist

A true loss to our hobby, so much knowledge held by one man that can no longer be tapped … that is a resource that can’t be replaced. Condolences to his family.

styggno1

Condolences to the family,

We had some really nice written conversations where he shared his knowledge about Geliano/Meral/Cyfac with me.

damianlockley

Hello, everyone.

I have joined the forum in order to acknowledge the kind words I have read about my and my brother's father who died on Tuesday, aged 87.
Dad survived a stroke last year and made an excellent recovery. However, he died of natural causes and mercifully quickly. He leaves behind a legacy of knowledge and friends made around the world, some of whom he persuaded to buy homes in his beloved France. But he had not been able to return to France after his last visit in 2019, owing to Covid etc and then illness. He was busy until the end - not building bikes, but keeping an interest in the forums (and still collecting..)

Which leaves me to my last point. The collection he was assembled is enormous and we are going to have to dispose of it somehow - a colossal task. I am thinking of perhaps creating a website dedicated to the project. I may need a bit of help.....

The funeral takes place on Tuesday 24th October in the morning, in North Yorkshire.

mpetry912 

I exchanged a couple emails with Norris and he was generous with his knowledge, always kind and a bit of humor.

fondly remembered.

/markp

repechage

Thank you for making an appearance here Damian. Your father was quite a character in the best possible way.
Always tough even when the passed had a long life, a dreadful loss.
As many of the bikes and frame sets he collected were of a reasonable size range, there will be demand of course.
Metering out the presentation will still probably be best if there is space to store.
from his Flickr account there are many frame sets at hand. Greatest demand may be outside the UK.
He had a good eye for quality builds.
Things are no doubt different in the UK, but lining up a source for boxes suitable to ship a frame with the fork removed and packed I suggest be one of the tasks.
‘His Flickr account can provide good reference as to areas to focus images of the frames.

Some have used Flickr as a means to present items to sell, placing a card in the camera view with notes and even an inventory number that the item can be tracked with could be of use.

gbi

Sad news indeed.

USAZorro

Damian,

I was very saddened to learn of Norris' passing. He was such a treasure trove of lore and information, and it leaves an enormous void. He was so willing to share knowledge and lore, and did so in a way that almost transported one across oceans and time. I also enjoyed his sense of humor. As much as I feel a loss (though I do not think we ever corresponded directly), I know it certainly must be much more difficult for his family and close friends. I offer my condolences to you, your brother and all other family members.

Duke7777

Damian,
I was very sorry to hear of your father's passing. Over the years he was a great help to me and many other fans of obscure French bicycles. Norris had a very unusual combination of traits and abilities: 1. Encyclopedic knowledge of the bike trade, including people, companies, design and construction, 2. Uncanny ability to remember details from decades ago, 3. A willingness to give up significant amounts of his time to share all of his knowledge with anyone with similar interests. I'm going to miss him a lot. Each time I bought another interesting but obscure French frame, I would eagerly wait for Norris to submit a lengthy treatise on Classic Rendezvous to enlighten me as to exactly what I had bought. Who else would be able to tell me the specific frame builder who had built my late 40s Le Greves frame?

Several years ago, I did manage to talk Norris out of one frame, a spectacular 1937 Hobbs that was one of my all time favorites. (Northbend owns this bike now and occasionally posts photos.)

Damian, I hope you can somehow find the time and energy to find good homes for many of the most special frames in your father's unique collection. I know there are knowledgeable folks here and on Classic Rendezvous who would be more than willing to help out in terms of identification and pricing. I would almost certainly be interested in buying one or two frames from your father's collection.

bibliobob

Damian,

Your father set the standard in vintage bicycle collecting. Immensely knowledgeable and generous in sharing his knowledge freely. Whether here on Bikeforums or on the CR list, we place far greater value on those who share knowledge freely than on those who own nice bikes. Your father was one of the few that managed to do both....

Our condolences to you and our appreciation to your father.

Let us know if we can be helpful in any way.

Regards,
Bob
​​​​

georges1

May he RIP, condolences and prayers go to family and friends

Pogliaghi

Norris had encyclopedic knowledge of French vintage bikes, I believe he lived in Settle. I contacted him a few times as my dad was born in Penistone not far away from him. A great loss, sincere condolences to all the family and his many friends.

damianlockley

Hello again.

I received an email alert containing a message from 'thatgoal26' but I cannot access it here. Please get in touch via contact@thelockleycollection.com

In fact much of dad's collection was not of any financial value and what could be called junk. Certain things we thought we had cannot be found so I am unsure what happened to them. He sold nothing, so may have given things away or exchanged them.

The vast majority of the collection has gone to either UK or French collectors.
There remains a frame ridden by Jacques Anquetil and two or three other Carré/Carlton frames/bikes that were owned by well known French riders. Plus there are two Carré touring bikes. And that is it. We plan to sell these on Ebay in the summer via an intermediary. I will let you known.

For any interested frame builders we have lots of tubes and lugs to sell and many books and magazines which we may in time put on Ebay.

We shouldn't forget the many Bespoke bikes dad built. He threw nothing away so they must be catalogued somewhere but my brother and I have not had time to investigate. I have no idea how many bikes dad built and when he stopped. Perhaps around 1999. I would love to hear from anyone has one of his bikes. He spent hours and hours in his garage building the bikes and swore a lot. My poor mother when he came back inside! Then he said he 'got a lot of pressure' from them....

As I live in France, and have spent time on his Flickr page, it has aroused my interest in the French builders and French bike building history. The Flickr pages will be placed in memoriam once I have downloaded the photos.

Regards

Damian

TenGrainBread 

Hi Damian, shame about getting "ripped off", but at least hopefully there was some element of convenience about the sale. Your dad had a lot of bikes and assessing them and selling them individually would be a part time job.
There are some fellow lovers of French framebuilding on here who have learned quite a bit from Norris and his Flickr, including myself. He has done the English-speaking community of cycle enthusiasts quite a service with that collection of photos and text. I support you in preserving the data from that account and let us know if there is any way we can help.
Unfortunately most users of Bike Forums C&V are located in America, with a few exceptions, so you won't find many Bespoke owners here. Retrobike UK might be a better place to find Bespoke owners.

repechage

Damian- your father wrote of bikes in a shed and a container, I assumed a shipping container.

even if one is around full time, things can get removed en mass. A disappointment that reasonable value could not be obtained.

as far a small parts, lugs, bottom bracket shells and fork crowns are reasonably compact to send. There is interest in them.

Thatgoal26

Thanks Damian,
I have popped you an email.
Many thanks.