(03-06-2016, 02:55 PM)KypDurron Wrote: You guys keep saying Norton but I think you mean Aprilia.

Ah, this old chestnut -   I refer you to -1907- Norton twin cylinder - Harold Rembrandt Fowler, 1st twin cylinder class,Peugeot engine, several early TTs won by machines using JAP engines , 250 lightweights won by  variously named machines fitted with Rotax engines, in fact what is known as the proprietary engine was the mainstay of racing, before factories began to make their own .  

i am of the opinion that Nortons ceased to be Nortons once the Bracebridge Street factory closed, but the name lives on.
Speaking personally, I have often wished that someone like John Bloor  would buy the name, and either make a success of producing motorcycles with that name, or simply retire it, thus stopping the continued prostitutiion of a famous name, (with a little alleged fraud on the way ). 
 Matchless is  now   a clothing brand, and the AJS name is a sticker on some Chinese built Easy Rider lookalike with silly little engines.