Norton Boy

Norton Boy

UP FRONT

David Edwards

No SELF-RESPECTING MOTORCYCLE magazine should be without a big British road-burner, yet that’s just the situation Cycle World found itself in when Editor-at-Large Peter Egan divested himself of an increasingly irksome Norton Commando late last year.

Doing my part for the side, I’ve come to the rescue, aided by an 1RS refund check and a friend’s wife who questioned his need to own two Nortons at the same time. This happy coincidence led to a 1974 850 Commando taking up residence at Chez Dave, slotted between my hot-rod Beezer and Velocette GTP on the U.K. side of the garage.

With 40,000 miles showing on the clock, the Norton is far from concours-ready, just a well-used runner with the desirable, 6.5-gallon Interstate tank (black w/gold pinstripes, natch) and BUB reverse-cone mufflers patterned after the stockers but attached to swoopier headpipes. It’s even got some history: Perry King, the actor, once owned the bike, and after wedding moto-journalist Jamie Elvidge a few years ago, rode it on their honeymoon tour. Okay, not exactly the Gable-Lombard nuptial Duesenberg, but an interesting sidelight.

Being unwise in the ways of Isolastic engine mounts, I hauled the Norton to British Marketing, the local Limey emporium, for a tune-up and general going-over. Fork seals and new tires (ever try to track down a 19inch rear?) are next on the to-do list, but I couldn’t resist taking the 850 on a long ride last weekend.

First reactions? What a great sound the bike makes, a boisterous twincylinder burble loud enough to excite, but not so blatant as to offend innocent bystanders. Despite being over-the-hill even by 1970s standards, the non-unit four-speed gearbox shifts smoothly, with precise, reassuring clicks. As always, light weight (425 pounds dry) and abundant torque (50 foot-pounds at 5000 rpm) make for healthy, satisfying pulls between every upshift.

In its time, the Commando, in either 750 or 850 guise, was a genuine superbike, capable of reeling off 12-second quarter-miles and punching its way to 115-plus mph. An expert’s bike, in other words, but one that was at home in varied riding environ ments-cruising Main Street, impromptu drag races, backroad pegscraping, even commuting and two-up touring, thanks to sensible ergonomics and a long, well-padded seat.

Post-ride, during the requisite washwax-and-garage-contemplation session, I came to the conclusion that precious few current models have carried on in the Norton’s do-it-all mold. The performance high ground is now held by no-compromise repli-racers, magic machines for a Sunday-morning dose of knee-dragging, but hardly the thing if you want to set your sweetie on the back and go for an around-town toot. Cruisers aren’t the answer, either. Most of these are targeted at entry-level or re-entry riders, and make no excuses about putting form ahead of function. Besides, I don’t know about you, but if I wanted an overweight, underpowered (except for Honda’s new Valky 1500, see the test this issue) retro-mobile, I’d buy the real thing, a 1950s Harley or Indian, and be done with it.

I sense what some of you are thinking. So what you want then, Mr. Editor Edwards, is an updated Norton Commando (or Honda CB750 or Kawasaki Z-l, for that matter), right? Well, didn’t the Japanese just try that with the Honda CB1000 and Kawasaki Zephyr 1 100, two sales flops of Edsel-esque proportions?

No, they did not. Both those bikes were retros, modeled on AMA Superbikes of the late 1970s/early 1980s, with old-fashioned twin-shock suspensions and fairly detuned motors. Here’s the rub: When the Commando, the 750 Four and the 903cc Z-l debuted, they were hard-hitting, state-of-the-art ground-pounders, no apologies needed.

Where are the 1990s versions of those bikes, high-horsepower all-rounders with monoshock rear ends, killer brakes and sub-500-pound dry weights, bikes that experienced riders tired of repli-racers and unimpressed by mega-cruisers might like to own? Flipping through my copy of CWs 1996 Buyer’s Guide, I find none. Well, okay, Buell’s SI Lightning and Ducati’s M-900 Monster might qualify, if they made more power and could carry a passenger in any degree of comfort. BMW’s R1100R? Sorry, too quirky-looking. Expensive, too. Rational sportbikes like Honda’s VFR750, Suzuki’s RF900 and Kawasaki’s ZX-11 are good choices, but they don’t really work as Commandos for the ’90s, do they?

Maybe England’s streetfighter craze (see “Fightin’ in the Streets,” Roundup, February) will catch on over here. A built GSX-R1100 engine wrapped in one of those delicious-looking, multitube Spondon frames could be just the ticket. Or maybe Honda will pump up its sultry home-market Hornet 250 (see “High-Flyin’ Hondas,” CW, February) and drop in a CBR900RR motor. I’d camp out at the local Honda shop all night just to put down a deposit on that baby. Then again, maybe the answer is as close as Suzuki’s overseas catalog. Already on sale in Europe and Canada is the Bandit 1200, a bigger, 100-horsepower version of the 600 that took CWs Best Standard award in 1995. It’s getting rave reviews in all the Euromags, some even insinuating it will be a shoo-in for Bike of the Year honors, and there’s a good chance it will hit U.S. dealerships late this year. (And, yes, your favorite self-respecting motorcycle magazine is already hard at work on a road test of the big Bandit.)

Here’s hoping bikes like the new Suzuki find a home here. Looking back at Cycle World's various road tests of Norton Commandos, one description sticks out. “It’s a motorcycle that entertains,” wrote the editors in December of 1975, “and we all know it takes a real motorcycle to entertain.”

Those were good words to design by 21 years ago. They’re just as good today.