Norton

Timeless designs that take you back to the pre-’60s era heightened the feeling of riding free-spirited machines and the sense of freedom. This is what a modern-day classic motorcycle offers without that knuckle bending fixes and ghastly scenes of oil dripping everywhere. Here are our top five standards/classic motorcycles coming in 2020 that takes us back to the time from the ’60s.

Recalling the past glories, these neo-classic motorcycles have still managed to retain the charm and posterity of minimalistic elegance along with providing modern day mechanicals and the bits. They run on efficient high output engines that are both reliable and powerful and are equipped with state of the art suspension and brake setups that will bring the bike to a halt not far from their point of application, unlike the yesteryears.

Reinforced for off-road duty, Scramblers of today hark back at South-West California and Mexico’s Baja scenes in the ’60s and ’70s. They were fitted with engines displacing upwards of 500cc and stripped off anything nonsensical to run on roads or no roads. Featured on these were off-road tires, wheels, and spokes and were given modified suspension systems and engine skid plates, a trademark indispensable in shielding the bike from rocks, stones, and the unforgiving desert terrain.

Here is our list of new Scrambleresque motorcycles coming in 2020 that promise to churn out rugged, stripped down, vintage fun resurrected from its heyday during the 1960s and earlier. Aiding it will be a torquey motor with high mounted exhaust pipes and knobby tires to take it on terrains otherwise not possible.

Norton Motorcycles is, undeniably, one of the British Greats. It made a mark for itself early on with success in both the racing and streetbike/commuter sectors, and it continues to do so to this day. The factory splits is efforts fairly evenly between its superbikes, Brit-style standards and café racers with a couple of scrambler-esque models to expand its footprint off the black and onto the brown. English charm and deep historical roots are the hallmarks of the brand and the main reasons for its continued success.

British bike builder Norton Motorcycles teams up with Swiss watchmaker Breitling to turn out the Commando 961-based Breitling Sport Limited Edition for 2019. The bespoke Breitling Sport LE carries a number of special touches from the famed watchmaker to set it apart from the base-model Commando 961, and naturally, the watchmaker produced a companion wrist piece that’s meant to compliment the bike. While this isn’t the first bike-watch pairing in history, far from it, but it may well be the most exclusive.

Norton Motorcycles put together its Superlight for riders who are looking for a mid-size, street-legal ride that still qualifies as a racebike. Looking at this ride, it’s safe to say “mission accomplished.” The factory built the 650-twin engine in-house and borrowed heavily from its V4 powerplant for some real racetrack DNA to drive this aptly-named bike. Why aptly named? Mainly because the liberal use of carbon fiber and aluminum keeps the tally low at only 348 pounds (dry), so the 105-horsepower mill has less mass and inertia to deal with. I guess you could also call it the Superquick as well. Lest you doubt its racing chops, know that the factory plans on tackling the Isle of Man TT with this model, so if you’re looking for a bona fide British street racer, you need look no further.

Norton’s Atlas line hit the European markets last year, and it makes it way across the pond in time for MY2019 in the U.S. market. While the Atlas pair are both built as dual-surface machines, the Nomad serves as the more street-tastic ride of the two. It rocks the same all-new and purpose-built, 650 cc powerplant in an equally-new frame with a sort-of nouveau-café vibe that is rather essential and doesn’t rely on a bloated electronics suite or expensive gadgets to make it rideable.

The Norton Commando 961 lineup, in general, brings a healthy dose of classic café racer DNA to the table — some models more than others — and the California adds some old-school custom flavor to the mix. The British influence is unmistakable throughout, and even the engine exudes an Englishness that just cannot be faked. Norton has its own deep roots to draw upon for design points, and the “Cali” delivers authentic historical looks with modern performance.

Norton Motorcycles’ scrambler-esque Atlas line is a great platform for customization, and the factory-custom Ranger is a perfect example of what you can build with the right sort of components. True to its name, the Ranger is set up as a dual-surface machine with a bias for off-road work complete with long-stroke suspension components and wire wheels, and it all comes wrapped around an all-new, mid-size, parallel-twin engine designed and built in-house. Released last year in Europe as an all-new model, Norton brings the Atlas Ranger across the pond for the 2019 model year in the U.S. market.

Timeless designs that take you back to the pre-’60s era, heightened feeling of riding free-spirited machines and the sense of freedom. This is what a modern-day classic motorcycle offers without that knuckle bending fixes and ghastly scenes of oil dripping everywhere. Here are our top ten standard/classic motorcycles of 2018 that take us back to the time from the ’60s.

Recalling the past glories, these neo-classic motorcycles have still managed to retain the charm and posterity of minimalistic elegance along with providing modern day mechanicals and the bits. They run on efficient high output engines that are both reliable and powerful and are equipped with state of the art suspension and brake setups that will bring the bike to a halt not far from their point of application unlike the yesteryears.

Racing on bikes from café to café before a song could finish was the most therapeutic thing to have happened for motorcyclists in the ‘70s. Inspired by this culture, people and manufacturers started building motorcycles with minimal components to take them the distance in the shortest time. It embodied the classic café-racer cues taking us back in time with modern design bits and sophisticated packaging.

Here is our list of the best ten motorcycles of 2018 that remind us of that ‘70s. Round headlights, debonair half-shell fairing, humped seat, rear seat cowl, extended wheelbase, and the low-slung handlebar, it’s all in each one of these machines:

After setting the stage on fire with their brand new V4 Superbike venture, the British manufacturer shifted their attention to a set of machines that could be deemed as the most critical project for the company’s future.

Working for almost a year, Norton has finally released official sketches of their 650cc in-line twins under a scrambler-esque silhouette. And they are going to call it the Atlas, a modern “Urban-Tracker” and a reminiscent of the brand’s 1963 Atlas 750cc scrambler. The bike is due to be revealed at the NEC bike show in the UK this November, with UK deliveries set for 2019.

The original Norton Commando first saw the light of day all the way back in 1967. Production spanned ten continuous years, but the model slowly lost its steam. The Commando has since seen a number of attempted revivals, with several entities trying to capture some of the success of the original, with varying degrees of success.

For its 50th anniversary, the British maker has given it an update and launched the 2018 Commando 961 California. ‘The easy riding roadster’. It ditches all the darkness and adorns a timeless classic styling with chrome all-over reminiscent of the ‘70s American motorcycling.

British heavyweight Norton Motorcycles aimed to bring Isle of Man TT performance to the public, and it seems as though it has managed to do just that with the V4 RR. Superbike performance and dead-sexy curves are the hallmarks of this ride, and while that’s nothing new for Norton, there are plenty of details that set this ride apart from its usual fare. Carbon and Kevlar make an appearance with a 200-plus horsepower, V4 engine thrown into the mix for good measure, so yeah, this ain’t your run-of-the-mill race-tribute piece — it has bona fide competitive DNA in its design — but neither is it a racebike made street legal, but something in between.

Continue reading for my review of the Norton V4 RR.

The Dominator from Norton captures the look and feel of the limited-edition Domiracer, but with a more production-friendly and street-legal layout. Norton may have been a bit surprised at the pace at which the Domiracers got snapped up and at the high rate of conversion to street-legal status, but its response was right on target. Powered by an in-house-developed 961 cc parallel twin, the Dominator is quite expensive, but do you get a lot of bike for that dough?

Continue reading for my review of the Norton Dominator.

Unearthing shipwrecks is a pretty fascinating trade to always be in the hunt find some genuinely beguiling treasury, historical artifacts, clues to mysteries, and millions of ancient relics just like these World War II-era Norton 16H motorcycles found under the greatest shipwrecks in one of the most famous dive sites in the world.

This photo captured by Tobias Friedrich, a professional photographer from 2007, won the prestigious Underwater Photographer of the Year 2018 award at UPY London. Dozens of Nortons were found in their Watery Grave in a famous shipwreck of the British World War II SS Thistlegorm near the Sinai Peninsula of the Red Sea. The photo has been titled as the “Cycle War”.

Aspirin taken, ate some food, drank that much-needed water and took a hot shower. Hangover time is over and getting my head around the fact that I have to wake up early to work depressed me at first. But luckily the excitement brought with the launch of these new machines means we and I get to see them on our roads pretty soon, and I cannot wait to unveil the secrets they behold.

Unveiled at the back end of 2017, these hot machines give new life goals and expectations, not just for riders, but also to other manufacturers giving them no option but to up their game as well. Thanks to this, competition keeps getting hotter by the day, and we are ultimately rewarded with machines that beam innovation and technology.

Here are the top picks that are touted to take the market by storm in 2018:

Originally a parts supplier since 1898, Norton only began making their own motorcycle from 1908. With a company making motorcycles for over a century now, has seen its boat sailing all the ups and downs. Luckily, it seems to be calm waters for now after stabilizing their investments and is making headways.

After getting a tremendous response to their new V4 superbike, the British company is now heading to add two models in the scrambler series that will run on their new in-house 650cc parallel-twin powerplant.

The original Norton Commando first saw the light of day all the way back in 1967. Production spanned ten continuous years but slowly lost its steam. The Commando has seen a number of attempted revivals, with several entities trying to capture some of the success of the original, with varying degrees of success.

For its 50th anniversary, the British maker has given it an update and launched the 2018 Commando 961 California. ‘The easy riding roadster’. It ditches all the darkness and adorns a timeless classic styling with chrome all-over reminiscent of the ‘70s American motorcycling.

The original Norton Commando first saw the light of day all the way back in 1967. Production spanned ten years, and the Commando was crowned “Machine of the Year” by the U.K.-based Motor Cycle News for five consecutive years, starting with its sophomore year in ’68 and running through ’72. Since then, the Commando has seen a number of attempted revivals, with several entities trying to capture some of the success of the original, with varying degrees of success.

Norton Motorcycles re-introduces us to the Commando with the 961 MK II family that brings classic, British style and modern engineering together in what may be the best attempt to date. Let’s find out, shall we?

Continue reading for my review of the Norton Commando 961 SF MKII, Commando 961 Sport MKII, and Commando 961 Cafe Racer MKII.

83-year old Gil Yarrow may be too old to do a lot of things, but riding motorcycles isn’t one of them. The octogenarian is as hardcore as they come when it comes to brandishing his love for all things two-wheeled and he’s going to prove as much when he embarks on a 6,000-mile round trip from his home in Vancouver, Canada to North Carolina just so he can attend the 2015 International Norton Owners Association Rally.

Mind you, Yarrow isn’t planning on flying to the Tar Heel State. He’s going to do it riding his trusty 1971 Norton Commando 750. As if that isn’t emasculating enough for us all, Yarrow’s entire itinerary actually covers a period of 21 straight days, 16 of which will be spent on the road travelling from Vancouver to North Carolina and back to Vancouver again.

This man is a titan in every sense of the word and yet, it’s par for the course for the man whose love for motorcycles has taken him to places most of us could ever dream of going to. For starters, he’s been on eight INOA events in his life, traveling to places as far as New York just to be a part of it. Oh, and according to Driving.ca, Yarrow participated in the Ironbutt Rally back in 2005, clocking in 11,000 miles in 11 days aboard his Yamaha FJR, doing all of that at the age of 73.

You’re going to meet some tough riders in the world, but chances are, there aren’t a lot of them that can match wits with Gil Yarrow.

Continue reading to read more about Gil Yarrow’s cross-country trip to join the 2015 INOA Rally.

Not long ago, Norton has presented an interesting concept bike named the Domiracer. It featured a tasty retro look an intriguing exhaust and the distinctive flair of a classic bike.

Well, we have some good news for those who loved that concept, because Norton has recently announced that they will launch a production version of their Domiracer concept. Naturally, there will be some differences between the production version and the concept, but the company will struggle to keep these differences to a minimum level.

Like the Domiracer concept, the new Norton Dominator SS is mostly aimed for track use, but we are hoping that it will also be street legal, so we can expect it to feature a fairly sporty pedigree.

The new model will go by the name of Dominator SS and will be followed by a more serene version which will drop the sporty SS suffix. We will have the occasion to see the new model live in January 2015 at the Donington Hall in UK.

Stay tuned for more details.

Meet the 2013 Norton Commando 961 SF (Sport Factory) – a new motorcycle that was presented at the NEC Motorcycle Live show.

The bike is technically a modified version of the standard Commando Sport and comes with a set of unique features that give a pretty distinctive character.

Among them you’ll find a new exhaust system, an optional seat, a carbon fibre fly screen, special chrome finished black race pipes, Ohlins forks and black chrome header pipes.

In terms of power the Commando 961 SF comes with the same engine as the standard Commando namely the 961 cc, parallel twin unit with hydraulic push-rod valve actuation, dry sump, 3 bearing crank, balancer shaft and cassette gear box.

The engine cranks out a maximum power of 80 PS at 6500 rpm and 90 Nm of torque at 5200 rpm.

Hit the jump for more information on the 2013 Norton Commando 961 SF.

After Stuart Garner has acquired the rights to move on the Norton name further, he started the revival of the brand with three old prototypes that were put on the paper almost 10 years ago.

However, to make its motorcycles more appealing to the public, Stuart Garner decided to make a few key upgrades to its old models. So, as far as technology is concerned the Norton Comando 961 Café Racer comes with fuel injection, a catalyst exhaust and secondary air injection which help it achieve Euro3 compliance. And the list doesn’t stop here as there were made a lot of other small and big improvements and modifications to bring the 10 year old motorcycle into the present.

Though, despite the comprehensive list of upgrades made to the Norton Commando 961 Cafe Racer, one department remained mostly unchanged. We are talking about the motorcycle’s classy design language which is fairly good looking.

Hit the jump for more information on the Norton Commando 961 Cafe Racer.