The Norton Commando is one of the most iconic motorcycles of all time. Launched in 1967, its sleek style has inspired hundreds of custom builds—and it’s regarded by many to be the archetype of the classic café racer.
The success of the Norton Commando was something of a surprise, since it was based around an old-style pre-unit engine. The vibration from this engine was reduced by using rubber mounts—the famous ‘Isolastic’ system that replaced the featherbed frame.
Over its ten-year production span, capacity of the parallel twin engine rose from 745 to 828 cc and several models were produced. These included the original Fastback, the S Type scrambler (with a high level exhaust), the Street Scrambler and the awkward-looking ‘Hi Rider.’
By the time Norton hit financial trouble, just two models were left: the ‘Mk.3 Interstate’ and the ‘Roadster.’ And come the mid 70s, competition from the Japanese makes become too fierce for the Commando to survive. The Commando name disappeared until 2010, when the ‘new’ Commando 961 from Stuart Garner’s reborn company appeared on the market.
Like most folks with even a passing interest in motorcycling, we’re suckers for a good Norton. And they don’t come much better than this beauty—a 1971 Commando restomod built by Retrospeed, a workshop in the Great Lakes area. Retrospeed has four employees and is headquartered in in the oddly named town of Belgium, near the…
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At some point in their career, every good custom motorcycle builder sees a client point at a bike in their portfolio and say; “build me one just like that.” It comes with the territory—especially if your work is as good as that of Union Motorcycle Classics. Union’s Mike Watanabe and Luke Ransom have a long…
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Each week, we scour the internet to bring you the juiciest five motorcycles that we haven’t already featured. Today we’ve got a Yamaha SR500 street tracker from Milan, a BMW R nineT from Belgium, and a vintage Norton from Luxembourg. Plus Steve McQueen’s Husky, and a Bōsōzoku-inspired contraption from the lads at CROIG.
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Some builders pick a formula and repeat it. Others reinvent the wheel every time and stick to one-offs. Auto Fabrica‘s methodology lands somewhere in the middle, and it’s consistently produced spectacular results. The British shop will typically pick a readily available donor bike, completely transform it, and then produce a few variations on the design,…
Read more »If you live on the east coast of the USA and you need work doing on your Norton, there’s only one person…
Read more »The Handbuilt Motorcycle show rocked Austin, Texas earlier this month. As the name implies, the show was filled to the brim with…
Read more »There’s a new name to look out for on the custom scene: Federal Moto. It’s a startup workshop from Canada, and this…
Read more »Every manufacturer has a skeleton in its closet, and in Norton’s case, it’s the Hi-Rider. Arguably the first factory-produced custom, it looked…
Read more »We first happened across this amazing Norton Commando eight months ago. It’s now gracing the pages of Tank Moto, a super-stylish magazine…
Read more »It’s hard to improve on the Norton Commando. But Bill Becker, creator of the lovely Aermacchi Sprint we featured a little while…
Read more »A friend of mine ascribes the recent decline in the number of young motorcyclists to the relentless marketing of Japanese sportbikes in…
Read more »By most accounts, owning a vintage Norton Commando can be a quixotic experience. For many, it’s the romantic ideal of a classic…
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