Norton

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
The absence of a rear end on modern bikes is a really ugly thing to me also and the number plate on the side of the swingarm etc. is just ugly too. I did contemplate buying a modern Norton Commando last year but there is just something wrong with the overall design that doesn't flow, particularly the tailpiece and side panels. The tail would have been much better if it had been domed like the Triumph Thruxton in my opinion and the side panels look like they shrunk in the wash. The atlas, if that is what the production really will look like seems to have gone full-on plumber's nightmare. An engine should be obvious, clean and recognisable for what it is in my opinion.
 

Scrappy

Legendary Knight
The absence of a rear end on modern bikes is a really ugly thing to me also and the number plate on the side of the swingarm etc. is just ugly too. I did contemplate buying a modern Norton Commando last year but there is just something wrong with the overall design that doesn't flow, particularly the tailpiece and side panels. The tail would have been much better if it had been domed like the Triumph Thruxton in my opinion and the side panels look like they shrunk in the wash. The atlas, if that is what the production really will look like seems to have gone full-on plumber's nightmare. An engine should be obvious, clean and recognisable for what it is in my opinion.

Have you seen the Norton Commando Street re-designed by Guy Willison & Henry Cole?

commando-street.jpg
 

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
I hadn't actually seen it finished although I did see it in progress as I had been watching it on on-demand and ITV don't have anything after episode 5 (I think) of that season. I would prefer a Manx Norton style tank personally though and a nice curvy rump. Maybe I'm imagining things but that bike says Kawasaki 'Z' to me rather than Norton.
 

chas

Legendary Knight
So, no pics yet but this is the story of Tiffer's Norton...
Tiff (First name Christopher) I've known since school. I'm one of three people who still call him by his old nickname but he still answers to it.
Anyhow, when we were in our early 20s Tiff bought a mongrel Dommie. 50's wideline frame, sixties 600 lump. Was just 'his bike' as we used to own things back then. Kept on to it through marriage and kids, some years not ridden ("How's the bike mate""Last time I used it was as a fucking sawhorse") but about the time ten years ago when I was working with him he had it in regular commission. Got a call from him maybe five or six years ago with the confession....
"I've sold the Dommie"
I got it, his day job is in construction and then has a sideline of renting out Tipis, hand (machine, by pearl, the singer) sewn canvas, 21 ft poles hand planed from trees. (some poor bastard working for him). Basically time poor and 50% of the time he wanted a blast the old girl would have a cough and not oblige.
When he advertised it a brill thing happened. A guy who had owned the Dommie before Tiff wanted to buy it. Had pics of it as was when he bought it in the 70s as a crashed IoM race bike. Obv no matter who offered what for it that guy got the sale.
Tiff has just bought it back off the same bloke, only it's been beautifully restored. Not overly though, it doesn't look 'showroom'.
I've only seen Tiff's pics so far and obv not mine to share. When I see the bike (hopefully later this week) I'll take my own and ask permission for sharing.
Tiff bought it back in the sound knowledge that all the reasons he sold it are still in the bike, despite the resto. But he's in a place where he can afford another bike alongside now so the issue has different weight.

I'm chuffed for my mate.
 

Sarky B’stard

Legendary Knight
Some machines just invade your soul and others don’t even register. It was a neighbour in Leicester maybe 15 yrs my senior with a fully fettled Domiracer that turned me onto bikes circa 1964/5. You could hear him coming from the other side of the golf course. Now the noise would raise my hypocritical hackles but not like a screaming Jap 600!
 

chas

Legendary Knight
Some machines just invade your soul and others don’t even register. It was a neighbour in Leicester maybe 15 yrs my senior with a fully fettled Domiracer that turned me onto bikes circa 1964/5. You could hear him coming from the other side of the golf course. Now the noise would raise my hypocritical hackles but not like a screaming Jap 600!
I love that bike and it's not even mine. :D Shared history.
 
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