{"id":25295,"date":"2024-02-18T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T08:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=25295"},"modified":"2024-02-18T08:09:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T16:09:43","slug":"the-wayback-machine-norton-commando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/the-wayback-machine-norton-commando\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayback Machine: The Norton Commando"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

I grew up in a town small enough that our junior high school and high school were all in the same building. It was 7th through 12th grade, which meant that some of the Juniors and Seniors had cars, and one guy had a motorcycle. That one guy was Walt Skok, and the motorcycle was a \u201864 Triumph Tiger (in those days the Tiger was a 500cc single-carbed twin). It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, with big downswept chrome exhaust headers, a cool tank with a dynamite chrome rack, chrome wire wheels, and the most perfect look I had ever seen on anything. I spent every spare moment I had sneaking out into the parking lot to stare at it. Some things in the world are perfect, a precise blend of style and function (things like Weatherby rifles, 1911 handguns, C4 Corvettes, Nikon DSLRs, and 1960s Triumph motorcycles).<\/p>\n

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A \u201964 Triumph Tiger, just like the one Walt Skok owned.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back to the Triumph: One day Walt started it (I had been drooling over it for a month before I ever heard it run), and its perfection, to me, was complete. In those days, a 500cc motorcycle was enormous. When Walt fired it up, it was unlike anything I had ever heard. It wasn\u2019t lumpy and dumpy like a Harley, it wasn\u2019t a whiny whinny like a Honda, and it wasn\u2019t a tinny \u201cwing-ding-ding-ding-ding\u201d like a Suzuki or a Yamaha (they were all two-strokes back then). Nope, the Triumph was perfect. It was deep. It was visceral. It was tough. The front wheel and forks literally throbbed back and forth with each engine piston stroke. To my 12-year-old eyes and ears it was the absolute essence of a gotta-get-me-one-of-these. It looked and sounded like a machine with a heart and a soul. I knew that someday I would own a machine like this.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few years, and I was old enough own and ride my own Triumphs. I\u2019ve had a bunch of mid-\u201860s and \u201870s Triumphs\u2026Bonnevilles, Tigers, and a Daytona (which was a 500cc twin-carbed twin back then, a bike known as the Baby Bonneville). I was a young guy and those British motorcycles were perfect. They were fast, they handled well, and they sounded the way God intended a motorcycle to sound. I had a candy-red-and-gold \u201978 750 Bonneville (Triumph always had the coolest colors) that would hit an indicated 109 mph on Loop 820 around Fort Worth, and I did that regularly on those hot and humid Texas nights. Life was good.<\/p>\n

Fast forward another 50 years (and another 40 or 50 motorcycles for me). We saw the death of the British motorcycle empire, the rise and fall and rise and impending fall of Harley-Davidson, this new thing called globalization, digital engine management systems, and multi-cylinder ridiculously-porky motorcycles.<\/p>\n

So here we are, today.\u00a0\u00a0My good buddy Gerry, then the CSC service manager, owned this ultra-cool Norton Commando.\u00a0 And good buddy Steve, the CSC CEO, bought the bike and put it on display in the CSC showroom. We had a lot of cool bikes on display there, including vintage Mustangs, Harleys, Beemers, RX3s, RC3s, TT250s, and more. But my eye kept returning to that Norton. I\u2019d never ridden a Norton, but I\u2019d heard the stories when I was younger.<\/p>\n

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A selfie, sort of. A stunning motorcycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in the day (I\u2019m jumping back to the \u201860s and \u201870s again) guys who wanted to be cool rode Triumphs. I know because I was one of them. We knew about Nortons, but we didn\u2019t see them very often. They had bigger engines, they were more expensive than Triumphs, and their handling was reported to be far superior to anything on two wheels. Harleys had bigger engines and cost more than Triumphs, but they were porkers.\u00a0 Nortons were faster than Triumphs (and Triumphs were plenty fast).<\/p>\n

A lot of guys who rode Triumphs really wanted to ride Nortons. Nortons were mythical bikes. Their handling and acceleration were legendary. In the \u201860s, the hardest accelerating bike on the planet was the Norton Scrambler. Norton stuffed a 750cc engine into a 500cc frame to create that model, like Carroll Shelby did with the AC Cobra. I remember guys talking about Norton Scramblers in hushed and reverential tones back in the LBJ and Nixon years. You spoke about reverential things softly back then.<\/p>\n

Fast forward again, and here I was with Steve’s 1973 Norton Commando right in front of me (just a few feet away from where I used to write the CSC blog). Steve\u2019s Norton was magnificent. It had not been restored and it wore its patina proudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve,\u201d I said, \u201cyou need to let me ride that Norton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll have Gerry get it ready for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wow, I thought. I\u2019m going to ride a Norton. I felt like the little dog who finally caught the bus and found himself with a mouthful of bus. What do you do when that happens?<\/p>\n

I sat on the Norton that afternoon. It felt big. The pegs were set far to the rear and my hips hurt immediately from the bike\u2019s racing ergos (and maybe a little from the femur and spine fractures I suffered in a motorcycle accident a few years before that; I don\u2019t bend as easily as I used to). Maybe I shouldn’t have asked to ride this beautiful beast. Maybe my mouth had written a check my body couldn\u2019t cash.<\/p>\n

But I was committed. The Norton went back to Gerry so he could get it ready for me to ride. There could be no backing out now. \u00a0I was nervous, I was excited, and I was a little giddy. The only bikes I had ridden for the last 7 or 8 years were 150cc Mustangs and the 250cc Zongs. Lightweight bikes. Singles. Under 25 horsepower. Electric starters and all the amenities. Modern stuff.\u00a0 I thought about riding the 850 Norton. It dawned on me that I had not even heard it run yet. I realized I liked electric starters. I hadn\u2019t kick started a bike in probably 35 years. The Norton was an 850, and it was kick start only. No electric starter. Hmmm.<\/p>\n

When I arrived at the plant, Steve pushed the Norton outside for me. We both tried to figure out where the ignition key went (it\u2019s on the left side of the bike). We tried to guess at the ignition key\u2019s run spot (it has four or five positions). We picked the second one and I tried kicking the engine. It was a complicated affair. You had to fold the right footpeg in, and when you kick the starter, you had to try to not hit the gear shift lever on the right side of the bike. We kicked it a couple of times. Hmmm again. Lots of compression. Then Steve had to run back into the plant to take a phone call. I tried kick starting the Norton a couple of times again. \u00a0 Not even a cough from the engine.<\/p>\n

I played with the key and clicked it over one more notch. Another kick, and the mighty 850 fired right up. Ah, success!<\/p>\n

The Norton settled into an easy idle.\u00a0 It was wonderful. It sounded just like Walt Skok\u2019s Triumph. I was in the 7th grade again. I looked around to see if Steve had seen me start it, but no one was there. It was just me and the Norton. Okay, I thought, I\u2019ll just ride around in the parking lot to get the feel of the clutch, the throttle, and the brakes.<\/p>\n

Whoa, I thought, as I let the clutch out gingerly. That puppy had power! The Norton was turning over lazily and it felt incredibly powerful as I eased the clutch out. I tried the rear brake and there was nothing (oh, that’s right, the rear brake is on the other side). I tried the front brake, and it was strong. Norton had already gone to disk brakes by 1973, and the disk on Steve\u2019s Commando was just as good as a modern bike\u2019s brakes are today.<\/p>\n

I rode the Norton into the shop so Gerry could fill the fuel tank for me. The Norton has a sidestand and a centerstand, but you can\u2019t get to either one while you are on the bike. You have to hold the bike up, dismount on the left, and then put it on the centerstand. The side stand was under there somewhere, but I didn\u2019t want to mess around trying to catch it with my boot. It was plenty scary just getting off the Norton and holding it upright. It was more than a little scary, actually. I\u2019m riding my boss\u2019s vintage bike, it\u2019s bigger than anything I\u2019ve been on in years, and I don\u2019t want to drop it.<\/p>\n

Gerry gave me \u201cthe talk\u201d about kick starting the Norton. \u201cI don\u2019t like to do it while I\u2019m on the bike,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it kicks back, it will drive your knee right into the handlebars and that hurts. I always do it standing on the right side of the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hmmmm. As if I wasn\u2019t nervous enough already.<\/p>\n

I tried the kickstarter two or three times (with everybody in the service area watching me) and I couldn\u2019t start the thing, even though I had started it outside (when no one was around to witness my success). Gerry kicked the Norton once for me (after my repeated feeble attempts) and it started immediately. Okay. I got it. You have to show it who\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n

I strapped my camera case to the Norton\u2019s back seat (or pillion, as they used to say in Wolverhampton), and then I had a hard time getting back on the bike. I couldn\u2019t swing my leg over the camera bag. Yeah, I was nervous. And everybody in the shop was still watching me.<\/p>\n

With the Norton twerking to its British twin tango, I managed to turn it around and get out onto Route 66. A quick U-turn (all the while concentrating intensely so I would remember \u201cshift on the right, brake on the left\u201d) and I rode through the mean streets of north Azusa toward the San Gabriels. In just a few minutes, I was on Highway 39, about to experience riding Nirvana.<\/p>\n

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This is what a motorcycle instrument cluster should be. The Enfield Interceptor<\/a> Gresh and I tested in Baja was very similar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wow, this is sweet, I thought as I climbed into the San Gabriels. I had no idea what gear I was in, but gear selection is a somewhat abstract concept on a Norton.\u00a0 Which gear didn’t seem to make any difference.\u00a0 The Commando had power and torque that just wouldn\u2019t quit.\u00a0 More throttle, go faster, shifting optional. It didn\u2019t matter what gear I was in (which was good, because all I knew was that I was somewhere north of 1st).<\/p>\n

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A photo stop along the East Fork Road. That’s East Fork, as in the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I looked down at the tach. It had a 7000-rpm redline and I was bouncing around somewhere in the 2500 zip code. And when I say bouncing around, I mean that literally. The tach needle oscillated \u00b1800 rpm at anything below 3000 rpm (it settled down above 3000 rpm, a neighborhood I would visit only once that day). The Norton’s low end torque was incredible. I realized I didn\u2019t even know how many gears the bike had, so I slowed, rowed through the gears and counted (the number was four).<\/p>\n

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A shot from the rear. I was shooting with a Nikon D3300 DSLR (an entry-level digital camera) and the Nikon 16-35 lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Norton was amazing in every regard. The sound was soothing, symphonic, and sensuous (how’s that for alliteration?). It\u2019s what God intended motorcycles to be. Highway 39 is gloriously twisty and the big Norton (which suddenly didn\u2019t feel so big) gobbled it up. The Norton never felt cumbersome or heavy (it\u2019s only about 20 lbs heavier than my 250cc RX3). It was extremely powerful. I was carving through the corners moderately aggressively at very tiny throttle openings. Just a little touch of my right hand and it felt like I was a cannon-launched kinetic energy weapon. Full disclosure: I\u2019ve never been launched from a cannon, but I\u2019m pretty sure what I experienced that day on the Norton is what it would feel like. Everything about the Norton felt (and here\u2019s that word again) perfect.
\nI was having so much fun that I missed the spot where I normally would stop for the CSC glamour shots. There\u2019s a particular place on Highway 39 where I could position a bike and get some curves in the photo (and it looked great in the CSC ads).\u00a0 But I sailed right past it. I was enjoying the ride.<\/p>\n

When I realized I missed the spot where I wanted to stop for photos, it made me think about my camera.\u00a0 I reached behind to make sure it was still on the seat behind me, but my camera wasn\u2019t there! Oh, no, I thought, I lost my camera, and God only knows where it might have fallen off. I looked down, and the camera was hanging off the left side of the bike, captured in the bungee net. Wow, I dodged a bullet there.<\/p>\n

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The view from above. It was a glorious day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I pulled off and then I realized: I don\u2019t want to kill the engine because then I\u2019ll have to start it, and if I can\u2019t, I\u2019m going to feel mighty stupid calling Gerry to come rescue me.<\/p>\n

Okay, I thought, here’s the drill. \u00a0 Pull off to the side of the road, find a flat spot, keep the engine running, put all my weight on my bad left leg, swing my right leg over the seat, hold the Norton upright, get the bike on the centerstand, unhook the bungee net, sling the camera case over my shoulder, get back on the bike, and all the while, keep the engine running.\u00a0 Oh, yeah.\u00a0 No problem.<\/p>\n

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This is what a motorcycle should look like. Why can’t other manufacturers do this? Oh, wait, Enfield did…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actually, though, it wasn\u2019t that bad. And I was having a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

I arrived at the East Fork bridge sooner than I thought I would (time does indeed fly when you\u2019re having fun). I made the right turn. I would have done the complete Glendora Ridge Road loop, but the CalTrans sign told me that Glendora Ridge Road was closed. I looked for a spot to stop and grab a few photos of this magnificent beast.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I noticed that the left footpeg rubber had fallen off the bike. It\u2019s the rubber piece that fits over the foot peg. Oh, no, I thought once again. I didn\u2019t want to lose pieces of Steve\u2019s bike, although I knew no ride on any vintage British vertical twin would be complete without something falling off. \u00a0 I made a U-turn and rode back and forth several times along a half-mile stretch where I thought I lost the rubber footpeg cover, but I couldn\u2019t find it. When I pulled off to turn around yet again, I stalled the bike.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. No doubt about it now. I knew I was going to have to start the Norton on my own.<\/p>\n

We (me and my good buddy Norton, that is) had picked a good spot to stop. I dismounted using the procedure described earlier, I pulled the black beauty onto its centerstand, and I grabbed several photos. I could tell they were going to be good. Sometimes you just know when you\u2019re behind the camera that things are going well. And on the plus side of the ledger, all of the U-turns I had just made (along with the magnificent canyon carving on Highway 39) had built up my confidence enormously. The Norton was going to start for me because I would will it to.<\/p>\n

And you know what? That\u2019s exactly what happened. One kick and all was well with the world. I felt like Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, and Peter Fonda, all rolled up into one 66-year-old teenager.\u00a0 At that moment I was a 12-year-old kid staring at Walt Skok\u2019s Triumph again. Yeah, I\u2019m bad. A Norton will do that to you. I stared at the bike as it idled. It was a living, breathing, snorting, shaking, powerful thing. Seeing it alive like that was perfect. I suddenly remembered my Nikon camera had video. Check this out\u2026<\/p>\n