Correct horn position

cliffa said:

Apparently in 1966 Dr. Stefan Bauer said to John Favill, Bob Trigg and Bernard Hooper "We need to make sure these horns continue to work reliably as Atlas buyers are complaining that vibrations are shaking their horns to pieces, and the warranty claims are killing us" , And "In all my years at Rolls Royce we have never had a horn fail". For them this was like a project from heaven, as until then they had been developing (amongst other things) a stepped piston two stroke and a twin rotor Wankel which had no horn problems at all. So they went to their drawing boards with vigor and came up with the idea of hiding the horn deep in the bike, facing it backwards to avoid road grime and also rubber mounting the engine to isolate it from vibration. It was in fact a very innovative setup (which later won many awards in the industry for horn mount design), and placed it at point "B" in this drawing below. As you can see the horn is mounted exactly on the axis of the the rocking motion between the rubber mounted engine and the rear wheel spindle, which by transmitting higher frequency vibrations out through the rear tyre was also part of the vibration reducing system. During prototype road tests by the likes of Frank Damp and his brave colleagues (see video of horn mount testing below (for secrecy disguised as frame testing)) a fortunate byproduct of this system was noticed. Incredibly you could still feel the handlebar grips after a 50 mile ride, and hence were able to test the horn whilst in motion! The NV board were delighted, and commisioned Wolff Olins to to use this as a marketing feature. They produced the famous Green Globe emblem which is in fact in the shape of a horn emitting sound waves and cleverly christened the system "Hornelastic". However, it seems that unfortunately something very similar to the "Hornelastic" name had already been used by a product advertised in magazines normally found in some newsagents, (but beyond the reach of children and wives). It was extremely fortunate that one of the chief executives on the NV board came across one these adverts and averted what would have been a very embarrassing episode in Norton's history. By way of a thank you the Norton board took his initials I.S.O. and the rest, well we all know....

The Commando was born !!


Horn location..



Horn testing..

Click to expand...

cliffa said:

Apparently in 1966 Dr. Stefan Bauer said to John Favill, Bob Trigg and Bernard Hooper "We need to make sure these horns continue to work reliably as Atlas buyers are complaining that vibrations are shaking their horns to pieces, and the warranty claims are killing us" , And "In all my years at Rolls Royce we have never had a horn fail". For them this was like a project from heaven, as until then they had been developing (amongst other things) a stepped piston two stroke and a twin rotor Wankel which had no horn problems at all. So they went to their drawing boards with vigor and came up with the idea of hiding the horn deep in the bike, facing it backwards to avoid road grime and also rubber mounting the engine to isolate it from vibration. It was in fact a very innovative setup (which later won many awards in the industry for horn mount design), and placed it at point "B" in this drawing below. As you can see the horn is mounted exactly on the axis of the the rocking motion between the rubber mounted engine and the rear wheel spindle, which by transmitting higher frequency vibrations out through the rear tyre was also part of the vibration reducing system. During prototype road tests by the likes of Frank Damp and his brave colleagues (see video of horn mount testing below (for secrecy disguised as frame testing)) a fortunate byproduct of this system was noticed. Incredibly you could still feel the handlebar grips after a 50 mile ride, and hence were able to test the horn whilst in motion! The NV board were delighted, and commisioned Wolff Olins to to use this as a marketing feature. They produced the famous Green Globe emblem which is in fact in the shape of a horn emitting sound waves and cleverly christened the system "Hornelastic". However, it seems that unfortunately something very similar to the "Hornelastic" name had already been used by a product advertised in magazines normally found in some newsagents, (but beyond the reach of children and wives). It was extremely fortunate that one of the chief executives on the NV board came across one these adverts and averted what would have been a very embarrassing episode in Norton's history. By way of a thank you the Norton board took his initials I.S.O. and the rest, well we all know....

The Commando was born !!


Horn location..



Horn testing..

Click to expand...