Most common Commando model is?

1972 is said to be year the most motorcycles of all makes sold in a year. Might be surpassed by now, don't know or care.
Combat's serial numbers range from 211110 - 200976 = 10,134.
Best I can glean less than 60,000 Cdo produced in 10 yrs and about 1/6th of em were Combat bombs.
Is there a more common more numerous model produced?

hobot said:

1972 is said to be year the most motorcycles of all makes sold in a year. Might be surpassed by now, don't know or care.

Click to expand...

Why raise the subject if you don't care? :roll:

hobot said:

Combat's serial numbers range from 211110 - 200976 = 10,134.
Best I can glean less than 60,000 Cdo produced in 10 yrs and about 1/6th of em were Combat bombs.
Is there a more common more numerous model produced?

Click to expand...

Yes, they may have built more Commandos in 1972 than any other year (not that a Norton production "model year" can easily be defined), but not all of those 10,134 serial numbers would have been Combats-as standard models were also produced during the "Combat" production period. "Combat" was really an engine specification so should it actually be regarded as a model or as a subtype as the models were Fastback, Interstate, Roadster etc.?

850 Mk2/2A production supposedly started from 307311 and from the serial numbers we've seen here it continued on until at least 321xxx, so there could have been 14,000+ or so 850 2/2A Commandos, but then should we consider the 850 Mk2 and 2A as being different models?

850 Mk3 production started at 325001 and the last "official" Mk3 was 336537 so 11,537 Mk3s, however approximately 1400 of that number were assembled over a two year period after the financial collapse of NVT.

All these figures are based on the assumption that every serial number within each number series was actually issued and that may not have been so.

So, more 1972 models than any other...Possibly?

More Combats than any other model/year...unlikely.

OK thanks for the numbers variations reviewing. I don't care about current cycles sales numbers, just that enough Combats out there to keep the parts supply flowing. Your figures imply rather over 60K Cdo made. What total numbers do you come up with?

hobot said:

Your figures imply rather over 60K Cdo made. What total numbers do you come up with?

Click to expand...

Yes, well, going by the figures that we know, it could have been as high as 65,000 (55,000 being the accepted figure) but that would have to depend on there being no gaps between production batches that left a significant amount of serial numbers unused.

There is not really any such thing as an uncommon Commando is there?

If someone has the cash or credit, then they can probably have any Commando they want on any given day with a few phone calls or web-searches.

If you however need to have something like a 1961 Model 99ss today, even though you may have several tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket, you will be out of luck.....

T

beng said:

If you however need to have something like a 1961 Model 99ss today, even though you may have several tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket, you will be out of luck.....

Click to expand...

Lets be rational here, a pocketfull of money will buy just about any motorcycle made on the planet. Only someone called George decided who he would or wouldn't sell a motorcycle to ?

If you could however demonstrate that a 99SS is considerably better than a Commando, this statement may have some meaning. But given that Nortons dropped the 88SS and 99SS models (with rather low sales ?) in favour of the 650 and the Atlas, and then went for the Commando design - when sales then boomed - we don't think so ??

Bearing in mind too that H*nda today makes more motorcycles in a day than Nortons ever made in a year, then owning any Norton makes you part of an exclusive clan....

I'd have guessed that the Roadster was numerically the most common Norton model ?

Whether that is a valid statement, across 2 engine types (750 and 850), and when some had drum brakes and some had a front disc, and some had big angular sidecovers and some had the smaller version sidecovers, etc etc ???

Rohan said:

If you could however demonstrate that a 99SS is considerably better than a Commando, this statement may have some meaning. But given that Nortons dropped the 88SS and 99SS models (with rather low sales ?) in favour of the 650 and the Atlas, and then went for the Commando design - when sales then boomed - we don't think so ??.

Click to expand...

The only criteria for saying one British bike is better than another is if it's owner enjoys it. The enthusiastic owner of a Bantam or Panther could care less if another bike is faster or brakes better than his.

Norton never dropped production of the 88ss in favor of anything else, and they never produced one Commando, because Norton ceased to exist after 1962. The building was abandoned, the employees furloughed, a corporation named AMC kept the rights to use the name and a bit of the old tooling.

It was nice that for a while AMC kept producing a few of the bikes that Norton actually made(Dominator), but they did eventually stop and replaced them with their own product. In that light a Commando is not a Norton any more than a Harley Hummer is a DKW simply because it's engine was made to the DKW design.

So now lets see that 99ss that can be had?

beng said:

Rohan said:

If you could however demonstrate that a 99SS is considerably better than a Commando, this statement may have some meaning. But given that Nortons dropped the 88SS and 99SS models (with rather low sales ?) in favour of the 650 and the Atlas, and then went for the Commando design - when sales then boomed - we don't think so ??.

Click to expand...

The only criteria for saying one British bike is better than another is if it's owner enjoys it. The enthusiastic owner of a Bantam or Panther could care less if another bike is faster or brakes better than his.

Norton never dropped production of the 88ss in favor of anything else, and they never produced one Commando, because Norton ceased to exist after 1962. The building was abandoned, the employees furloughed, a corporation named AMC kept the rights to use the name and a bit of the old tooling.

It was nice that for a while AMC kept producing a few of the bikes that Norton actually made(Dominator), but they did eventually stop and replaced them with their own product. In that light a Commando is not a Norton any more than a Harley Hummer is a DKW simply because it's engine was made to the DKW design.

So now lets see that 99ss that can be had?

Click to expand...

You will not win many friends on a Commando chat room with this. We love our Commandos here.

I did not say anything bad about Commandos.

I just pointed out that the Norton name and designs are assets, just like the Triumph name and many other old brand names of consumer goods, that are traded among manufacturers and/or used to market items. And they have little to do with the original people and factories that started them.

It is just my point of view that just because something has a label pasted on it, does not always mean something, like the guy who put a Norton name on the tank of his Kawasaki, and customized it in the look of a 50's cafe bike, does not make it a Norton either.

beng said:

I did not say anything bad about Commandos.

I just pointed out that the Norton name and designs are assets, just like the Triumph name and many other old brand names of consumer goods, that are traded among manufacturers and/or used to market items. And they have little to do with the original people and factories that started them.

It is just my point of view that just because something has a label pasted on it, does not always mean something, like the guy who put a Norton name on the tank of his Kawasaki, and customized it in the look of a 50's cafe bike, does not make it a Norton either.

Click to expand...

So did the Beatles stop being the Beatles after Stuart Sutcliffe left the band?

I'm confused..! ;-)

Isn't the most "common" Commando model a 750?

From 68-73 they built 750s, I am guessing more of those than 850s from 73-76?

And of the 750s, the non combat standard "Roadster" would be most common?

Sheesh, everyone knows that REAL Nortons ended when Pa Norton was gone.
So Norton Motors (1926) Ltd was the beginning of the Norton name 'just pasted onto anything'....

Belt drives rool, OK ??
(If only I had a belt drive Norton...)

beng said:

I did not say anything bad about Commandos.

I just pointed out that the Norton name and designs are assets, just like the Triumph name and many other old brand names of consumer goods, that are traded among manufacturers and/or used to market items. And they have little to do with the original people and factories that started them.

It is just my point of view that just because something has a label pasted on it, does not always mean something, like the guy who put a Norton name on the tank of his Kawasaki, and customized it in the look of a 50's cafe bike, does not make it a Norton either.

Click to expand...

1up3down said:

Isn't the most "common" Commando model a 750?

From 68-73 they built 750s, I am guessing more of those than 850s from 73-76?

Click to expand...

I think it's probably close to around 50-50 between 750 and 850 models. Although the 750 models were made over a longer period, the level of early Commando production during '68-'71 was significantly less than '72-'75.