New Norton Caf'e Racer

Hortons Norton said:

Oh and don't bash Triumph, They are great bikes. I just talked the wife into letting me buy a Thruxton. I have a bunch of friends that ride them and put a hell of alot of miles on them at high speeds. They hold up well. http://www.ba-moto.com/home/

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I've put over 30,000 miles on my Speed Triple - would be closer to 40K if I didn't have the Commando. The only problem I've had with the bike was the stator went at about 24K - $225 for a new stator and regulator/rectifier.

Fastest I've gone on Speedy was an indicated 142 - and I was being passed by another Speed Triple! These bikes have a telltale speedo - it stores your high speed until you reset it or disconnect the battery.

Thruxton is a great bike - but it tops out around 115.

coldcommandocafe said:

There is one for sale on Ebay. starts at 15K

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Yes, Virginnia, there is a Santa Claus.

The guy is basically auctioning his "marker". Don't expect the winner to see a bike until after April, IF the e-bay lister is even legit.

I didn't bother to read the fine print, but I'm pretty sure it's a violation of e-bay policy, and possibly a total scam.

commandoman said:

...the quality is in a different league compared with the Ducati sport classics and even the old dreer prototype, which incidentally shares not one component with the new Norton,the lads on the stand were saying how they have had to re-engineer every nut and bolt on the bike to make it viable for production...

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Sorry, but that's disingenuous hyperbole at best, and closer to flat out incorrect.

I should have said a good speed and not high speed, LOL your right bill they are not as fast as a lot of bikes but what I should have said is they ride 3 or more tanks in a row without as much as a rest. And they do tend to ride at, Well lets just say flank speed. The speed triple is another class. Another great bike. Lets all pull for the Norton, I want it be all that Stuart wants it to be. Ride safe guys, Chuck.

grandpaul said:

commandoman said:

...the quality is in a different league compared with the Ducati sport classics and even the old dreer prototype, which incidentally shares not one component with the new Norton,the lads on the stand were saying how they have had to re-engineer every nut and bolt on the bike to make it viable for production...

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Sorry, but that's disingenuous hyperbole at best, and closer to flat out incorrect.

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I'm with you on that statement. Dreer's Norton looked a little far removed from a commando and so equally does this new Norton. However the new Norton doesn't look too different from the Dreer prototypes. Let's give credit where credit is due.

After being totally out of the bike scene for 25 years I was elated to come back and read of Dreer's efforts and I've been equally enthusiastic to see Garner jump in and carry the torch.

Having recently read Roy Bacon's "Norton Twins (1981)" it is evident that the "Norton" name and brand has had a long history of financial problems, owners, factories and factory locations dating back to the early foundations of the company in 1898. If this book was was rewritten today Kenny Dreer would go down in history for keeping the Norton name alive and the bike progressing for a substantial period of time. If this book could be rewritten ten years from now, hopefully a new and positive chapter of the Norton Motorcycle will unfold.

RennieK said:

Having recently read Roy Bacon's "Norton Twins (1981)" it is evident that the "Norton" name and brand has had a long history of financial problems, owners, factories and factory locations dating back to the early foundations of the company in 1898. If this book was was rewritten today Kenny Dreer would go down in history for keeping the Norton name alive and the bike progressing for a substantial period of time...

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The later chapters would have to be called something along the lines of "a parting of the ways", where Andover Norton and Villiers are still in the game when Dreer buys up U.S. rights and other fragmented logo rights, etc., and MOSTLY conglomerates the Norton name. I'm still wondering who owns what, and who is paying who? Is Andover paying a license fee to continue using the name, or is Garner paying Andover a fee to use the name in the UK?

Will technical purists argue that Norton's production history has a distinct gap, or not? HD blowhards sure love to argue over Triumph being "older" than HD; i can imagine bloodshed over a Norton claim to be older than them!

Andover have always been paying a fee for the name, even to the Umbrella Company Joe Siefert owned (cant remember the name) Now Garner owns it and he gets the licencing fee.
I suppose the next thing will be raids on Autojumbles and bike meets by the Garner Police to try to enforce the rights to the Norton Name. Remember it happened before when the Aquilini's took over. I reckon if any of us had shelled out a few million for the Norton name we'd try to do the same, protecting copyright I suppose, just hope it's done sensibly. Bloor did something similar with Triumph but in the end changed the Logo slightly to avoid the hassle.

From what I understand there are now two holders of brand names that came out of the original company and those are Norton Motorcycles UK which bought up the names that Kenny Dreer had acquired and the Norton Motors Group http://www.nortonmotors.com/ which owns Andover Norton, but there may be more.

The soup thickens...

Who cares just build a great bike. :roll:

Hi there,

commandoman put me onto this thread, my name is Simon Skinner and I am the head of design at Norton motorcycles in Donington, I started with Norton in February this year after spending the last 7 years or so at Triumph, I worked on 675 from concept through to production, Street Triple and several other projects which are not out yet.

My main job at Norton has been taking the Commando into production, I was hoping it would be straight forward but like it or not myself and my designers have had to redesign and re-engineer every nut and bolt on the bike as it just wasn't designed with production in mind, I was loathed however to change too much the stylng of the bike because one thing kenny and his guys got spot on (in my humble opinion) was the way the bike looked, so rather than reinvent the wheel I decided to build on it and in the flesh and up close the new (Garner) bike has some superb detail and quality parts, and again in my humble opinion they are a level above sport classics and Triumphs.

I would never 'put down' Triumphs, they are superb bikes for the money and what Mr Bloor has achieved is nothing short of miraculous, stil call Triumph britains best kept secret, the factory is state of the art and spotless, I have been working the bike show this week and anyone that has said 'bit pricey' with regards to Nortons ive sent them towards the Triumph stand, I have put years of my life into Triumph and would never do anything other than wish them well, we could never compete head on with Triumph so we aren't going to try, we will be a more niche brand, its awesome seeing Triumph and Norton are back together, gives me goose bumpsto be honest!!!!

Any questions feel free to ask!!!!

Thanks for the support


Simon

Welcome, Simon.

Call me skeptical, but I believe "every nut and bolt" must surely be an exaggeration.

Nevertheless, you can read my reply a few posts up as to my inclination to the new Commando, I'd love to have one, but don't see that kind of disposable income in my future for a while to come.

I'd rather pay "too much" for a new Commando than pay WAY too much for ANY HD product!

Good one Simon. Just remember that we are all, I'm sure, right behind Mr Garner and you with this. We all hope that the new Norton will be an outstanding success. People generally see this as a bit of the old "seen it all before" routine. When you add up all the mainstream (and not so mainstream) motorcycle manufacturers who have been successful in say, the last 40 years, Mr Bloor and Triumph really are THE success story. Erik Buell did a fabulous job and turned out truly different and engaging motorcycles (I own a '99 X1 Buell Lightning), however, the necessity of having to get back into bed with HD has proved his undoing. Who else? Nobody I can think of.

As I said before, the Norton Commando has earned it's right to it's reputation as a fantastic motorcycle over the past 40 years. Always puts a smile on my face. Your new Norton has to earn its rep in the same way by being a pleasure to ride and own. The blandness of motorcycles on the market today leaves me astounded. I hope all goes well.

Trust, but locate the exits........................

We have to be consistent, on one hand we bash Norton for keeping the same engine design since the late forties then we bash a newly designed Norton. I for one applaud the coming of a new Norton and I think it looks great, not that I would buy one or any new bike FWIW. Starting with a good looking bike as a first offering is a great introduction and I can't wait to see what they will come out with in the future, maybe the long promised DOHC Norton will finally see the light of day :wink: or possibly even a 4 cylinder Norton too

Jean

I went to the International Motorcycle Show tonight. Saw the new Norton and the Rotary Engine race bike. I thought it was pretty impressive. To me, it was definately new and definately Norton. I got to sit on one (wanted to fire it up, but that wasn't happening.) It has a longer cafe' reach to the bars than my roadster. I think I would have to try for some different bars if I were to get one. All in all, I liked it. 8)

Just got back from the show, And I must say it is every bit as nice in person. And Simon I must say the fit and finish looks to be top notch. It seemed that Stuart was busy answering questions so I spent my time looking over the bikes and taking a few pictures, Very nice machine. When it comes to the discussion of money I'll stay out of that as we all value things a bit differently and some have deeper pockets than others. But if this bike runs as good as it looks they should be fine, Just think of how many people spend well over $20,000.00 to ride big rocking chair bikes with bathroom fixtures and stereos that don't even handle well. People will spend money on things they like. I just want to thank all the people that had a hand in bringing this bike back, Kenny and Stuart and the guys we will never know, James would be proud. The only thing I worry about is the economy, I really want this to work for them. Now my next project is to start working on the wife to see if I can talk her into one. LOL LOL. I mean Christmas is coming right? Here's the pictures I said I would take,Take care and ride safe, Chuck.

Cheers for the comments chaps, just to (hopefully) give you an idea of the company future we have sold bike out until June next year, thats deposits taken, not people who are just interested, and remember not many come to the NEC wth the idea of putting a deposit on a bike, so the plethora of deposits are impulse buys, I genuinely think we are on to a winner and from my side of the fence it all looks pretty rosy!

I think some of you have hit the nail on the head that theres not much out there like it, as different, what do you buy if you wanta cafe racer with that quality and arguably the best name in the business? We will also be developing new products of course, as successful as Commando's proving we are aware the real key to success is a variation of models, not just retro style bikes either, we are aware what an awesome history Norton has and we shouldn't forget that but we know we need to make our own history too, watch this space!!!!!

Thanks for the pics Hortons Norton! Nice to see the red line at 8g's!

Hey Simon, thanks for stopping in. It's always nice to have a voice straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.