Norton Commando: 750 "Domiracer"

If you really want to hurt yourself, start racing bikes from the 1920s. They were not that smart. Even a 1930s Garden Gate Manx will stand up and run wide under brakes. Triumph did not do much good until Percy Tate got going, and what he did, no-one should really do. Edward Turner did not believe in racing, but racing was what Norton were only ever about. A 1954 Featherbed Norton International was very nice, but nobody seemed to like them. One of my mates had one, but I have only ever seen that one and one other. Racing bikes do not make good road bikes, and road bikes don't make good racing bikes - even though the technology might be similar. A Seeley Condor 500 might not be all bad, but you would always be being booked by the cops. How would you be with a VFR750 Honda on the road -waste of space ?
That stuff about 'race on Sunday, sell on Monday' just shows how ignorant people were. When you watch a road race, what you see IS NOT what you get.
If you crash a modern race bike at relatively high speed, you will usually walk away unhurt unless you hit something. In the old days guys got killed when they crashed at much lower speeds. Some idiots still wear pudding-basin helmets to make themselves look like pre-war racers.
Your photo of the International Norton is lovely, but it sends a chill through me. If I'd had that in the 60s, I would have raced it. - NOT GOOD !

I don't remember Triumph being 'such a success'. Percy Tait's Triumph was one of the unit construction models with the 65.5mm stroke. My short stroke motor was a 650 with a 63mm stroke crank. It was simply nasty, and when it had megaphone exhausts it was not rideable at all. It desperately needed a 6 speed close box, and I don't think Triumph ever had those. I used to believe in Triumph, but I learned better. Nortons are far superior. I would never have thought it would be so easy to get a Commando motor going quick enough to be competitive. I doubted the design. I now think it must be near perfect - that crank is a shocker. Anything that ugly should not be good.
When I raced my Triton 500, it was always against bigger capacity modern bikes and two strokes. It was always good fun. I usually ran high gearing. I only ever really lowered the gearing once. I led an Allpowers race for almost a lap, but got passed near the end of a straight. I ended-up spearing-off to avoid hitting other riders in the next corner. I went into the corners much hotter than most other guys. If I ran high gearing, my rides were much safer. I don't mind being passed as long as the guys who do it keep going. Many guys who ride big fast bikes seem to shit themselves when they have to get around tight corners, after a big burst down a straight.

If a 500cc race-kitted Triumph Tiger 100 had a duff spark plug, it might perform better than a 500cc Manx Norton which had the same problem. The Tiger 100 would go around half of the corners better.