Nortons in Books

Just for a bit of a change in direction, what about a list of books (not technical stuff such as rebuild guides or shop manuals!) which feature or at least mention Norton Commandos?
To kick off, here's 2 by Brian Lecomber. He was a British aerobatics champion, and obviously a keen biker as well. Only wrote 3 books, but 2 of these have a Commando playing an important role - Turn Killer and Talkdown. the other book, Dead Weight, is to my mind certainly worth reading as well.
Here's a link to a discussion of his work - https://oikofuge.com/brian-lecomber/
Good reading!

Kick Start by Douglas Rutherford. Thief makes good use of a Commando all through the book. NV lent the author a Commando for him to base it on.

Lecomber 's books are great. He does mention in Turn Killer he used his right foot to start tapping down through the gears to find neutral. Must have rearsets or a reverse cam..

komet said:

Kick Start by Douglas Rutherford. Thief makes good use of a Commando all through the book. NV lent the author a Commando for him to base it on.

Lecomber 's books are great. He does mention in Turn Killer he used his right foot to start tapping down through the gears to find neutral. Must have rearsets or a reverse cam..

Click to expand...

...although, when you've slowed to a halt and have changed down to first, you do "tap down" into neutral.

A different cam plate is not always needed to invert the shift direction. With a Norton box, it can usually be done by changing linkages. A TTI box is different - the outer case can foul the linkage, so a different change drum is needed.

To my mind, a Commando is a strange motorcycle, however an Atlas is not. But they both seem to be equally fast. My mate used to do pre-delivery on Commandos and H1 and H2 Kawasakis. They used to road test the bikes on a scenic road alongside a river in Melbourne - the Commandos were right up there with the 'widow-makers'.
I only ever saw one Commando road-raced. Jeff Curley was sponsored to ride it by a dealer - he won a production race with it. But most of us would not buy them.