The Norton 961/SS Commando is a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

that was produced by Norton Motorcycles, the

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

based company that bought the rights to the

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada *Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

brand name. Owner Kenny Dreer progressed from restoring and upgrading

Norton Commando The Norton Commando is a British Norton-Villiers motorcycle with an OHV pre-unit parallel-twin engine, produced by the Norton Motorcycle company from 1967 until 1977. Initially having a nominal ''750 cc'' displacement, actually , in 197 ...

s to producing whole machines. He modernised the design and in the early 2000s went into production of the VR880. This machine was built on the basis of the original Commando, with upgraded components and a significantly modified engine. Dreer produced 50 of these machines before deciding to build an all-new motorcycle. With funding from Oliver Curme, Dreer hired a small design and development team led by Paul Gaudio (Design and development director), Simon-Pierre Smith (Lead Engineer), and Patrick Leyshock (Testing, Sourcing.) The 961 Commando never reached production in America due to lack of funding, and the company closed its doors in April 2006. The Commando 961 SS combined traditional Norton

cafe racer A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

styling with new technology. This included

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

wheels to reduce weight, a counterbalanced engine, and a chro-moly tubular steel frame.

Future

After fifteen years of US ownership UK businessman Stuart Garner, owner of Norton Racing Ltd, acquired the rights to the Norton Commando brand. His company, Norton Motorcycles (UK) Ltd, established a new factory at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in 2008 to manufacture a new Commando model, designed by Simon Skinner. There are three models in the new Commando range: a limited edition of 200 Commando 961 SEs, a Cafe Racer and a Sport model. In March 2010 Norton shipped the first new Norton Commando for over 30 years; and by mid-April 2010 the company was shipping 5-10 new machines per week. The engine is a 961 cc

fuel-injected Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All compr ...

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

ohv An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

270° parallel-twin that produces . The short-stroke engine is

oversquare In a reciprocating piston engine, the stroke ratio, defined by either bore/stroke ratio or stroke/bore ratio, is a term to describe the ratio between cylinder bore diameter and piston stroke length. This can be used for either an internal comb ...

, with an 88 x 79 mm bore and stroke. At the bike's front are inverted (USD) forks and twin disc brakes. The engine (rather like the BSA A7) is "semi-unit", in that the 5-speed gearbox is a separate casting, but is bolted directly to the primary chaincase. Some styling is reminiscent of the original Norton Commando, especially the engine and petrol tank. The new Norton has received favourable press reviews. In a March 2012 interview, Garner revealed that Norton was receiving support from the UK Government's Export Credit Guarantee service, which should alleviate cash-flow problems and enable a significant increase in factory output. Garner added that Norton now makes an increasing number of components "in-house", reducing reliance on outside suppliers.

References

External links

Norton Motorcycles web site
{{Norton motorcycles 961 Commando Motorcycles introduced in 2006 Standard motorcycles

Future

See also

References

External links