On Test: Norton Commando 961 Sport
It’s not easy to build a modern motorcycle which is instantly recognisable as part of a long-standing classic tradition and which also performs its part as an exciting bike to ride. Not, that is, without creating a plastic pastiche or a horrible homage. Retro motorcycles tend to be all style and no substance, full of function-free frills. The actual engineering becomes obscured by unnecessary and artificial augmentation that does nothing and goes nowhere. Ducati’s SportClassic models have been rather more successful than, say, the Hinckley Bonnevilles at distilling the essential essence of the original motorcycle into a 21st century sportsbike.
The current model Norton Commando 961 Sport gets off to a good start, then. It looks like a proper motorcycle. Better yet, it looks like a proper Commando…
Our own 1975 Norton Commando Mk3 Roadster was fully refurbished by Norvil Motorcycles last year. It certainly needed an overhaul and now rides like new again – the engine didn’t need much attention but the suspension and gear selection definitely benefited from the fettling. By total fluke, the old 828cc Commando came back from the shop within a fortnight of the new 961cc Commando arriving from Norton Motorcycles’ HQ, so we could ride them side by side before the worst of the winter weather set in. Parked together, they give the impression that the Commando has never been out of production, just like a roadster Guzzi or Harley.
The new 961 catches the eye like a Commando should. It retains many of the Commando’s signature styling cues, including the air-cooled engine which leans forward at an urgent angle. It even utilises a ‘timing case’ with three bulges in all the right places. At the back, the twin shocks and kicked-up mufflers ring big Commando bells – but that might not have been the case if events of the past decade had turned out a little differently.
The current Commandos being built in Britain are a development of the design which originated in the USA, when Kenny Dreer owned the Norton concern. Kenny’s Commando was significantly different to the one now being built in Britain; its capacity was 952cc and at least one version used monoshock rear suspension. Dreer oh-so-nearly steered his creation through the painstaking prototype process all the way to production, and then fell at the final hurdle. You need to raise an awful lot of capital to put a motorcycle into production and the global recession arrived just at the wrong moment – for Dreer.
British businessman Stuart Garner took up the challenge, brought the marque back to the UK, set up a company to build bikes on a small scale – think high-tech cottage industry, not mass manufacturing – and re-engineered accordingly, tapping in to the international motor racing expertise on his doorstep. The result is this 88mm by 79mm air-cooled parallel twin, which actuates its two valves per cylinder using old-fashioned pushrods. It runs at 10.1:1 compression to give around 80bhp at 6500rpm and (more usefully) some 90Nm of torque at 5200rpm.
So far, so old fashioned. But to meet Euro 3 emission standards the Norton needed to employ some technical trickery in its fuel management. A Bosch fuel injection system with twin 38mm bore throttle bodies handles the gas on the way in, while a three-way catalytic converter takes care of the gases on their way out. For the first 500 miles the mixture is set to run lean, very lean, which means that the 961 requires coaxing to start on cold days and you need to be on the ball when letting the revs fall to a trickle. Sometimes the revs disappear altogether and the engine stalls; embarrassing and potentially expensive. The fuel injection is re-mapped at the first service, we’ve been told.
The ride home from that oil change and once-over should be delightful. The 961 motor thrives on revs; it has no flywheel effect to speak of and a mere flick of the wrist sends it spinning merrily into hyperdrive. Sticking to the rev limit while running-in has been tricky…
The engine is extremely smooth, due in part to the internal balance shaft and the firing pattern of the two pots, and at 4500rpm it’s tugging hard at the leash. However, fans of the original Commando’s power characteristics may not appreciate this aspect of the 961’s personality. The new bike doesn’t have the same low-down grunt of its forebear. It’s got masses of mid-range but its power delivery is definitely ‘modern’ and not ‘classic’.
Similarly, the 961’s steering, handling and roadholding owe everything to the 21st century and nothing at all to isolastics. The Sport version uses adjustable 43mm Ohlins up front (the cafe racer version comes with upside-down forks), and three-way adjustable shocks with an entirely conventional swinging arm at the rear. Fully fueled the Commando tips the scales at around 450lb; even carrying that mass the ride initially feels on the hard side of firm. Our old Commando provides a very relaxed ride, even freshly rebuilt. On the new 961 I tend to steer my way around the bigger bumps in the road to avoid unpleasant impacts on wrist and back.
However, the steering is rewardingly responsive. The 961 is keen to turn in to each curve and quick to shift direction in the best tradition of British bendswinging. It’s less easy to manoeuvre once you reach your destination, with a typically modern lack of steering lock which will have you shuffling back and forth – but at least both feet will be flat on the floor. The saddle isn’t especially low, at around 32 inches, but the 961 is so narrow that it’s easy to reach the ground. For smaller or older riders of heavy, high or wide bikes this will come as something of a relief.
The Commando’s braking comes from twin, 320mm, semi-floating Brembo discs at the front, using four-piston semi-floating calipers. It’s every bit as sensitive asyou’d expect. Some observers have expressed disappointment that the British-built Commando (it is indeed assembled by hand by people in a workshop in the Midlands) uses some foreign components. Well, the original Norton Commandos were equipped with components from the wider European Continent too, so that’s all part of the tradition. And many of the 961’s parts are unique to the bike; 339 of the engine components won’t be found anywhere else, while a significant number of complicated items, like the clutch basket, are machined from aircraft grade aluminium billet.
At the moment, the 961 Commando is only available as a single-seater, but a dual-seat version has been doing the rounds of UK exhibitions so it’s likely to be offered as an option in the near future. Delivery of the bikes to UK customers has been slow– a delay in engine supply made it hard for Norton to hit their ten-bikes-per-week build target – but we expect the 961s to become a more familiar sight on British roads during the summer of 2011.
The price in the UK is £12,500 for the base model, including taxes, which is less than you’ll pay here for an MV Agusta Brutale or Aprilia Tuono; less than the cost of less than Benelli’s TNT or Tornado or the Yamaha MT01. Interestingly, the price of a new Norton Commando 961 Sport is also some 20% less than you’d pay Norvil Motorcycles to build you a brand new, but old-spec, electric start 828cc Norvil Commando.
Norton Motorcycles recently appointed industry veteran Dan Van Epps to head up their operations in the USA. The company expect to start delivering new Commandos to the United States in May. If you like riding modern, high performance roadsters then you’ll probably enjoy the 961. If your tastes lean towards older, long-stroke, classic thumpers then make sure you take a test ride before you buy...
Words: Rowena Hoseason
Photos: RealClassic Magazine
Rowena Hoseason writes every month for RealClassic:
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See www.nortonmotorcycles.com for the full range of new Norton motorcycles