GOING COMMANDO

THERE WERE CRIES of rapture when pictures of the ‘new’ Norton Commando 961 hit the internet and magazines back in the two thousands. Here was a painfully beautiful motorcycle that heralded the return of Norton as a force in the motorcycle game. The promise of history, performance, exclusivity and exotica proved overwhelming for many, and despite an eye-watering price, the order books were filled prior to machines being built in any real numbers.

Excitement and expectation soon turned to despair though, as tales of unfulfilled orders, years of delay, and then poor build quality and even poorer backup from Norton itself, ruined the experience for many.

The design of the Norton 961 was pretty much the same as the bike built by Kenny Dreer in the USA, and after millionaire entrepreneur Stuart Garner took ownership back to the UK, the idea of a production version started to gain momentum. There were changes to Dreer’s design for ‘mass’ consumption but overall the Garner Norton looked much the same as the Dreer Norton.

I first saw one in the flesh in the USA around the time the first production versions were sent there