Storm warning
The definition of ‘storm’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is: ‘a violent disturbance of the atmosphere’ or ‘a violent shower of missiles or blows’. And yet, to look at it, the AJS ‘Stormer’ is anything but: the machine’s dainty, elegant lines hardly look capable of creating havoc of any variety.
Yet, scratch beneath the surface of this pretty machine and it is, theoretically speaking, made of the sort of stuff that could – and has – showered missiles. This is the story of the AJS Stormer, the history of which fuses Second World War missile technology and brilliant engineering.
The AJS Stormer went into production around 1968/1969. It had AJS branding but was built by Norton-Villiers, which had acquired Associated Motorcycles (AMC) – which included AJS – a few years earlier. Mike Jackson, who was AJS’s European sales manager from 1969, said: “I was happy to be involved with the Stormer and in my view it is a very underrated bike… It was designed by Bob Trigg, who was he was an ex scrambles rider from the Midlands.
“Bob also styled the Norton Commando and helped design the Norton Isolastic anti vibration system and then had an amazing career with Yamaha after he left Norton. But the Stormer was the first competition bike he designed from the start.”
It was – as one
