Never the biggest manufacturer, Norton nevertheless made its impact on the sporting world, and while it is fair to say road racing was the Birmingham firm’s main focus, Norton did some brilliant off-roaders too.
In the old days, there was much less specialisation in motorcycle sport, and it was not uncommon for top riders in one discipline to also compete in other genres the factory wanted representation in. Norton’s road-racing star Geoff Duke was a more than capable off-road rider.
Alongside his racing duties, Geoff could, and did, win national trials – the forerunner of the British Championship series – and posted third in the Motocross d’Nations in the late 1940s. This connection with racing and off-road often went further than just the riders, and it is fairly well known the Featherbed frame idea came from Northern Irish engineers the McCandless brothers. But it’s less reported they prototyped what would become probably the best looking model Norton ever produced – the 500T.
In the immediate post-Second World War period, Norton needed a competition model to use in all sorts of club motorcycle sport and do duty as a ride-to-work machine too. Their Colonial specification, which was available on all machines in their range, ensured their machines were successful in the 1930s sporting scene, be it at club or international level. It was a reasonable assumption to expect the same formula of a lightly modified stock machine to be successful again after the Second World War, so the company took their Model 18 500cc single, modified it as per the 1930s… And
