THE NORTON COMMANDO. WHEN FIRST released in 1967, if you didn’t have one, you wanted one. Or, as a BSA/ Triumph fan, you hated but secretly admired them. Designed and brought to market in record time by the amalgamated AMC, the bike was in production for about 10 years and won the Motorcycle News Best Motorcycle Award five years in a row.
Ironically, for a bike rushed through the development process, the Wolff Ohlins-designed bodywork was futuristic to look at, and it was innovative, with the Isolastic engine mounting (another award-winning feature) trying to tame the ancient-but-canted-forward Atlas-based engine and swingarm mounted to the AMC ‘box. It won hearts and it won races, in the UK and over in the all-important United States of America – and would become one of the best swansongs of the British bike industry.
A final hurrah from the UK was all the Commando would be remembered for... until a professional Norton specialist from that there USA, Kenny Dreer, decided to move on from restoring and modifying customers’ Norton Commandos to create a whole new model – a continuation, or what could have been, should British industry bosses not have been so pigheaded and blinkered.
Dreer’s idea was gradual, buying the rights to the brand, then utilising his team’s engineering skills to make original Commandos brake, handle and go better, and then culminating in a complete package, the Norton VR880. Based on the original more than the 961 is, the 880 still had ‘80%’ new parts. Fewer than 40 are reported to have been made, though there is one at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.
The American team wanted more. They designed the 961, an all-new bike, including prototypes with a 270-degree crank. But it all got too much financially and the story sadly went quiet – again.
The nomadic Norton brand entered another new, chaotic, excitable phase in 2007, when one Stewart Garner bought the rights to the name and the designs to the 961, with a plan to build the Commando in Britain. It was re-engineered by a small team based heavily on the Dreer if it put the Norton name on the cover was quickly becoming a joke, which then became a nightmare for many customers, as illegal financial dealings by Garner were uncovered that cost many their bikes, deposits, or even worse, their jobs. Another chapter ended. Again.
