Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125810
by Art Friedman Photo. by Joim Huettei' ~. ,; o Z ~ w Z w -' u > u and Friedman I went to college in a amaII town in the Midwest. The only motorcycle dealer in town before the flood of Japanese machines arrived was a big Irishman named Finnegan who operated, from time to time, out of his garage, a gas station, and a bam. Finnegan carried just about every make of European and British machine at one time or other, and the pride of his shop were the Matchless and Norton 750's that he sold. Back in those days, the Nortons and "Matchsticks" were both made by AMC and used the same engine and frame. There were two models of Norton, the Atlas road machine and the P-scries scramblers. . Every summer Finnegan would sell a couple of the long-stroke 750 twins and, since the biking community in town was pretty tigh t, it was only a matter of hours until everyone had heard that Finnegan sold one of the big twins. The next afternoon about 20 of us would show up at Finnegan's by ones and twos. We'd buy a Coke and sit in the shade and bench race un til the new owner came in. They almost always did. The old AMC 750's, while they were respected for their handling and power, vibrated, you see. Now when the newly purchased machine was wrung out on its first evening ride, that vibration took its toll. Nuts fell off, the mufflers would show cracks, the glass in the instruments would shatter and the new owner usually was somewhere between tears and rage. Which, I'm afraid, was all quite satisfying to us since we didn't own anything that could perform in the same league with the N ortons and Matchlesses. Nor did our British or J a p an e se machines handle like the Norton. with their "Roadholder" Forks ,and "Featherbed" frames. So we gained the upper hand by guff.awing loudly at the shook-up machines and owners. The legendary vibration was enough to keep many people from having any interest in the Norton/Matchless I00@£00) lr~~lr~ NORmN 750 machines until 1968. That year there was a change in the industry, and N orton led it off. The Matchless died quietly with AMC, but the new Norton·Villiers company made the first superbike; the Norton Commando. I wasn't impressed. I was working for a Honda dealer at the time and we knew that the Honda 750 was about to be i'ntroduced. Man, that had four cylinders and it would surely' blow everything off the road. And be smooth, too. The Norton was still a big 750 twin, re,member. Oh, yeah. It has a rubber mount~d engine - ulsolastic" mounting they called it - but would that really get rid of all that vtbration? And even if it did, those rubber mounts also mounted the swing arm and they would have to hurt the handling. But then I began to talk to people who owned the CoDunandos. And people who had raced against them. And I read road tests. And I went 'to some road races. It was becoming inescapable: the Commando was fast. Fast as anything around. And it didn't vibrate at any frequency that would disturb you. Finally, I rode one. I t vibrated less than my Honda 450. Damn. That was a real blow to my ego. Before we got the bike that is the subject of this test, the staff was impressed by the following facts. Yes, it was fast; no, it didn't vibrate; an~, well, it was British. Being British meant that it would leak oil and have Lucas electrics. The machine we. received was a Norton 750 Commando Roadster with Combat engine and a LoCkheed, disc brake on the front wheel. The Combat engine is the 65 BHP version of the 750 Norton engine. It has a sligh t1y hairie.. camshaft and a bit more compression (10: 1 rather than 8.9:1), and can be identified by :'Roadholder" forks contribute to the Norton's road holding. The rib ,ire that was fitted when stock one went flat wasn't 8S good as stock tire. Disc is not stainless. wit rust. Because of its extreme smoothness, the Norton makes an excellent touring Imachine.