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/128005
Norton /nternationa/652 By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kef Edge U> ::s Cl ::s <[ 20 he y sa id it 'd ne ver happen but it has: There ar e customers ou t there in a handful of countries, including Brit ain, who have just taken delivery of a new No rton motorcycle! No, it's not a VB megabike or chilledou t V-twi n cruiser, which many hold to be at odds with the heritage of Britain 's most historic marque, nor even a retroreplica mod ern classic, but a twin-cam street single, beari ng a fam ou s mod el nam e wh ich recalls the 1950s roadgoing vers ion of the leg en dar y 500cc dohc Manx GP racer: the Internati onal 652. America n -based Norto n Mo to rs Int ernation al / NMI, holders of the Norton tra demark in the UK and USA, contin ues to lag b ehind in d eliver in g its promised 1500cc VB Ne mesis ultrabike to the market. And, in what can with the best wi ll in the wo rld only be d eemed ' a smo kescreen, NM I al so s peaks of the future arrival of a V-twin cruiser, 600 Supersport , d esm o Supermon o , push rod VB roadster a nd th e kind of fuel- injected 750cc four-cylinder Superbike that Ca giva has ju st taken a full decade to develop properly and fina lly bri ng to market in the form of the MV Agusta F4. But a firm dose of rea lity has now been injected in to the future o f Brita in's lost lege n d, with deliver ies of the first production No rtons of any kind fo r over six years, and th e first w it h poppe t va lves for more than a quarter cen tury. Thi s has come about th anks to th e o ther facti on - Germa n, ra th e r th a n A me rican - in today's multifa ceted, mul tina tiona l No rton family, with the completion of th e firs t bat ch of BMWpower ed custom er Interna tionals by the owner of the Norton nam e in continental Eu rope , N orton Mo tors Deutschland / NMD's Joe Seifert . To add to the complexity, these bikes are in fact Made in England for NMD by Ti gcraft, th e world-leading Supermono sp ecia lis ts! Norton's leading worldwide distributor from the firm 's rotary days, Seifert is rega rd ed by many marque en thusiasts, 'even in Britain, as the custodian of tradi tional No rto n eng ineering values. As a d ieh ard enthusiast who has clocked up six-figure road mileage on classic Commando twin s over the years, as well as a star rider in Europea n Vin tage races on his 1949 "Gard en Ga te" Manx, 44-yearold Seifert's credentials to resu scitate the No rton na me are irreproacha ble. They also precede by so me time NMI's compe ting attempts to do so . Well , maybe Although it took a lot of time and a little help from some friends in Germany, the Norton marque has finally retaken to the road in the form of the Norton 652 International. no t "com peting" - "parallel" might be a bett er term, says Seifert. "Bu ild in g a 1500cc VB mons trosi ty an d daring to embellish it with the Norton name is tan tamo u n t to her esy," he decl aims. "It's also senseless, because it d iminishes th e inherent va lue of the bad ge. You have to observe the truth of time, and develop a modern interpre tatio n of the ma rque' s trad it ion a l eng inee ring arc hitecture. "J oh n Bloor has recognized this by focusi ng on the modem Triumph tripl es a nd th e fo r thcomi ng n ew Bonn evill e