VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P145
Timeless motorcycles. Unfor-
tunately, they were also ma-
chines whose time had appar-
ently been yesterday. The new
Commando looked a great deal
like its brethren from the '60s,
and the company's "new and
improved" bike featured little that
was revolutionary. The famed
Isolastic suspension was a fancy
name for inserting rubber pieces
into the engine mounting system.
It "sounds impressive enough,"
said Cycle News, "but it's really
an exterior afterthought to make
a lumpy engine smooth." Nev
-
ertheless, the Norton produced
less vibration than the Yamaha,
so score one for the Brits.
One of the most telling of all
graphs in the story dealt with the
tale of oil-leaking British motor
-
cycles, of which the Norton 850
was one. "Ours leaked anywhere
from moderately to profusely,"
Cycle News wrote. "On one two-
up touring venture, it required a
quart of oil every other gas stop
(200 miles). The Norton leaked
constantly from the head gasket,
streaming back onto carbs, air
box, side covers, and rear tire.
You could watch it come out."
The Yamaha was dry. Dry as
a Montgomery Martini. Dry as
the high desert. The oil poured
into the engine case filling hole
stayed there. These sentences, in
a nutshell, explain why the British
motorcycle industry went bloody
belly-up in the '70s.
The staff proceeds to fire off the
many differences between the two
machines. The TX 750 has five
speeds. The Norton shifts through
its four gears, and it does so on
the right side of the motorcycle.
The Yamaha has Mikuni carbs, the
Norton sticking to it Amals. The
Norton required three kicks before
it started. Pushing a button would
bring the Yamaha to life.
The Norton wins the test, by
the way, and it does so simply
because the test crew was likely
a group of hard-core motorcy
-
clists. The Yamaha was more
reliable, had better electrics,
was more comfortable and
performed well in nearly all the
categories. But the Norton was
"more plain fun to ride," and at
the end of the day, provided that
you aren't calling for a tow truck,
riding is all about having fun.
The Norton "turns easily…when a
corner comes up, it just lays over
and goes where you point it."
The TX 750 not only fell to Nor
-
ton in this test, but it would go on
to have a miserable and short ex-
istence in Yamaha's lineup. The
TX was plagued with an unusual
issue of frothing its own engine
oil, with the aforementioned
omni phase balancer being the
culprit here. Yamaha dispatched
scores of techs to fix the issue
and while the 1974 model re
-
flected the necessary repairs, the
damage had been done. Nobody
wanted this motorcycle, and it
disappeared from the lineup.
On the dirt at the Ascot TT, it
was Aldana over Roberts, Norton
over Yamaha. On the road, the
Commando topped the TX 750.
Final score: Tradition 2, Progress
0. Lift another pint for the lads
from Wolverhampton!
CN
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(Left) In the same issue, Dave Aldana won on a Norton at the Ascot National TT. It was a very good issue for the
Brits. (Right) After losing the comparison, the XT 750 soon vanished from Yamaha's lineup.
