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/1526959
N orton-Villiers employees must've beamed with British pride and ordered another pint at the Slaughtered Lamb pub when the lead cooled and the Linotype machine spit out the July 31, 1973, issue of Cycle News. On page six, there was news that Norton-mounted David Aldana had powered to a big win at the Ascot TT round of the AMA's Grand National Cham- pionship. Aldana's victory came less than 24 hours after he had won the Gardena Cup, a half-mile race held at the same facility. Though the Cup race was a non- National, the race results read like a list of who's who in AMA Flat Track, with John Hateley, Gene Romero, Mert Lawill being just a few of the names who took part in the event. If Aldana's victory wasn't enough to mollify the Norton folks, then all they needed to do was to flip to page 24, where the "new" Norton Commando 850 (100cc more than the 750 ver- sion that it replaced) was going head-to-head with another ma- chine that really was totally new. It would be the Norton 850 ver- sus the Yamaha TX 750. "Which is better," asked the Cycle News staff. "Tradition or progress?" "They are both big twins," said the CN staff. "Torquey, throbbing, large, study-looking machines." In 1973, a twin-cylinder motorcycle was certainly no big deal. Both Honda and Suzuki had more cylinders, (four cylinders, four-strokes for the former, three cylin - ders and two-strokes for the latter). However, the king of the hill was Ka - wasaki's new Z1 900, the bike everybody was talk- ing about. The Z1 made a grand entrance with great fanfare for the common man. Another twin from Yamaha and a punched-out Norton Commando? Cue the golf clap. But these twins still had some sex appeal; what they did, they did right. "Because they are twins, they can be lighter and narrower, which in turn means that they can corner, stop, and handle more easily," wrote CN. "What they give away in high rpm power, they make up for in off-line drive and top gear passing." These twins lacked the peak horsepower of their competitors, but Cycle News felt "their lightness and low-end torque give them back what they lack in power." The two motorcycles were roll - ing ideologies, each represent- ing their country's traditions and ambitions. The Yamaha spent three years living only on drawing boards and in prototype versions, with the Japanese engineers per- fecting its overhead camshaft, vacuum carbs, and something called an omni-phase balancer (which ultimately proved itself to be anything but perfect). "Su- perior Japanese manufacturing technique" was indeed a phrase on its way to becoming a burr in the saddle for engineers in every country that wasn't named Japan. Still, it was nonetheless something that appeared to be generally true. The Norton? This motorcycle had made its name by carving up twisties throughout both Europe and the USA. Those names had changed over the years. They were known by Manx, Atlas and Com- mando, but they were still Nortons and they carried their reputation as powerful, fine-handling machines. CNII ARCHIVES P144 BY KENT TAYLOR More than 50 years ago, we compared a Yamaha 750 to a Norton 850. Fun— the Norton—won out over practicality. A GOOD ISSUE FOR NORTON NORTON WINS RACE AND COMPARISON IN THE SAME WEEK.