"N
o one respects the
flame," sings the great
songwriter Pete Town-
shend, "quite like the fool who's
badly burned."
A good point, but it doesn't
hold up when you look at the
dense retro-mindedness of some
folks these days. Polaroid cam-
eras that shoot photos that take
up to 15 minutes to develop are
making a comeback. Vinyl-record
geeks pretend to forget things
like cat hairs that mysteriously
waft onto the discs, causing nee-
dles to skip and bringing promis-
ing make-out sessions to a halt.
Civil War-era muzzleloading is
also growing in popularity. Pour
the powder, drop the ball, ramrod
it down the barrel, add the primer
powder, close the frizzen and
wait for the soul-robbing "click"
of the misfire, thanks to moisture
in the gunpowder or any one of a
number of things that shockingly
could go wrong with a 200-year-
old musket.
Nobody should want to get
burned again by the toys of the
past, but nobody is always some-
body else, which is why reading
the Cycle News road test of the
1971 Norton Commando Fast-
back means that you will prob-
ably start searching the Market-
place ads for one. Even with all
its faults, er, idiosyncrasies, this
is one of the bikes that comes
to mind when wise sages, better
known as old men, dream of real
motorcycles.
"Slim lines are as important
to motorcycles as they are to
women and cigarettes," read the
manly cutline that accompanied
the photo of the very slender
parallel-twin. "Fat motorcycles
don't handle." It would be six
more months before the late
Gloria Steinem published the first
issue of Ms. magazine, so this
kind of wet-towel whipping and
locker-room machismo was still
going unchecked. But the Norton
was indeed a pretty narrow ma-
chine, one of the many factors
that helped it handle so well.
"It is absolutely predictable,"
wrote CN. "Pick your line and the
Norton will hold it over bumpy sur-
faces, off-camber surfaces, sandy
surfaces, or you name it." When
the road ran out of asphalt, the
CNIIARCHIVES
P142
BY KENT TAYLOR
1971
NORTON
COMMANDO
FASTBACK
Worth Dreaming About
Cycle News was
very impressed with
the Norton Commando
Fastback in 1971.
The Norton was a narrow
motorcycle, which was a big reason
why it handled so well.
