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/958653
VOL. 55 ISSUE 12 MARCH 27, 2018 P95 actually it makes lots of sense when you ride the bike. Riders have become less hell-bent on speed in recent years, and more lifestyle focused, and this meets that desire head-on, as well as looking suitably retro." Guess what? He's right. Invited to be the first rider outside the factory to go chilling out—lit- erally, in my case, in mid- December in the Midlands of Britain! —aboard the first-ever Cali bearing 1/50 on the dash, I discovered immediately that the grips just literally fall to hand. It's a much more relaxed stance than the regular Commando 961 Sport de- livers with its much lower, flatter bar, and it's way more comfort- able than the Café Racer with its clip-ons. The high bar does slow the steering down slightly, and changes not only the look but also the feel of the bike beneath you—the gentlemanly neo-classic street fighter becomes a relaxed high-speed sport cruiser. You can still chuck it around in turns, and get the best from the Dunlop Sportmax Qualifier tires, which the retro-looking wire wheels carry, but it's just a bit slower in transitioning from side to side than the Sport, thanks to re- duced leverage from the taller bar. The 2018 Commando fam- ily, of which the Cali is one, all incorporate the improvements to the air-cooled OHV 961cc Norton motor delivering 72 bhp at 7500 rpm, with peak torque of 67Nm a thousand revs lower, to be found on the Mark II version of the Commando introduced in 2016, as Norton design boss Simon Skinner explains: "It was a pretty significant evolution of the original 961 engine, because the motor was retooled almost in its entirety. We have new crankcases, new cylinders, a new cylinder head, new pistons, new crankshaft, and a new gearbox, all in order to reduce NVH [noise vibration and harshness], and to improve overall quality as a means of refining the product. We've been able to go to suppliers that we couldn't go to before because our volumes didn't support it, but now they do, and so we've got a different manufacturing process for those parts. They're all die-cast components now instead of sand-cast, although the sad thing is that we now have to go overseas for a few parts that are simply not available in the UK. But not only has the price for these parts come down for Norton, which increases sustain- ability of the business, the quality of them has shot through the roof as well. So not only have we refined the bike enormously, it's also benefitted the business too, so we've ended up with a much superior product." One that's also now Euro 4 compliant, with Bosch ABS linked to the Brembo brake package, which sees fully-floating 320mm steel discs gripped by four-piston radial cali- pers, with a 240mm rear disc and two-piston caliper. The Cali retains the stock Commando's chrome-moly tubular steel duplex cradle frame, still with a fabricated backbone doubling as the oil tank for the High bars give the Norton Commando a distinctive look. There's no point in revving it anywhere near the revlimiter, just surf that power curve and ride the waves of torque.