Riding the Norton Commando 961SP | Visiting the Norton factory
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Hey everyone, and welcome back.
I had the most fantastic time visiting the Norton Motorcycles factory last week, where I was shown how the bikes are assembled and given the keys to one for an hour test ride. Unfortunately, I couldn't record the factory floor, but it's impressive to see the stages the bike goes through before it's fully assembled.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend visiting.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Cheers,
Conor - ThrBritishMotorbiker
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0:00 Intro
0:26 Overview of the day
6:21 Start of the test ride
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Motorcycle: Norton Commando 961
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For more, follow me on:
Instagram: / thebritishmotorbiker
Website: www.thebritishmotorbiker.com/
Links: www.thebritishmotorbiker.com/links
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Equipment:
Action camera - GoPro Hero 7 Black with ND Filters
Microphone - Zoom H1n
Camera - DJI Pocket 2 
Авто/Мото
I had a Commando 750 fast back in 1974/75 - ish, metallic green .. what a wonderful bike that was.
It had the big 5 imperial gallon tank in fibreglass, right foot gear shift which to me is perrrrfect, no electric start .. kick start was what it was all about then. Sold it so I could travel the world on a real ocean liner. Wish I'd kept it. :(
Would love to own one of these now , but I'm 70+ years and I've been told by "she who must be obeyed" that this dream isn't going to happen.
Thanks for the ride, I was born in Birmingham too, now live in NZ.
Commandos were a big seller in NZ in 70s
Mad dogs and Englishmen. And Norton motorcycles! Aloha from Hawaii. Same flag you know.
Love Love Love this bike , I hope it comes to the world market urgently, otherwise it will be a serious upset for us Caferracer drivers if it remains only in the United Kingdom, and there is a serious market in Istanbul.
They look superb, and I'm sure they will make them available eventually. Have you seen the 125th Anniversary Editions?
Thanks for the video know it took a lot of time and effort. I love the new Norton and as a big fan of the early Commandos the new one is a faithful representation. Problem is I'd have to give up my '14 CB1100 to buy one and after several years getting it just right I know I'd miss her too much. Thanks again.
Thanks for the lovely comment. Oh wow, a CB1100; I bet that's a fun bike :)
Loving this mate great to see you back on RUclips 🎉
Thank you for all the support, dude. I hope people like this style of video.
Loved watching this 🔥
Thank you! I enjoyed making this one
So refreshing to see such a positive review, that sure looked like fun. I actually test rode a Donington bike and hugely enjoyed the experience. So much so I put a £2K deposit down - and then the factory went bust! Luckily the dealer kindly gave me my money back and then - I spent the money on house improvements! Now the company are back I'm saving up again!
You are absolutley right about rider aids, there's no need for them on this bike, they would do nothing to enhance the experience.
Thank you for such a lovely comment. I'm hopefully going to be getting one of these bikes on loan from Norton, so I will be able to do a more in depth review and work on better sound quality. Is there anything you would like to me to cover?
I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you've been through. There are a lot of unhappy people out there still, unfortunately. The company have some making up to do.
I had a good time on the 961 and it was great to visit the factory but maybe I was actually lucky to miss out, in the light of problems that came to light. Broken bottom yokes, fake electrical parts bought in by Stuart Garner etc. Lets hope TVS have sorted things. I wonder exactly where they spent all the money?
Dislike of the brake/clutch reservoirs is universal, I wonder why TVS changed them? They were ok previously.
Most reviews don't dwell much on practical details. For instance I should suppose, like most roadsters these days, there is no storage for tools etc. My Fireblade has a little space under the pillion pad where I keep the toolkit and a puncture outfit (and had to use recently). If a sportsbike can do it! @@TheBritishMotorbiker
Owner of a Thruxton and so happy with it. If I was thinking of spending the crazy money for one of these beasts I think I'd like a original. Great video bro. 😊
The Thruxton is a tremendous machine; I'm jealous! I think a fair few people would agree with you on that. Thank you :)
Originals can be bit tempermental !!
Nice Review thanks. I love this bike, although with Norton's pursuit of excellence it would be nice if they fix up the look of the Key and those ugly clutch and brake oil reservoirs. That said I still want one
Thank you, Graeme. I agree with you there. Perhaps those changes will come with later models.
I had a gsxr 1000 with a million rider aids, but, i always left it in the sport mode, it taught me to be a better rider, there are far too many rider aids on bikes these days.
Wow 🤩
Thank you ☺️
dream bike
It's lovely, isn't it
There's a lot to like with these bikes, and we should accept that any bike built in the UK will carry a premium in price, regardless of quality. A few details could be improved, such as the switchgear and the hydraulic fluid reservoirs, as someone else pointed out. I think the raw-ness and lack of technology is a bonus, whereas some will see it as a drawback when set against other premium priced bikes. The big issue for me is the near-universal adoption of the 270-degree crank layout on parallel twins. With this, we have lost the unique sound and feel of the traditional British twin (which were always 360-degree). All these new twins, including the 961, sound just like a V-twin, giving them no distinctive sound to set them apart from Moto Guzzi, Ducati, KTM etc. Only the BMW boxers and Kawasaki's W800 have retained the even firing pulses of old. I would love to have a 360-degree crank version of this Commando 961, with a primary balancer to eliminate the heavy vibrations.
Thanks for this; you certainly know your stuff. I have a lot of learning to do, and I would love to be able to go into depth like this in a review. I suppose it will come with time and a lot of practice. I am hopefully going to be getting a Commando on loan from Norton sometime soon, so I can work on putting out some more exciting POV rides and detail shots of the bike :)
Took them a second to start 😂
Gorgeous motorcycles! 🏍️
They certainly had character!
It's a norton thing 😊
Beautiful machine. In your opinion, how does this compare to the Triumph Thruxton RS?
They both have that retro look. However, you can trace the Commando back to its roots and see the developments over the decades, whereas the Thruxton is a modern bike made to look retro. They are extremely different machines and choosing which one to get depends on what you’re after. If it’s speed and power, then the Thruxton is the bike of choice and it’s much cheaper, but the Norton has soul and the fact it’s hand made means each bike will be different.
@@TheBritishMotorbiker thanks Conor -I was under the exact same impression between them. I myself own the 2023 Triumph Thruxton RS in green competition and I wouldn’t change it for the Norton, although I can’t deny I like this more exclusive and unique element of the Norton.
On a different note, I live in London but I keep my Thruxton in Spain (Girona - Costa Brava). It would be great to ride together around some day, connect you with the cafe racer community here, and show you the amazing roads we have. Feel free to reach out and happy to help you if you ever want to come!
Could you tell me what the green jacket is your friend is wearing? looking for something similar!
I believe it’s from Barbour
Commando 961 is in the same category with T100, but honestly the Commando is better option
Would have been nice if you’d have given a decent outro, did you like it? Buy it? If not why not. Missed opportunity seeing as you’ve gone to the trouble of doing the vid anyway.
Thanks for the comment. I’ll bear that in mind for next time. I’m still relatively new to RUclips, so I’m bound to make mistakes.
Yes, it was great fun. Did I buy one? No, I never intended to. I was invited there by Norton to have a go and take some photos. This was simply a little bit of fun I did on the side.
Simon Skinner, a former director and Head of Design at Norton Motorcycles UK, was disqualified from being a director of any private company for the next five years, as of June 22, 2021. This was due to his involvement in a scandal involving the switching of parts on customer-owned Norton V4SS motorcycles.
Specifically, Skinner was found to have caused and/or allowed NMUL Realisations Limited to remove parts off of at least six customers' fully paid for and owned motorcycles which had been returned under warranty ("warranty customers") with values totaling at least £123,000, for use on other customers' motorcycles resulting in the motorcycles of the warranty customers remaining incomplete as at the date of Administration.
The parts that were removed included engines, subframes, and wheels. These parts were then used to both repair and produce new V4SS motorcycles that were being sold as new. This meant that the warranty customers were left with incomplete motorcycles that were not roadworthy. The image is what was left of a customers bike after the business fell into administration.
The scandal came to light in 2019, when several warranty customers complained that their motorcycles had not been repaired. Norton Motorcycles initially denied any wrongdoing, but an investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Skinner had been involved in the parts-stripping scheme.
As a result of the scandal, Skinner was disqualified from being a director of any private company for five years. He was also ordered to pay £10,000 in costs. Despite this he remains in the employ of Norton Motorcycles again as Head of Design!
The parts-stripping scandal was a major blow to Norton Motorcycles' reputation. The company was already struggling financially, and the scandal made it even harder to attract new customers. In January 2020, Norton Motorcycles went into administration.
The company was eventually acquired by TVS Motor Company, an Indian motorcycle manufacturer. TVS has invested heavily in Norton Motorcycles, and the company is now on the road to recovery. However, the V4SS parts-stripping scandal, TVS Norton refussual to support V4SS defects and Simon Skinner’s continued employment at TVS Norton (as Head of Design) will likely be a black mark on Norton Motorcycles' history for many years to come.
Blimey!
Yea. Damning. I think I’d go Moto Guzzi, V7 special, half the price, similar performance, made in the same place for the last 100 years. Sound, feel, heritage.
I rode a 160cc TVS in Rajastan india in the desert. It was slow and worn but it did about 100kph but it was well built and cheap and very economical to run. I thought at the time in early 2011 that for an old indian single 4 stroke it was easy to maintain, solid design and better than enfield for reliability. Huge credit to them for buying Norton. Its in great hands as TVS owner is very smart and has been honorable to those poor customers so ripped off and cheated by that scumbag criminal Stuart Garner. He shouldve been locked up for fraud, tax evasion minimum 3 years in a nonce wing. That would really do anyones head in and he couldve redeemed himself a bit handing out punishment to kiddie fiddlers.
TVS also manufactures BMW 310 in India.
Nice retro cool British bike, but at about £17,000 you've got to have a real craving for old tech. They look very similar to what Garner's Norton were turning out at Donington Hall except these new Nortons make less power.
The cheaper, better built, higher tech, and more powerful Triumph T120 or Thruxton must be a safer bet? Then there's the Moto Guzzi V7 850 with its retro cool for half the price.
Norton's decision not to proceed with the Atlas Scrambler was a huge disappointment (my wife had a deposit with old Norton) Hope Norton can be successful again, but nothing yet convinces me they will.
Thank you for this! I can tell you have some real insight into this side of things, and I see exactly where you are coming from. With that said, there are bound to be people out there who prefer owning a machine hand-built in England with low production numbers. It's similar to clothing. Not everyone wants fash fashion made in another country. They're happy to spend more on slow fashion, knowing they're getting a premium quality service. That's my opinion, anyway :)
@@TheBritishMotorbiker We wanted to support Norton, there's pictures of us shaking hands with Stuart Garner after he took our deposit for a bike that he knew then wasn't going to be built. The person that backed up Garner's lies still works at new Norton.
Being low volume doesn't necessarily give you premium quality or premium quality service.
Apologies for the moan, you still made a great vid.
No need to apologise. I can only imagine the frustration of it all. Thank you
Where its made ?
In their new state of the art factory just outside Birmingham
All press bike should be running or whats the Point????????????????????????????/
People had been using them all morning. They were fine, they just had a little hiccup is all. It's character.
Tell what it is like after 15 000 then we can judge
I don’t own the bike, Frank, so I’m afraid I can’t help with that. I’m sure it would be just as fun at 15,000 miles as it was on the test ride 🙂
Mais apprends à conduire !!! Et ce bruit de caincaille, c’est quoi ?
Is there something wrong with the way I ride? It's the microphone picking up the sound of the chain.