Motorcycle fairing norton commando

The Norton Commando sold well, and the factory, enthused by the potential of the big engine, hired former Suzuki racer Frank Perris to manage a factory race team. The team was sponsored by John Player, an English manufacturer of cigarettes, and its three main riders, Peter Williams, Dave Croxford and Mick Grant, did well in the Formula races popular in the early s.

Norton decided to capitalize on its popular race team by designing a road bike that looked like the factory racers. Fresh out of art school, Mick Olfield started working for Norton in Some things were integrated, some were not. I was brought in to improve the ergonomics of the motorcycle, and make it look different in subtle ways. If there was any money, it went elsewhere. One of his first projects was the race replica.

At this point, Mick was halfway through the project, but decided to change to the twin headlight look. The prototype was built of hand-formed aluminum. The gas tank started as a 2.

At the time, fiberglass tanks were illegal, so we made the tank out of metal, with a fiberglass hood over it. The JPN tank holds 3. A lot of people think all John Player Nortons were s, but you could get the bike with the short-stroke engine, which was built to homologate for U. You could get the short-stroke engine detuned for street use. Many people think it was put together by the race team, but Mick says only the production racers were built by the race team, not the John Players.

All factory JPNs as opposed to home-built copies were made in , with the shifter on the right and 30mm intake ports. Tapered manifolds connected the ports to 32mm Amal Concentric carburetors. The front brake was a disc, the rear a drum. All factory JPNs had forged aluminum brackets on the back of the fairing. There are some copies floating around, but these have welded brackets. To most potential buyers, the fairing and twin headlights looked weird instead of fashion forward.

Young men looking to lure the fairer sex objected to the lack of a passenger seat, while other buyers objected to the price tag. JPNs sat on dealership floors. To make matters worse, John Player Tobacco quit sponsoring Norton at the end of And that was the end of the John Player Norton. In , Phil Radford was working for Imperial Tobacco as a mechanic when a friend announced he had a Norton twin for sale.

Phil bought it, liked it and joined the English Norton Owners Club. Contacts with the California Norton Owners Club led Phil to vacation in California in , borrowing a bike from a California club member. Phil had never seen one before. Phil decided to move to the United States in A year later, he was driving past a garage sale and saw a Commando parked there.

He was buying a lot of parts from Norvil then called Fair Spares in England and inquired at one point if there was a U. A few years later, Phil came across the JPN featured here. John Players are much sought-after today by collectors. Stephan Bauer, who thought the Featherbed Frame was bunk.

He took a whole new look at the situation. What he came up with was Isolastic Suspension. The true genius of this system was not the rubber mounts, that had been tried before. Problems always arose keeping the chain aligned as the engine moved around in its soft mounts.

Rigidity was to be assured by a large-diameter 2. However, the first frames on the Norton Commandos were actually prone to bending under stress. Modern all the way, but instantly recognizable as a Commando.

His new company, Norton Motorcycles Ltd, he commissioned Simon Skinner to design the new bike, and built a state-of-the-art factory in Donington Park, Leicestershire, England to produce them. It took until for the first production bikes to hit the market, at an initial rate of around 5 to 10 bikes per week.

Isolastic suspension solves vibration. Norton Atlas is engine tilted forward. Development continues on the Commando. New frame solves the bending problems. Sales are strong, performance awesome, and the look was all Norton! Fast, but unreliable. New front disk brake. Electric start. Along with it comes leftside-shifting. This is the end to yet another great English marque.

As a totally modern bike that stays true to its roots. Norton Motorcycles: From to British Motor cycles since Norton Classic Motorcycles. The Norton Commando Bible: All models to Norton Dominator Performance Portfolio History of Norton Motorcycles. My best work yet. Thank you, Andy Tallone, your humble author.

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