Commando curlies

Another great read in Old Bike Australasia number 50. A few points that I believe are not correct. Barr & Stroud (pages 66-70) refers a few times to engines being purchased by the “West Australian Railways”. The name is not correct. The government railway’s title was Western Australian Government Railways. If not the government railways then the states name is Western Australia and should just have railways added to the state’s correct name. West Australia is just a reduction of the newspaper title ‘The West Australian’ and unfortunately is incorrect and increasingly used by journalist as the state name. Norton new and old article (pages 44-50). The Commando 850 is not a 1976 model. Yes it was apparently bought and uncrated in 1976 but the 850 (Mark 2) was only produced from 1973 to 1974. Prior to that Commandos were 750 (Mark 1). The mark 3 Commandos were produced only in 1975 with the things Norm did not want. 1975 was also effectively the last year of NVT Commando production. The new 961 Commandoes are impressive machines but continue to be disappointing in that although there have been four or five models produced and another model being readied; they are all variations on the cafe racer theme. In the day Norton produced several variants of the Commando Mk 1 750 with models ‘Fastback’, ‘S Type’ (scrambler), ‘Combat’, ‘SS’ and in 1972 added ‘Roadster’, ‘Interstate’ and ‘Interpol’. The Mk 2 850, actually 828cc, was launched in 1973, and with models ‘Roadster’, ‘Interstate’ and ‘Hi Rider’ and in 1974 an updated Mk2a ‘Interstate’ and added a fully faired roadster based ‘JPN replica’. The Mk 3 while still an 828cc were updated with the only models ‘Roadster’ and ‘Interstate’ being offered. I would like a new Commando but a new version of the ‘Interstate’ as I do not want a cafe racer and the body is no longer tolerant of the discomfort their riding position entails. It is disappointing that the company is still limiting production to just variants on the cafe racer theme. Also at $30,000 and up they appear to only cater to the exclusive end of the market. I did hope after their initial production pricing that they would follow Triumph’s approach by producing affordable machines as were the original Commandos.

Disappointingly there was no pictures of the left hand side of the 961 Commando. Is it so ugly that you dare not show it? This failing to show both sides of a motorcycle seems to occur regularly, see Aprilia Caponord family (page 102) with only right hand side photos. Please include both sides in future test and articles. Greg Jeanes Via email