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1974 Norton 850 Commando Interstate & Harley-Davidson XL 1000
By Kent Taylor
In her excellent book The Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism Anne Applebaum touches briefly on the differences between “reflective nostalgics” and “restorative nostalgics.” Applebaum writes that “Both miss the past and dream about the past. Some of them study the past and even mourn the past, especially their own personal past.”
The main difference, she writes, is that those in the camp of reflective nostalgics know the difference between simply reminiscing about the past and actually attempting to relive it.
Advancing years may bring fading eyesight, but they also impart peaceful hindsight; the reflective nostalgic knows that what once was, probably shouldn’t be again.
Then, there are the restorative nostalgics, the folks who can’t just simply look back, pause, reflect and move forward. Instead, they build monuments, both literally and figuratively, to the things and the ideas of the days of yore. As Applebaum states, “They want the cartoon version of history, and more importantly, they want to live in it, right now.”
In our motorcycle world, there are both reflective and restorative nostalgics. When the reflective nostalgic sees a photo of, say, a classic old BSA Victor, he smiles, pauses to share a short tale of his own painful history with the bike, and that is the end. He turns back to the modern day, where electronic riding aids abound on his 21st-century cycle.
The restorative nostalgic? He is already back in 1973, scouring the Marketplace ads for a clean, old Victor in need of a warm bath and a new home. Buoyed by terms like “ran when parked” and “just needs a new wiring harness,” the restorative nostalgic will saddle himself with a project that when (if) completed, will remind him that those who do not learn from the past will soon receive a night ride visit from Lucas himself—the evil Prince of Darkness.
In the March 12th, 1974, issue of Cycle News, we tested two street motorcycles that, though they existed at two very different ends of the motorcycle spectrum, were in many ways quite similar to one another. The Norton 850 Commando Interstate and the Harley-Davidson XL 1000 (better known, of course, as the Sportster), two motorcycles that no longer exist, at least not in the spirit with which they roamed the roads of 1974.
Both the Norton and the Harley-Davidson were considered large-displacement superbikes in the ’70s. Should they be viewed from the eyes of the reflective nostalgic—remembered for what they were in the time in which they existed? Or, given the chance, would you go back to the days when, as CN’s John Ulrich stated, “bikers were hoods and bad asses, when exhausts were loud…and motorcyclists adapted to machines, machines were not adapted to motorcyclists.”
The 1974 Sportster appeared to be one such machine. It swapped out low-rpm torque for high-rpm speed and sported a tiny peanut of a fuel tank that would take its rider about 90 miles before it needed a refill. Sitting on a thin seat that was “too hard for anything but around-town riding,” the H-D pilot would leisurely click through the four-speed transmission with their right foot (Uncle Sam would mandate that all motorcycles have left-side shifting beginning in 1975) until the Sporty topped out at about 110 miles per hour. It was a noisy machine that leaked gasoline and oil right onto the rider’s pants. The XL was an electric-start model. A Harley owner could save $130 and opt for the kickstart-only XLCH. New for ’74 was a throttle return spring!
The Norton, meanwhile, was like a panther in a kennel, with CN’s John Huetter stating that riding the Commando in law-abiding fashion “…was incredibly frustrating. It’s a sexy bike with no socially acceptable outlets right now. In fourth gear, 55 mph is only about 3500 rpm…it isn’t until about 4500 rpm that everything smooths out and the engine starts to come alive.” Like the Harley, the Norton shifted on the right side, but in a reverse pattern: down for high, up for low. If that shift pattern wasn’t enough to confuse the rider, the Norton also had an odd layout for its electrical switches, many of which were difficult to reach, at least for pilots with shorter fingers. The Interstate model was fitted with a voluminous six-gallon fuel tank, which meant the rider could go for nearly 250 miles before needing to stop at a Standard station for gasoline.
The British bikes of those days had a reputation for stellar handling, and the Norton did not disappoint. “You lean it over into a corner,” wrote Heutter, “and it goes as far as you push it…the handling is unsurpassed, a standard for superbikes to aim for.”
In the old days of print, column inches were measured with a special ruler. It should be noted that more picas were devoted to the task of merely starting this motorcycle than in any describing of power or handling characteristics. Bringing this Norton to life required the combined services of a shaman, a Navajo code talker, and a circus fat lady: Tickle the Amal carbs—but not too much. Switch on, choke all the way on, “and come tromping down something fierce on the right-side kickstarter.” You have three kicks to pull this off, after which you turn the petcock back to the off position and start over. It took several days for the test crew to master the process, “during which everybody who tried to start it soaked the starch right out of their shirt.”
Neither motorcycle was going to win a kewpie doll from the CN staff.
“There are details about the Norton that make it harder to live with than its competition…it vibrates…it shudders…it has a sidestand that is difficult to use…instrumentation is only so-so.” The Sportster, they wrote, “is not especially quick or fast, as current-day superbikes go. In fact, an old four-speed humpback tank Honda 450 wrung out to the limit gave the Sportster a good run up to around 60 mph.”
Such summations would likely condemn a 2025 motorcycle, dooming it to an extended life on a showroom floor. But the Norton and the Sportster aren’t from these times, and in 1974, motorcyclists accepted niggling faults and shortcomings in their machines. They adapted, if only because they had no choice. CN
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