Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
Worth Dreaming About
By Kent Taylor
“No one respects the flame,” sings the great songwriter Pete Townshend, “quite like the fool who’s badly burned.”
A good point, but it doesn’t hold up when you look at the dense retro-mindedness of some folks these days. Polaroid cameras that shoot photos that take up to 15 minutes to develop are making a comeback. Vinyl-record geeks pretend to forget things like cat hairs that mysteriously waft onto the discs, causing needles to skip and bringing promising make-out sessions to a halt. Civil War-era muzzleloading is also growing in popularity. Pour the powder, drop the ball, ramrod it down the barrel, add the primer powder, close the frizzen and wait for the soul-robbing “click” of the misfire, thanks to moisture in the gunpowder or any one of a number of things that shockingly could go wrong with a 200-year-old musket.
Nobody should want to get burned again by the toys of the past, but nobody is always somebody else, which is why reading the Cycle News road test of the 1971 Norton Commando Fastback means that you will probably start searching the Marketplace ads for one. Even with all its faults, er, idiosyncrasies, this is one of the bikes that comes to mind when wise sages, better known as old men, dream of real motorcycles.
“Slim lines are as important to motorcycles as they are to women and cigarettes,” read the manly cutline that accompanied the photo of the very slender parallel-twin. “Fat motorcycles don’t handle.” It would be six more months before the late Gloria Steinem published the first issue of Ms. magazine, so this kind of wet-towel whipping and locker-room machismo was still going unchecked. But the Norton was indeed a pretty narrow machine, one of the many factors that helped it handle so well.
“It is absolutely predictable,” wrote CN. “Pick your line and the Norton will hold it over bumpy surfaces, off-camber surfaces, sandy surfaces, or you name it.” When the road ran out of asphalt, the Norton also handled well in off-road conditions. “Even though you may never plan to ride your $1500 road machine in the mud, it’s nice to know that if it becomes necessary, the effort won’t kill you.”
Before one rides the Norton, one must first start the Norton. There are no magic buttons, though the tester praised “one of the secrets…a manual choke.” The activation of this mysterious device, coupled with “a good, healthy kick,” would bring the Commando to life without exception. “I started it several times when the temperatures were below freezing and it was always one kick.” A California freeze is T-shirt weather for real people, but this Norton apparently started reliably even below 60 degrees.
Many good street bikes existed in 1971, but everything from the Honda CB750 to the Harley-Davidson Sprint bowed and knelt to the Norton, which the tester hailed as “…the definite and undisputed master of the freeways. It will outaccelerate, outbrake and outmaneuver almost anything” on the road. The Norton seemed most “happy” while cruising at 80-85 mph but was also “rock solid at an indicated 115 mph.” The Norton was mostly smooth, with the tester noting that “vibration is non-existent when the engine speed is above 3000 rpm, which is 98 percent of the time. There is some vibration between idle and 3000 which caused one fellow who was riding it to remark that he ‘sort of liked it’ because it reminded him that he was on a snortin’ Norton.”
Brush up on your street semaphore, as you’ll need those hand motions on this ride. The Norton Commando Fastback came straight from Wolverhampton sans turn signals. Although the rider would have preferred to have them “on the freeway,” he admitted he can do without them. He was not pleased, however, to note that the bike lacked a “kill button,” something he regarded as a “serious omission.” The “combination taillight-stoplight” was adequate but not ideal, though he reminded readers that, thanks to the abundance of ride-by-cable power, one could “keep people off your tail if you want to.”
The Norton Fastback was a real looker. Everything seemed to belong right where it was placed. The upswept exhausts tapered into cones that looked ready for lift-off. They were mounted beneath a boat-tail rear fender, a design feature that was a hideous sight on some early ’70s machines, yet somehow a perfect fit on the Fastback. Chromed instrument housings, fork boots and spoked wheels finish out the package, which weighs just over 400 pounds, even with oil, some petrol in the tank and the impressive tool kit, which provided a collection of spanners that would keep the Snap-On rep at bay for thousands of miles.
It is 1971, and an air-cooled twin with push rods and a couple of Amal carbs is the “master of the freeway.” This motorcycle has drum brakes, no turn signals, an odd item called a centerstand, and a real tool pouch for real riders. It runs best at a pedestrian 80-85 mph and features some tingly vibrations below three grand. Fire up your turntable, put on “Who’s Next?” and remember a time when a snortin’ motorcycle just felt right. But reminisce only! Steer clear of the Marketplace so that you won’t get fooled again. CN
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