Norton Motorcycle News & Reviews

Norton is Great Britain’s most famous motorcycle brand. Created by James Lansdowne Norton in 1898 as a manufacturer of “fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade”, Norton produced its first motorcycle in 1902 and by 1908 was designing and creating its own engines in-house.

By the World War II, Norton was producing 100,000 motorcycle per year. However, the decades following the conclusion of the war were tough for Norton as, along with fellow British marques AJS, Triumph and BSA, all failed in the face of poor management decisions and the onslaught of the new Japanese motorcycle industry, headed by Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki.

Norton never officially shut its doors but by 1975 its line was reduced to just two models, the MK III Interstate and the Roadster.

By 2008, businessman Stuart Garner had purchased the rights to the Norton name from its U.S.-based owners, kickstarting 12 years of ownership and a new line of models that ultimately ended in a flurry of criminal charges relating to fraudulent activity relating to pension schemes within the brand.

Garner was thus removed as the head of Norton Motorcycles and the company fell into administration in January of 2020, with millions of pounds in unpaid debts. In April of 2020, Indian company TVS Motor Company bought Norton for £16m ($19,790, 000) and has entered into a slow process of reviving the brand with models like the Commando 961, the V4CR café racer and the V4SV superbike.