Norton

A history spanning 128 years

The story of Norton begins far from motorised two wheels: in 1898 James Lansdowne Norton, remembered by his colleagues by the nickname "Pa", founded a small workshop in Birmingham producing bicycle components. It was only in 1902 that the company built its first motorised vehicle, the Energette, powered by a small French Clément engine fitted to a bicycle frame. The real leap forward came in 1908, when Norton perfected its own single-cylinder engine, ending its reliance on third-party power units and laying the technical foundations for the decades to come.

Glory on the Roads of the Isle of Man

The Norton name has been inseparably linked to motorcycle sport since 1907, when a bike from the marque, ridden by Rem Fowler and powered by a Peugeot engine, won the twin-cylinder class at the very first Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man. From then on the Birmingham company built, around the Manx, its racing bike par excellence, a record that over the decades between the two World Wars and in the early post-war years brought a great many victories in the prestigious Senior TT, consolidating a reputation for reliability and performance that few other marques of the era could match.

The Featherbed Frame and the Dominators

In the 1950s Norton introduced the celebrated "Featherbed" frame, capable of delivering superior handling to the competition and destined to become a benchmark for the whole industry. On this basis came the Dominator 88 and 99, twin-cylinder road bikes that combined the know-how gained on the track with more accessible everyday use, helping to spread the Norton legend well beyond the narrow world of racing.

The Commando and the Last Great British Season

At the end of the 1960s, as the British motorcycle industry began to suffer from growing Japanese competition, Norton responded with one of its most famous models: the Commando, unveiled at the London Motor Cycle Show in 1967. Its Isolastic frame, designed to isolate the twin-cylinder engine from the rest of the structure and significantly reduce vibration, earned it the title of "Machine of the Year" from readers of Motor Cycle News for five consecutive years, from 1968 to 1972. Even today the Commando is regarded by many collectors as one of the last truly great British production motorcycles.

Difficulties, Changes of Ownership and the Present Day

The 1970s brought a turbulent phase: the merger into Norton-Villiers-Triumph, the financial troubles of the English motorcycle industry and growing pressure from Japanese manufacturers put the company under severe strain, and in the second half of the decade it halted traditional production. Since then the marque has seen several changes of ownership and relaunch attempts, up to the present day, in which Norton continues to build motorcycles that openly recall the stylistic and mechanical heritage of the Commando and the Dominator, keeping a direct link with its own history.

An Icon for Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiasts

For lovers of classic and modern classic motorcycles, Norton remains one of the most representative names in British motorcycling: a marque able to write memorable pages in racing and to carry that sporting heritage over to road bikes that have earned their place in the history of motorcycle design.