WHAT NEXT FOR NORTON AND BSA?

Following on from the success of the Triumph revival, a lot of noise was made about the arrival of Norton back on the motorcycling scene in 2008. The new owner of the brand, Stuart Garner, got everyone excited when he announced that he would be making not only a new Norton Commando motorcycle but would be returning to the Isle of Man TT with a new superbike, powered by an Aprilia V4 motor.

In fact, the story of Norton’s revival started back in the late 1990s, when American Kenny Dreer of Oregon moved from restoring original Commandos to producing a completely new machine, the 961cc Commando. By the early 2000s, he went into production but this stopped in 2006.

Stuart Garner then came on the scene, buying the name and the rights to the Dreer Commando. However, the new garner-era model shared only the outline of the Dreer bike, with all other aspects of the bike being redesigned for production.

The 961Commando duly appeared and looked great and rode very nicely indeed. Then there was the Aprilia-engined superbike that was set to do battle at the TT. Later, Norton produced its own 1200cc V4 engine and there was also the 650cc Superlight, which was not only drop-dead gorgeous but was also set to appear at the TT in the Lightweight class, ridden by John McGuinness, Davey Todd and Peter Hickman.

Finally, Norton announced the Atlas, a 650cc parallel twin-engined bike. The prospect of seeing two great names of British motorcycling going head to head in the showrooms of the world was almost too good to be true.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what it was. Amid accusations of financial chicanery involving pension funds, Stuart Garner was disgraced and it looked like the end of Norton. Then Indian manufacturer TVS stepped in and bought the remains of the company and it looks as if motorcycle production will resume.