Norton Commando 961

[mickj]

I managed to get out on a Norton Commando 961 sp the other day, so what did I think of it?

Firstly I was very impressed with the fit and finish of most of the bike, unfortunately some bits looked like an afterthought, like the gear and rear brake levers. There was full Ohlins suspension and Brembo radial brakes at both ends but tubed tyres on spoked rims. Like Harley they try to sell the same bike with different bits on as different models so you can have black paint with black rims, black paint with alloy rims, silver paint with alloy rims or silver paint with black rims, in SP or CR (that’s 8 different bikes). There are two analogue clocks up front, one for speed and one for revs, in the speedo is a little display that show miles, trip or time and the usual idiot lights (although these are hard to see as they were very dim) and that’s it, switch gear was equally simple and sparse, all very retro.

After getting a very quick brief I fired it up and went out for my ride. First thing I noticed was the vibration, the dealer had warned me that there would be some and that the bike would not feel like a modern bike, he was right, it felt like a 70’s British bike. I didn’t mind this at first as most bikes today don’t have much character at all but it was always there and quite persistent.

Out of town and I just settled in and tried to get a feel for the bike. Being a long bike the handling felt a bit weird, it was a bit slow and didn’t feel very agile at all, a bit old school but the brakes were very good, probably too good for the performance of the bike. The gear lever was quite sloppy which would probably get worse as this bike only had 95 miles on it and would loosen up with some miles. However gear selection was positive and I found no false neutrals in the box, clutchless changes were fine, both up and down. The sound track was superb, it sounded like a 70’s big twin with a nice loud bark to the twin pipes but vibration was also present and although it never got smooth the mirrors were slightly better above 3000 revs. It only has a 5 speed box which I don’t think is well matched to the bike as 4000 revs is 60mph so it’s geared quite high. I does seem to run out of steam above 4000 but I didn’t try hard as it was not run in at 95 miles but a quick blip on the throttle just made more noise and didn’t result in much extra oomph. It was great fun just firing it out of bends and listening to the sound of those booming pipes, lovely.

And now for the bad bits (to me). I found the bike quite uncomfortable, the seat is too low and too far back making the stretch to the bars all wrong (for me). If I sat where I wanted to my knees were outside the sculpted shape of the tank which was uncomfortable. If I slid back so my knees were within the sculpting of the tank I was too stretched out. The pegs are placed in 70’s style further forward than on most bikes which would have been good if the bars had of been 3 inches higher but just cramped with flat bars, the cafe racer has the same position but even lower bars, (chest would have rested on my knees). Finding neutral at a stop was almost impossible, not helped by the very dim neutral light so it was more guesswork and feel than rely on the light. Or snick into neutral while costing up to a stop. For me the SP (Sport) version needs 3 inch higher bars and a less sculpted tank and the CR (Cafe Racer) version needs more rearset footpegs and a shorter tank.

So it looks the billy wizz, sounds fantastic and brakes like a demon but the ergonomics, vibration and some poor looking fitting are not enough for me to buy this bike, It’s nearly £17k at full price. I really wanted it to be a bit special and it probably is to those who would like a new 70’s bike with a pushrod engine and short service intervals but it’s not for me, even though I actually enjoyed my short ride on it, I don’t think I could live with it.