This was a bike made for hard, fast rid-
ing, not cruising. In Cycle magazine’s 1970
test of seven Superbikes (a word coined
shortly before by an unknown journalist)
a Norton Commando S won the accelera-
tion test over a BSA Rocket 3, a Harley-
Davidson Sportster, a Honda CB750 and
a Kawasaki H1, among other contenders.
Testers also found the Norton easy to ride
at speed. “Handling is extremely light and
precise for a big machine,” Cycle said.Cost cuts
Although the Commando sold well
worldwide, the Norton factory was in
a precarious financial position due to
mistakes and missteps on the part of
previous management and was making
many engineering decisions on the basis
of cost. For example, the Isolastic rubber
mounts that kept the rider’s fillings from
shaking out of their teeth were originally
supposed to use a vernier adjustment
system. Due to cost considerations the
vernier system was replaced with shim
adjustment, but changing the shims for
the rear Isolastic meant taking a lot of
the bike apart. The vernier setup was
finally installed on the 1975 and later
Commandos.
There was no money to build bikes
that were really different from each other,but the company was able to economi-
cally introduce different models of the
Commando by using different mufflers,
seats, fenders, tanks and side panels. The
original Commando, eventually called the
Fastback, had a cone-shaped tail, a long
tank and a seat with ears that stretched
over the rear of the tank and were intend-
ed as knee pads. This was soon joined
by two other versions, the R and the S,
both with smaller gas tanks and normal
seats and rear fenders. The S had high-
level pipes on the left with reverse-cone
mufflers.
Not all the changes were cosmetic.
Commando success allowed the factory
to install some mechanical upgrades. The
ignition points were moved from behind
the timing cover to the front of the tim-
ing cover, the headstock bearings were
changed to sealed ball bearings, and a
cush drive shock absorber was added to
the rear hub.
The now-familiar Roadster was intro-
duced for 1970. It was almost identi-
cal to the S, but with low pipes. At the
same time, the original version of the
Commando was renamed the Fastback,
and a new version of the Fastback with
a larger tank became available. To meet
demand from competition enthusiasts,
Norton started building the ProductionRacer, with assembly done at its race
shop at Thruxton. The racer featured
items that would have been desirable on
the road machine, including a disc front
brake and an optional 5-speed gearbox.
The Production Racer was a natural
outgrowth of the Commando. The Hi-rider
was not. The Hi-rider featured ape-hanger
handlebars, a smaller, 5.5-inch (146mm)
headlight (from the SS model), a one-of-
a-kind seat with a large, padded backrest,
and a small capacity gas tank, also from
the SS model, that held just 2.3 gallons (9
liters) — not the sort of thing you would
want to ride in your quest for lap time
improvement. Chuck Bohn, the owner of
this bike, describes it as a “Sportster on
steroids.” Commentators have theorized
that the person who designed the bike
was indulging in illegal substances, and
Cycle magazine described its looks as
“hilarious.”Looking back
Although the Hi-rider was the sec-
ond-most expensive Commando (after
the Production Racer), surprisingly,
the bike sold. There apparently were
quite a few people who liked the idea
of a Norton chopper, a lot of whom
were in the American Midwest. Writer
Ian Falloon says the Hi-rider was so34 MOTORCYCLE CLASSICS September/October 2017