popular in the country’s center that
Norton sales increased 44 percent west
of the Mississippi River. Despite the jeer-
ing of the magazines, the Hi-rider sold
well enough to make it into the 1972
lineup.
At this point, Norton made a major
mistake. In a bid to keep the Commando’s
aged twin competitive with increasingly
powerful multi-cylinder offerings from
Japan, compression was raised from
8.9:1 to 10:1 and carburetors enlarged
from 30mm to 32mm, raising output to
a claimed 65 horsepower at 6,500rpm,
up from 56 horsepower at the same revs.
The crankcase was strengthened, but the
increased power created crankshaft flex-
ing that hammered the main bearings.
Making matters worse, the mechanicaladvance unit on the Combat engine, as
it was called, would stick fully advanced,
and a poorly designed crankcase breath-
er setup resulted in the oil foaming in
the crankcase, starving already stressed
main bearings of lubrication.
Predictably, the main bearings on
Combat engines failed. That is, unless
the pistons came apart first, which hap-
pened as well. Norton was hit hard with
warranty claims and the company’s repu-
tation suffered badly. Financially, it was a
double whammy.
Yet the Hi-rider — which never gotA banana seat and ape-hanger bars
were the Hi-rider’s calling card.