1968 Norton Commando Fastback 750cc Motorcycle

Description

Regarded by many pundits as the finest British twin of the era, the Commando was introduced at Earls Court in 1967 and proved a worthy flagship for Norton-Villiers over the next decade.  Well received by the press and public alike, the Commando took out Motorcycle News “Machine of the Year” award five years in succession.  Powered by an air-cooled parallel twin whose origins can be traced back to the Bert Hopwood-designed Model 7 of the late 1940s, the Commando replaced the 750 Atlas in Norton’s model line-up.  Key to the Commando’s success was an entirely new Isolastic frame designed by Dr Stefan Brauer, with rubber damping eliminating the vibrations that plagued so many other frames of the day.  The original Mark 1 Commando had a twin leading-shoe front drum brake and was initially sold only in ‘Fastback’ trim with a distinctive fiberglass rear fairing.  Mounted at a rakish angle, the 745cc twin had a compression ratio of 9.0:1 and featured twin coil ignition, a Lucas RM21 alternator and twin Amal Concentric 30mm carburetors while the four-speed gearbox was a standard AMC unit with revised casing and a conventional wet multi-plate clutch.  The Commando began racing right from the outset, proving successful in production class events and the factory even sold a racing version dubbed the ‘S’.  Last of the classic British twins, the Commando survived in production until 1977 and proved one of the most popular bikes of the era.