Norton is a British motorcycle marque from Birmingham, founded in 1898.

By 1902 they had begun manufacturing motorcycles with bought-in engines. In 1908 a Norton built engine was added to the range. This began a long series of production of single cylinder motorcycles. They were one of the great names of the British motorcycle industry, producing machines which for decades dominated racing with highly tuned single cylinder engines under the Race Shop supremo Joe Craig.

Postwar a twin cylinder model was added to the range for 1949, and this evolved into the 1970s through 500cc to 600cc to 650cc to 750cc to 850cc models with the Dominator, 650, Atlas and Commando, all highly regarded road motorcycles of their time.

Beginnings
The original company was formed by James Norton in Birmingham in 1898. In 1902 Norton began building motorcycles with French and Swiss engines. In 1907 Norton won the twin-cylinder class in the first Isle of Man TT race, beginning a sporting tradition that went on until the 1960s - The Isle of Man Senior TT, the most prestigious of events, was won by Nortons ten times between the wars and then every year from 1947 to 1954 J.L. Norton died in 1925 aged only 56, but he saw his motorcycles win the Senior and sidecar TTs in 1924.

The CamShaft One (CS1) engine appeared in 1927, with a redesign in 1930, and that decade spawned the Norton racing legend. Of the nine Isle of Man Senior TTs (500cc) between 1931 and 1939 Norton won seven.

Nortons also appealed to ordinary motorcyclists who enjoyed the reliability and performance offered by single-cylinder engines with separate gearboxes. The marque withdrew their teams from racing in 1938, but between 1937 and 1945 nearly one quarter (Over 100,000) of all British military motorcycles were Nortons, basically the WD 16H (solo) and WD Big Four outfit (with driven sidecar wheel).

Post war
Post war, Norton struggled to reclaim its pre-WWII dominance, but the single cylinder machine was facing fierce competition from the multi-cylinder Italians, and AJS at home. In 1949, the first year of the world championship, Norton only made fifth place, and AJS won. That was before the Norton Featherbed frame appeared, gifted to Norton by the McCandless brothers of Belfast in January, 1950, used in the legendary Manx Norton, and raced by riders including Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Derek Minter . Overnight the featherbed frame was the benchmark by which all other frames were judged. Nortons were winners again.

These racing successes were transferred to the street through Cafe racers, who would use the feather bed frame with an engine from another manufacturer to make a hybrid machine with the best of both worlds. The most famous of these were Tritons - Triumph twin engines in a Norton feather-bed frame. Originally used in the Manx model, Norton produced variations of the frame for other models.

In 1952 the Norton Dominator 88 500cc gained a Featherbed frame.

AMC
Despite the racing successes, Norton was in financial difficulty, and in 1953, Norton was sold to Associated Motorcycles (AMC), who also owned the brands AJS, Matchless, Francis-Barnett and James. The Birmingham factory was closed in 1962 and production was moved to AMC's Woolwich factory in Southeast London.

With the change to AMC came a better gearbox, which was used on Norton motorcycles from 1956.

In 1956 a 600cc Dominator 99 appeared.

The 1962 500cc Manx Nortons produced 47 bhp at 6500 rpm, weighed 142 kg, and had a top speed of 209 kph. It used a dry sump 499cc single cylinder motor, with two valves operated by bevel drive, shaft driven twin overhead camshafts. The Short Stroke model (1953-1962) had bore and stroke of 86 mm x 85.6 mm. The 1946-1953 Long Stroke was 79.6 x 100 mm. Compression ratio was 11:1. It had an Amal GP carburettor, and a Lucas racing magneto. The new price was 440 pounds.

The last Manx Nortons were sold in 1963. Even though Norton had pulled out of racing in 1954, the Manx had become the backbone of privateer racing, and even today are quite sought after.

In 1962 a Norton 650SS appeared, followed by the Norton Atlas 750 in 1963, still using featherbed frames, but the increases to the vertical twins engine capacity had caused a vibration problem. A 500cc vertical twin is smoother than a single cylinder, but if you enlarge the vertical twin's capacity, vibration increases. The 750 Norton Atlas proved too expensive, and costs were not able to be reduced. Financial problems gathered.

There was an export bike sold up until 1969 as a Norton P11, AJS Model 33, and as a Matchless G15, which used the Norton Atlas engine in an AMC Matchless G85CS frame, with Norton wheels and front forks. This bike was reputed to vibrate less than the featherbed frame model. AMC singles were also sold with Norton badging in this era.

Norton-Villiers
By the late 1960s competition from Japan had driven the whole British motorcycle industry into a precipitous decline. In 1966 AMC collapsed and was reformed as Norton-Villiers part of Manganese Bronze.

The 750 Norton Atlas, though a brilliant bike and a wicked handler, was noted for its vibration. Rather than change engines, Norton decided to change the frame, and the isolastic framed Norton Commando 750 was the result.

In 1969 the Commando was introduced; its styling, innovative isolastic frame, and powerful engine made it an appealing package. Despite different variations and respectable sales, the company declined and would go into liquidation in 1975.

The "isolastic frame" used rubber bushings to keep the engine and swingarm from direct contact with the frame duplex, forks, and rider, thus damping contact between the rider and engine vibration. This worked as long as the bushings were kept set to tolerances, and were replaced before becoming hard or damaged. If kept maintained, the system worked.

The 'Combat' engine was released in January 1972, with a twin roller bearing crank, 10:1 compression and making 65 bhp at 6,500 rpm. Reliability immediately proved a problem. (Older engines had used one ball bearing main, and one roller bearing main.) This fragility did not show up well, especially when compared to the reliability of the Japanese bikes.

Norton-Villiers-Triumph
In 1972, the former giant of British motorcycle manufacturing BSA was also in trouble. It was given government help on the condition that it merged with Norton-Villiers, and in 1973 the new Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT) was formed. The Triumph Motorcycles name came from BSA's Triumph subsidiary.

In April 1973 an 8.5:1 compression 828cc "850" engine was released with German SuperBlend bearings, which made 51 bhp at 6,250 rpm however the stated power does not give a true picture of the engine performance because increased torque seemed to make up for the lower horsepower.

In 1974, the outgoing government withdrew the subsidies, although the incoming government restored them after the election. Rationalisation of the factory sites to Wolverhampton and Birmingham (BSA's Small Heath site) only caused industrial disputes at Triumph's Coventry site; Triumph would go on as a workers cooperative alone.

Despite mounting losses, 1974 saw the release of the ‘828 Roadster’, ‘Mark 2 Hi Rider’, ‘JPN Replica’ (John Player Norton) and ‘Mk.2a Interstate’. In 1975 this was down to just two models, the 'Mark 3 Interstate' and the 'Roadster', but then the Government asked for a repayment of its loan and refused export credits, further damaging the company's ability to sell abroad. Production of the two lone models still made was ended and supplies dwindled.

Wankel engine
In the 1980s, the company went through several incarnations - mainly because, both the name was popular, and now owned by several parties: in liquidation from NVT, the global rights were split between (at least) Norton UK, Germany, America and Rest of the World.

The name was relaunched on an ambitious scale in Lichfield in 1988. The new models have succeeded on the race track - winning the Senior TT in 1992 - but they have moved rather more slowly in the commercial market. The British company had some success making the Wankel-engined Interpol 2 motorcycle for civilian and military police forces and the RAC.

This led to a civilian model in 1987 called the Classic. Subsequent Norton Wankels were water-cooled. The Commander was launched in 1988 and was followed by the Spondon-framed F1. This model was a replica of Norton's RCW588 factory racing machines which won many races including the 1992 Isle of Man TT. The F1 was succeeded by the restyled and slightly less expensive F1 sport. With high prices and possibly some customer suspicious of the Wankel engine, the factory suffered from low sales, and production ceased in the early 1990's.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Norton (motorcycle)".