#Commando 850

[krylov-space]

Sunday noon at the Café Hubraum, Solingen

[crownmoto]

[frenchcurious]

Norton Commando 850 Roadster 1975. - source Moto Vitelloni - Wheels n' wings.

[windburnedeyes]

What Motorcycle Is in 'One Week'?

In the 2008 film One Week, a Canadian indie gem, the motorcycle of choice is not just a machine; it’s a symbol, a companion, and an essential part of the journey. The bike in question? A 1973 Norton Commando 850, a British classic that carries the film’s protagonist, Ben Tyler (played by Joshua Jackson), across the sweeping and sometimes desolate landscapes of Canada. It’s not just a prop. It’s a…

[rainbowriderjt]

1975 850 Norton Commando

[wetsteve3]

a rickman framed 850 Norton Commando Proddie racer with a Hemmings twin Disc conversion but a tad on the heavy side

[bedlamsbard]

About 850 words written today which means there is actually enough to snippet.  Two loads of laundry today, swept the house, made bread dough, Sunday Zoom.  Still feeling like I essentially did nothing, which isn’t true, but. *flips hand*

Snippet from Of Home Near chapter 3.

Steve’s sketchbook was all that was left to search.  Peggy set his pencil case aside after going through it quickly, then flipped the sketchbook open.  She had given it to him for Christmas, along with new pencils from a shop in London, and the first third of the book was filled with sketches she recognized from going through it after the Valkyrie’s disappearance – landscapes from Austria, France, and England, a group of anonymous GIs sitting in the back of a commandeered German lorry, the Howling Commandos as various kinds of dogs, Howard covered in soot and with his hair standing on end after an experiment had gone wrong, her own face smiling over a tin cup full of French champagne the Commandos had liberated –

Peggy had to smile at the memory, which wasn’t that old.  The Commandos had come back to the camp with two jeeps full of champagne, Guerlain perfume, and a couple of trussed up Hydra scientists.  They had turned the latter over to Howard and distributed the former lavishly amongst the 107th and SSR command staff, to everyone’s delight.  Peggy still had the bottle of Mitsouko Steve had given her tucked away; it wasn’t her usual scent, but that wasn’t the point.

Natasha, she had noticed, wore Vol de Nuit, probably from that same haul.  Either Steve had had it stowed away or Howard had, and one or the other had given it to her.

It was the scientists they had captured who had tipped the SSR off about Arnim Zola being on the train where Bucky Barnes had died.

[ztremx]

1974 norton 850 commando

[thewul]

I was confident in my bike, it had brand new suspensions, new brakes and tires that could handle anything, 60hp, 4 speeds, the 850 Commando was already arguably the greatest of british twins, modern even for when it was introduced in the early 70's, and a roadster with a comfortable riding position which was exactly what I needed for this long trip, while the biker mates of our small pack had modern bikes they were admirative of the one that I had, it looked like it could do anything and take head on what Carretera Austral had in stock of high altitudes, occasional rainfall, and bumpy unpaved roads that turned muddy because of flash floods, most of all handle well during the sheer distance we had ahead of us, you have to have that as a biker to be able to trust your bike and that it will get you where you want safe, it's part of being a biker, it's not just you it's the bike as well, there's a bond that is hard to describe other than making it together, and Carretera Austral was not to be underestimated

[over20yearsa1percenter]

Lusted over the Norten back in the long ago. This custom is the way one SHOULD look! Gotta get some of those Coker tires for my Trumpet!!!

[wytfut]

Part 1 X’s and its history

Well any of you that know me, know I have a sickness. I’m in a fantasy world with Excelsior Hendersons (99-00 era).

Also if you know me well, you know I do not easily volunteer down the beaten path.  For example, my second bike was a Norton. A highly historical bike back in the day, but pretty uncommon here in the flat lands of Nebraski.

Looking into my history, I’ve constantly done this, and didn’t recognize that I did this until the past few years. Wisdom? Doubtful...

in 1999 I decided I needed to get back into motorcycles. I even got approval from my Lovely Wife Toots (Patti)..

As I shopped (mostly ebay) I kept looking at Nortons (750-850 commandos) from my past. Fell in love with BMW R 1200 C’s, and this brand new company that no one knew anything about... Excelsior Henderson.

Don’t take this wrong... I have no issues with Harley Davidsons, or many many other breeds of motorcycles out there. But for example, there are millions of Harleys out there...   I want something unique, and boy did I get one with an X.

If I see a Norton Commando or a BMW R 1200 C out of the corner of my eye.... yup, I’m looking.

Note that the BMW is not your normal motorcycle by any means in look or design.

And Norton was not common around here.

And thus Excelsior Henderson (super X) bloomed into my little brain. I kept coming back to the web site, and couldn’t  believe that there was such a critter out there. For the era they were a bit ahead of their times looks and tech. Now not so much on the tech....

BUT I feel the look of a Super X is timeless, new but very retro. They still look to this day very much up to date with current times. Today most folks just cannot believe that my X  is over 23 years old.... hell I can’t believe it. And I cannot believe I’ve been involved with these bikes that long...

My X, #525 was 310th off the build line back then. Although it was an early one, it wasn’t one that had a factory name.

Assembly line tech’s would take to each bike as they were built in the early days, and on the back bone of the build, they’d write that name in permanent ink (white). “black beauty” “Thrasher” etc..

History behind the name Excelsior Henderson, was a very old brand of motorcycles, that had closed its doors at the beginning of the depression ... 1931 which had in general started in 1901. Agnaz Schwinn (yup the bicycle builder) was the owner, and decided to only build bicycles.

Agnas’s factory for EH was in Chicago. Interesting note, on the roof of the company he had built a test track.

The early history, these 2 names were actually 2 different companies, I believe they joined together around 1917.  Agnaz wasn’t the owner until 1927. Excelsior built the Vtwin, and Henderson built the inline 4 cylinder. The Hendersons were in high demand with Police Dept’s across America. And the Excelsior’s ruled on  speed and track.

When I first got my EH... only OLD guys had ever heard of the name ( I was 50, and these guys were 70+). Anyone else, as an owner would have to go thru the whole spiel written above. Now, no one knows the name for what it is, except on rare occasion. So, yeah part of the fun of owning an EH, is showing off something completely different and explain its history. I’ll sometimes trip across someone who rode these in the test rides of Daytona bike week, or Sturgis. They tell me with pride in their eyes when they describe it.

Excelsior Henderson ruled the records, reliability, and demand in the old days. There were 3 big companies then... Harley Davidson, Indian and EH.

By the end of the depression only Indian and Harley survived. From the turn of the century to the depression, America had over 86 motorcycle manufacturers, which is an interesting note.

Our new beauties were built in Belle Plaines Minnesota. Yeah.. for real they did. Company was started by Dan Hanlon, and family. They had decided after years attending Sturgis that there should be another American made Motorcycle to compete with Harley Davidson. There wasn’t... Harley had the market. They were the only American built motorcyle.

Shortly after EH was on the market,  Indians (Gilmore California) were being produced, and Victory (Lake Okobojie Iowa) became a thing.  Suddenly HD had 3 competitors. And they did affect Harleys market, but not enough to do damage. As Harley had a huge market line, of parts, clothes, accessories, etc.   Over 1/3 of  their profit market back then was not motorcycles...

EH produced Super X’s for 2 years and closed their doors of the brand new factory, with a run of ONLY 1956 built.  I won’t get into  why this happened, other than to say, common stocks were released too soon for the market. Early X’s sold cost the factory close to $30000 each and were sold for $18000-20000. It only makes sense in my itty bitty head that the company wasn’t stable enough to go public with stock. If you want to know more about this part of the subject, wrote a Dan Hanlon book, you’ll see them for sale occasionally on Amazon.

Early in production our X’s showed engineering problems.... basically with not enough road test miles on them, I consider both years of X’s as prototypes. Every X I’ve road or worked on is different, even though they were all assembled at the same factory. 

As the doors closed, a large portion of the general motorcycling public considered Super X’s an Edsel or Orphan. The general motorcycling public was afraid of our bikes. 

It was dark times then. The doors were closed. One employee (Doctor Dave) who was still at the factory, was frantically trying his best to sell parts and address the issues.

The factory was then bought out by a very dirty guy out of Florida, known for buying investments in trouble, then cleaning house (selling off everything).

Heaton was his name. He had the foyer to the factory cleaned out of some priceless collectibles early in his purchase. They were acquired during the early years to fill the beautiful foyer..... Antique Excelsiors and Hendersons, plus other items.

Heaton decided to hold an auction at the factory to get rid of the actual parts. An amazing number of owners showed up at the factory for this Auction. At the last minute, I think it was an injunction was issued against the auction. but a lot of parts were pilfered that day by owners (hell the doors were open and no one was policing the area), Heaton ended up selling the rest to Swift Trucking.

Swift Trucking had a side business building factory built Choppers. They needed the very hi tech paint booth. Buying the paint booth, they had to take the parts as part of the paint booth purchase. Owner of Swift despised  these parts, as they had to sell them at 1999 prices and these same parts were not selling quickly. Towards the end of this piece of history, rumor had it that he was loading up parts on pallets to go to the recyclers and salvage yards. Luckily most were salvaged. One of Swifts employees who was in charge of the EH parts,...  managed to walk out the door with parts regularly once he knew there was going to be a demise of EH parts sold from Swift....   Terry..

Terry, by the time Swift quit sales, had acquired a large portion of parts, which he sold off for many years.

General public motorcyclist had heard rumors of issues... and with the doors closed. how were these issues to be addressed? Odd as it may sound, the owners/fans of these machines, came together, and fixed all the issues with some help from exCEO Dan Hanlon.

Some of these issues were very difficult to describe via internet. Plus a lot of owners/mechanics were older, thus a bit stuck in their ways. How do you explain your idea/fix over the internet, especially if you are not computer savvy  difficult at best. Because of that, there were many disagreements thru the years on our favorite forum sites. ...

So much so that at times it looked like our little community would fall apart. But apparently we have enough respect for each other, we kept at it.

There are still some “fixes” with multiple choices. And us owners are loud enough to tell you what “fix” is the right one...    it does get humorous at times.

I think we’ll end part 1 here....    

Norton I restored in my shop. I was looking at Norton just like this when I was shopping. I also had owned one just like this back in 1973.

R1200 BMW....  Still like the looks of these. And yes I will look everytime one goes by..

Poster shot of #525 and my shed..

Nice shot of #525 taken by Andy Latenser

[hellkustom]

More pics here:

http://www.hellkustom.com/2018/02/norton-commando-850-1974-by-federal-moto.html

[thatyouride]

1975 Norton Commando 850

[murdercycles]

Cycle  September, 1974 Norton

[aristocraticmotorcyclist]

New lithography NORTON COMMANDO 850 available now here : https://anthese.fr/

[cosmonautroger]