2013 Norton Commando 961 Lineup Gets CARB Approval

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

Norton Motorcycles has received approval from the California Air Resources Board for its Commando 961 lineup. The 2013 Norton Commando 961 SE, Café Racer, Sport and SF (Sport Factory) are now certified for the state of California.

All Norton Commando models are powered by 961cc parallel twin engines. The air-cooled SE, Café Racer and Sport models claim 89 hp at 7700 rpm and 59 ft-lb. at 6000 rpm while the air/oil-cooled SF model recently unveiled at the NEC Motorcycle Live Show in the U.K. claims 89 hp at 6500 rpm and 66 ft-lb. at 5200 rpm.

All four models use twin 320mm front disc brakes from and four-piston calipers from Brembo, but all except the Sport model use radial-mount calipers. Brembo also supplies a 220mm disc and two-piston calipers for the rear brake.

The Sport model also has conventional Öhlins forks whereas the SF, Café Racer and SE use upside-down Öhlins forks. Öhlins also supplies reservoir-style twin shocks for all Norton Commando models. Both front and rear suspension allow for preload, compression and rebound adjustment. Ride height is also adjustable via the rear suspension.

According to Norton, the Sport, Café Racer and SE versions each claim a dry weight of 452 pounds while the SF claims a dry weight of 414 pounds.

[Source: CARB, Norton]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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