Norton Motorcycles has acquired the Donington Hall estate in the U.K., including its 25 acres of land from airline company British Airways. The property also includes the 45,000 square foot Hastings House facility will become Norton’s new production facility and design studio.

Until now, Norton has been operating out of the Donington Park circuit, which was formerly part of the Donington Hall estate. The Hall itself was built in 1790 and carries a lot of history. During the First World War, the British government requisitioned Donington Hall and used it as a POW camp. The Hall later housed Hungarian refugees fleeing the Soviets after a failed revolution in 1956.

“Donington Hall conjures up a uniquely British way to show style, strength and quality which are all great attributes of the Norton brand,” says Stuart Garner, chief executive officer of Norton Motorcycles. “It became clear some time ago that we had outgrown our current location, to be able to move less than a mile down the road to an outstanding facility like Donington Hall is ideal. It will allow Norton to grow our manufacturing business with focus on ‘built in Britain by British hands’, export growth and job creation.” Continue Reading »

Norton Motorcycles has received approval from Canada’s transportation and environment government agencies, finally opening the way for the British manufacturer to introduce its Commando models to the market. Norton has been working to enter Canada for a while and already has customers waiting since 2010. Deliveries will finally be made in the spring.

The news comes after Norton gained similar approval from the California Air Resource Board. Norton will import three models to Canada, the Norton Commando 961 SE (pictured above), the Commando 961 Café Racer and the Commando 961 SF.

All Commando models share the same 961cc air-cooled parallel-Twin engine, upside-down Ohlins forks, radial-mount Brembo brakes and carbon fiber trim. Canadian customers will have a choice of blacked-out or chrome exhausts for the SF and black or polished rims for the Café Racer Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

Moto Electra has found a new, innovative way to combine old and new technologies in its electric race bike. The Virginia-based Moto Electra has been an active participant in electric motorcycle racing for the last few years, competing against much larger, better funded teams with a race bike using an electric motor and 1950s Norton Featherbed frame.

That melding of old and new has produced surprising results, including podium finishes in the TTXGP and victory in a race featuring both electric and gas-powered motorcycles.

The plucky team has taken another technological step forward by equipping its race bike with an Apple iPad as an information console and communication system. Built into the top of the Norton fuel tank, the iPad provides performance information including speed, lap-times and acceleration information, as well as monitoring vital functions such as battery charge level. The iPad can also produce a noise simulating a combustion engine as a safety feature for the otherwise silent-running electric motorcycle. Continue Reading »

Norton Motorcycles announced it will compete in the 2012 Isle of Man TT with a new racebike.

The as-yet-unnamed racebike will use an Aprilia RSV4 engine with a chassis from Spondon Engineering. If that formula sounds familiar, it’s because it sounds like of MotoGP’s new Claiming Rule Team machines. Norton doesn’t mention MotoGP directly in its announcement, though it did say it will receive no factory support from Aprilia just like several CRT efforts.

Critics will argue the racebike is not a real Norton as it uses an engine and frame from other manufacturers (though it should be noted Norton had previously used a Spondon chassis in its NRV588 racebike). Norton did make a number of its own components at its Donington Park facility, including its traditional polished aluminum fuel tank. Continue Reading »

The International Motorcycling Federation announced 11 teams have passed the latest round of applications for the 2012 MotoGP season.

MotoGP promoter Dorna and the International Road Racing Teams Association selected 11 new teams representing 16 riders to continue with the application process for the 2012 season. Applicants submitted detailed plans for participation to the IRTA by May 14. The FIM announced in April that 14 teams and 21 riders had passed the previous step but the list was whittled down to 13 teams after the May 13-15 Le Mans round.

The 11 remaining teams will have until June 3 to provide a security deposit with the IRTA. Dorna and the IRTA will then decide during the June 3-5 Catalunya Grand Prix which teams will be offered a contract to race in the 2012 season. Teams wishing to participate as Claiming Rule Teams will also have to receive approval from the Grand Prix Commission. While there’s no guarantee all 11 remaining teams will pass this final step, the MotoGP grid will be a lot larger than its current 17-rider lineup.

The FIM did not announce which teams had made it past the recent round of cuts, though it is believed that Norton had applied for a team with two riders. Following the Catalunya grand Prix, the FIM will release the names of the teams invited to join the existing teams for the 2012 MotoGP season.

Related Reading
14 Teams Accepted for 2012 MotoGP Season
MotoGP Accepting Applications for 2012

Steve Twist, a student from Bournemouth University, has created this great short film over the last 5 months morphing a Norton Commando into a computer animated living transformer.  Congrats Steve on a job well done!

Check it out after the jump.

Continue Reading »

GA_googleFillSlot("MCL_com_Pre-Roll");

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Short Synopsis: When a young man is confronted with his mortality, he takes a cross-country road trip on a vintage motorcycle (a Norton Commando). One Week tells the story of Ben Tyler (Joshua Jackson), in his mid-twenties, who flees from the confines of his life—an impending marriage, a job he’s not entirely happy with and a recent diagnosis—in order to attempt to live more fully. What starts off as an ill-defined venture soon morphs into a quest for the West Coast.