endurance type racing is a very good indicator of just how reliable a road machine is likely to be over a period of time longer than any type of magazine "test", whose content is largely determined by the amount of advertising a manufacturer might be taking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrol_Six_Hour

Notice how well Kawasaki did in the Australian Castrol 6 hour race in the 70s, which is around about the time according to posters on here, that the Norton Commando was the bike to have for any form of serious competition.

Oh Dear .

Matt Spencer wrote:Oh Dear .

Norton did very well in the Thruxton 500 mile race up until the time the race stopped being run in the early 70s, but successes in other endurance racing were not that common.

In the real world, you shouldn't feed trolls.

grandpaul wrote:In the real world, you shouldn't feed trolls.

According to posts on here the Commando is far superior to bikes like the Z1 in pretty much every way. This being the case then surely the Norton would have been very successful in endurance racing, where even bikes seemingly as unsuitable as single cylinder Bultaco's won major races?

Running 24 hours at the Bol or Le-Mans without fault was something the big Kawasakis excelled at, and the fact that no Brit bike was able to do this with any degree of success was a measure of the reliability (or lack of same) of machinery whose original design in some cases dated back to the 1930's (Triumph twin 1937).

Carbonfibre wrote:According to posts on here the Commando is far superior to bikes like the Z1 in pretty much every way. This being the case then surely the Norton would have been very successful in endurance racing, where even bikes seemingly as unsuitable as single cylinder Bultaco's won major races?

Running 24 hours at the Bol or Le-Mans without fault was something the big Kawasakis excelled at, and the fact that no Brit bike was able to do this with any degree of success was a measure of the reliability (or lack of same) of machinery whose original design in some cases dated back to the 1930's (Triumph twin 1937).

you do know this is a site for Norton enthusiasts don't you? the site name is a little hint to this.
I'm sure there are sites for Kawasaki enthusiasts that would love you to sign up and tell them how superior their motorcycles are, but I, for one, am tired of reading you ramble about pretty much everything you ramble about.

I doubt anyone here believes that the Norton Motorcycle is superior to anything else, but I am pretty sure it is safe to say that we all own them because we want to own a Norton, not because it is the best at anything it does.

Please go away

Huh imagine this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thruxton_500

http://bobnewbyracing.co.uk/bio.html

https://www.brunswickfilms.com/dvd-stor ... hp?Id=2782
Norton Commando - One of the best bikes ever made in England. Superb on the road and a winner on the racetrack. Manx Norton - Kept the British ... singles from the Birmingham company, and a winner in international endurance races. ...

hobot wrote:Huh imagine this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thruxton_500

http://bobnewbyracing.co.uk/bio.html

https://www.brunswickfilms.com/dvd-stor ... hp?Id=2782
Norton Commando - One of the best bikes ever made in England. Superb on the road and a winner on the racetrack. Manx Norton - Kept the British ... singles from the Birmingham company, and a winner in international endurance races. ...

The Nortons were indeed very successful in the Thruxton 500, but not sure whether or not the bikes had any other notable wins in longer duration races? Norman White one of the riders of the last race winning bike is still based at the circuit, and is seemingly very busy with Commando related work.

gory wrote:Please go away

Well said, dear Chap....Capital!!

Looks like they were out cc'd, suprisingly it looks like BMW done alright to, as for the brits, their industry was near dead by then

How many yards of water pipe did they weld in the Kawa chassis for Enduro Raceing , or was it an Egli Chassis . :shoc

http://www.kzrider.com/forum/2-engine/3 ... ce-article

"Len Atlee’s Norton Interstate ran out of brakes and crashed after one-and-a-half hours. The eight laps lost in the pits was the exact distance Len lost by at the finish."

http://www.the6hour.com.au/content/history1972.html

1972 , H2750 . Bar some idiot forgetting to put new disc pads in , about even .

After that entries dominated by whizz bangs as far as twins went , like TX 750s . Which fell apart .
Machines stripped for measureing PRE race by 75 ./ most were run by ' keen youngh men '.
Some had know n how to build and could be bothered with a British Twin , earlier .
Commercial Pressures and scale / inavailability & indifferance were prime reasons for the demise .

The Kawaskis handling & roadholding attributes .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O--sqoaxgMo



And WHO was responsable for THIS .

http://www.realclassic.co.uk/kawa03110100.html

My Ms Peel is meant to wipe the smirks off the lips of the likes of ole Carbon. It will be a special of course but still at base design in chassis to engine it'll be all Norton on skinny tires. But in real life with a real daily used Commando its a constant mantaince headache so its some bragging right to keep nursing em along. Not too bad for such and ancient design and tooling. Too bad the newbie being offered ain't in super bike class nor even out there yet to tell how they'll last.

Some cool footage, but I don't think you can take any race that can be won by a XS1100 as serious

Kor , Streewth . Paass a toob Ocker ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Um377a ... re=related

The 81 Bathurst Riots , Er MOTORCYCLE Races .
As the longest straight in Aus is about 1000 kilometers , theres not the same emphisis on Handling as in N.Z. ,
Where the longest straight is 100 Miles , though it has a S bend in the middle . This can be done in an hour.
As a matter of Honour .
It cant be done in an hour in Australia , no matter what the motorcycle . So there not all there cut out to be .