Bike Magazine 600th issue March 2023

Has anyone seen this mag?

Apparently in 1971 their first magazine had an article on the 1971 Norton Commando, which they described as big, fast and long-legged. They took the bike across the North of England, along with a BSA Rocket 3 that ran really badly.

For the 600th magazine they took a 2023 Command on the same route, to see how it did. The comparison of the two bikes is fascinating, with 77bhp @ 7250rpm, the '23 Commando has exactly the same bhp per cc as the '71 with 60bhp @ 6800rpm. The newer bike also has an additional 39kg, so the power-to-weight ratio is only 7% better. But of course the '23 has up-to-date geometry, suspension, and brakes, and much more torque (59.7lb.ft @ 6300rpm vs. 48 lb.ft @ 5000rpm)

I have the 1st edition of Bike.

That test turned out to be quite an epic.

250 triple

What did you think of the Commandos article?

I wonder if someone could put up a link to the articles? I really like reading old articles, reviews and road tests of our old bikes. I often shake my head in disappointment when the journalist reports that he picked a brand new bike up from Andover, Meridan, Blackheath or wherever depending on marque only to find the bike had numerous faults like oil leaks etc on the test. I’m sure Honda would have gone over any bike they put up for a test with a fine tooth comb to ensure a good review.
As an aside, I must confess to knowing nothing about the new Nortons except that they are plagued with corporate troubles and the bikes are hardly living up to expectations. When I just read how little horsepower they developed, not substantially more than our bikes, I really shook my head. I totally understand that the purpose of the exercise was not to produce an absolute road burner but surely anyone who spends that much money on a bike like that would expect a reasonable amount of grunt. Just making it up, I suspect that for the average rider once you get up around 120hp the bike feels dam fast and the difference on the street between that and the most powerful bike available becomes rather academic. To me, 77hp with that capacity just sounds like lazy engineering. I’m sure the factory claims all sorts of stuff like heaps of torque etc but at the end of the day no one wants to be blitzed by a mate on a bike worth half the price.
Recently I rode a mate’s stooge hot Aprillia and I must say it was a real eye opener.
Just a thought
Alan

MichaelD said:

What did you think of the Commandos article?

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I haven't read it yet. Snow day today, I'll get time.

MichaelD said:

What did you think of the Commandos article?

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That's where my checkbook would speak.

At the price point & delivered quality level, the 961 seems a betrayal to the marque.

JMWO

"over 100 mph in the wet"
"rather him than me"
A sad reminder of the pussifycation gone on.

I bought the first ever edition all those years ago, and bought them monthly for many years. There was a break of a few years, but today I still get it delivered to me free of charge as it comes courtesy of my bank account. I flick through it and give it away. Upstairs in the attic I have dozens of years worth of all sorts of bike magazines.

Sadly I don’t have issue no.1 but coincidentally a week or so ago I discovered issue no2 in my trailer - how the heck did it get there?

Back in the day it was a ‘must have’ and read cover to cover. I flicked through issue 2 and thought what a pathetic piece of rubbish it was in comparison to the drivel of today. It was also black and white and very few pages. 62 of them