how'd they come up with commando?? (2014)

And Norton used the Ranger model name to recognize the American elite forces of WWII?

Yep as P11 Rangers were might for tackling wild west American deserts.

I think Piero has explained the origin of the word from the Italian Latin right, but why they called it Commando probably has to do with a GB military unit. I was in Trieste in '45 and can still remember the black shirts and words like Comandare. I think it pretty much translates to 'control' in English.

wakeup said:

I saw the AMC designed (800cc?) o.h.c. vertical twin intended to replace the Dominator. Listening to it running started off my industrially based hearing loss, the cam chain could be heard in the next County. The artwork, which was packed along with the bike had a name similar to, but not the same as "Dominator", (Devastator, no; Destroyer, no; Disaster....possibly)
I'm not going to get to sleep tonight, trying to remember what that AMC 800 was called................
cheers
wakeup

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After waking up in the middle of the night I've remembered the name of the 800cc vertical twin the I saw on the artwork. I'm about 99% sure that it was "Imperator". So I went a'looking for it and guess what came up in Wikipedia

"The Latin word imperator was originally a title roughly equivalent to commander under the Roman Republic."

So there we are. It doesn't have the ring of "Dominator" but you can see what they were thinking.
I can sleep soundly now!
cheers
wakeup

trident sam said:

I believe Commando came from a factory employee when the factory had run a competition to name the new model.
wonder what the prize was .
sam

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must be someone our there that knows what went down to come up with norton commando?

Someone at Norton was likely thinking of the risky competition battles with a new stop gap design to save the company so > were Going Commando. ID the company's Scott personality at that time for the man responsible.



Its the ancient term for being so scared your body involuntarily has a loose bowl movement such as might happen to solders with axles and spears in your face taking people apart all over the place and in respect was more honorably referred to as "going commando". Going commando is the practice of not wearing underwear under one's outer clothing. The term is theorised to be related to the much earlier term "going regimental", which refers to wearing the kilt military style, that is, without underwear.
Kilts have been traditionally worn without undergarments since their use as part of Scottish military uniform, leading to the invention of such expressions as "going commando" or"go regimental" or "military practice" for wearing no underwear. On the Western Front during the First World War, some Sergeants Major reportedly had mirrors tied to the end of golf clubs or walking sticks to inspect up and under the kilt at parade inspection. However, in 1940 the kilt was retired from combat due to the vulnerability of bare skin to chemical agents, although it was retained as the formal dress uniform of the regiments. In the 1950s, kilted soldiers on parade would be checked by the Sergeant Major using a mirror on the barracks floor. In 1997, a Black Watch soldier received wide press exposure, because of windy conditions during a military ceremony in Hong Kong.

Do not search <going commando pics> w/o adding kilt to it if spouse about.

No 123: PROTOTYPE NORTON P800 (DOHC 800cc) ENGINE - 1965

Around 1964, rumours were to be heard that the new Norton Unit construction twin with parallel cyliders tilted forward in the frame, and with twin overhead camshafts, was in the offing. In fact the machine that had been glimpsed was a prototype that was undergoing test milage.

The rumours were correct - it was a twin with tilted cylinders, and it did have overhead camshafts. These were cahain driven - the chain running through a triangular arrangement of tubes on the timing side of the engine.

The engine was 800cc capacity, and built in unit with a 5 speed gearbox. This was housed in a featherbed frame with standard wheels and front forks. A twin leading shoe front brake was used.

The engine number was P 10/1 and the machine bore the registration number HGN 36C. It was, however only a prototype and with the receiver being appointed to AMC in 1966 nothing more was heard. [Text from info panel at the museum]

http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/

1up3down said:

No 123: PROTOTYPE NORTON P800 (DOHC 800cc) ENGINE - 1965

Around 1964, rumours were to be heard that the new Norton Unit construction twin with parallel cyliders tilted forward in the frame, and with twin overhead camshafts, was in the offing. In fact the machine that had been glimpsed was a prototype that was undergoing test milage.

The rumours were correct - it was a twin with tilted cylinders, and it did have overhead camshafts. These were cahain driven - the chain running through a triangular arrangement of tubes on the timing side of the engine.

The engine was 800cc capacity, and built in unit with a 5 speed gearbox. This was housed in a featherbed frame with standard wheels and front forks. A twin leading shoe front brake was used.

The engine number was P 10/1 and the machine bore the registration number HGN 36C. It was, however only a prototype and with the receiver being appointed to AMC in 1966 nothing more was heard. [Text from info panel at the museum]

http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/

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Yup, that's the one. When NV closed the Woolwich factory in 69, what didn't go in the skip was moved to a rented factory at Andover. The drawing office was in the same building, which is how I got to see this 800cc prototype, and a whole lot more. The sales manager of the day decided to see if the 800cc motor would run. After some fiddling about the thing started and the building rapidly emptied. Imagine that other prime example of late AMC design, the Jubilee/Navigator/Electra noisy valve gear, multiplied by any big number you can think of. That approximates the 800cc motors' valve gear. Apparently the cam chain was over 48" long, running in those little tubes, no wonder it made such a din! Apparently there were two motors, similar apart from the valve gear drive, the second motor was built to try and eliminate the noise, whether it worked or not, or was even ran I don't know.
Some of the other memorable things were, bizarrely lots of what seemed to be, exhaust pipe jigs for the 250 single; the dismantled early batch(es) of Commandos, the ones with widowmaker frames that had been returned, the AMC drawing stores which went back to the early part of the century. For a very short time there were some Norton/AJS/Matchless racing bits, how they escaped the scavengers I'm not sure! However they did disappear pretty quickly. In the D.O. there was a Commando with a tank and seat styled by an American, possibly Vetter??, it was a bit Buck Rogers but not unattractive for all that. There was a Tracer employed to trace all the early drawings so that they could be microfilmed, I wonder what happened to them?
Anyway, there we are, all this because I woke up and remembered a name on a piece of artwork!
cheers

I thought the Scotts wore kilts because the sheep can hear a zipper a mile away.

DogT said:

I thought the Scotts wore kilts because the sheep can hear a zipper a mile away.

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Nope, that's not the reason, they wore kilts- without any underwear, because their, mother's, wife's, girlfriends got peeved of with the brown streaks left on their underwear!

Mind you.. Given that Hitler signed a directive that any British commandos caught during WW2 were to be stripped of any military prisoner protocols (ie: carte blanche to torture then shoot them), perhaps the short life expectancy was a consideration in choosing the name...

They already owned the name as it belonged to James & was parts of the Plumstead set up. This is written up in the history of the P10 developement

Chris said:

They already owned the name as it belonged to James & was parts of the Plumstead set up. This is written up in the history of the P10 developement

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Yes there was a James Commando in the 1950s.

Reminds me of the Norton Commando advertisement, about 1968 or 1969. I can't find the image. But it was just a picture of a hand grenade with the words Norton Commando under it. Too funny, when you think about the Combat, and how they self grenaded.

Stephen Hill

It could have entered the world as the Atlas Mk3.... Funky, 'eh????

Realize this thread is 6 years old. That said, couple years ago I was at the back doc getting a shot in my L5-S1 joint for back pain and he said to me 'Oh, you're going Commando' and I immediately thought how does he know I have a Norton? Well, he was just commenting on my lack of underwear. We had a good laugh about it. The shot didn't work, but I'm ok now.
I like the post about the skid marks.

I heard that Bob Trigg was admiring Dr. Stefan Bauer's new shoes. Thanks he said, they're Clarks Commando's ...

Read a magazine article years ago that said the name was originally going to be Combat, but Commando got chosen after a staff competition, along with Isolastic.

cliffa said:

I heard that Bob Trigg was admiring Dr. Stefan Bauer's new shoes. Thanks he said, they're Clarks Commando's ...

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Thank god they were not Hush Puppies!

I was thinking 'what's the story' with naming the 67 on norton model line 'commando'

this part

trident sam said:

I believe Commando came from a factory employee when the factory had run a competition to name the new model.
wonder what the prize was .
sam

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seems to be confirmed

komet said:

Read a magazine article years ago that said the name was originally going to be Combat, but Commando got chosen after a staff competition, along with Isolastic.

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wonder if there are more details out there? names?