Norton 850 Commando rider down in Los Angeles

Sorry to report that I met up with a young 30s? rider at Newcomb's Ranch on Angeles Crest Hwy (Sunday, March 4). He was later in a serious crash that totalled the bike.

Here is the bike, the rider is standing just to the rear.


The rider's a nice guy, we had a long conversation about his bike. He's really into Nortons so I thought he might post here or someone may know him.

Per the Mountain Rescue he has a bad case of road rash. When I saw the accident after he was airlifted out I did not think he survived. The bike is gone.

My best wishes to the rider if he's reading this. - Get well soon and I hope it doesn't put you off.

Commandos are infinitely rebuildable with a better spares back up than probably any other 30 year old machine. Go for it !

That is really sad to hear, both from the rider standpoint and the bike standpoint. I live near the bottom of the Crest and this is my "home ballpark". That road can be a handful for someone not familiar with it on a modern bike, much less an antique (I have a 71 Fastback, so I'm allowed to say this - I hope). There can be a rocks/gravel other miscellaneous bits of detritius, deer/bear/squirrel crossings, riders/drivers crossing the center divider, and there are more than a few decreasing radius/off camber/hairpin turns. The Medevac chopper ride off the mountain is gonna set you back several thousand on top of the ER room visit, so you have wallet rash, in addition to the road rash and bike rash...I hope the recovery is quick and complete...