Hi-Rider production like just about every Commando topic has been discussed here at one time or another (some frequently) and Joe Seifert has said previously that Mike Jackson is wrong.
https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/how-many-hi-riders-for-75.11681/#post-161758
Mike Jackson once said there were only very few, because they did not sell. He then suggested a very low number.
But that is quite obviously wrong. The Hi-Rider stayed in the programme for several variants of Commandos, so had it flopped straight away they would not have bothered to list it again.
https://www.accessnorton.com/Norton...made-commando-frames.10178/page-3#post-137334
55,000 was a figure given by Mike Jackson.
Mike Jackson is a very entertaining and amusing man, has been involved with Nortons on and off for about three decades, and knows how to tell a good story.
A reliable or accurate source he is not.
Accurate numbers are definitely not his forte. I discussed the number of Hi-Riders produced with him recently, and his estimate was totally out against what I have since seen in the records, even at a brief glance. The same applies to his statement about the total number of Commandos produced. I suspect Mike forgets there were those big gaps in the system that LAB rightly points out. Had I the time I'd be looking up the smaller gaps which I seem to remember I saw in the despatch records.
On an aside you'd be surprised how many P11s and Mercurys were produced alongside the early Commandos- all in the same numbering sequence.
If the Hi-Rider had been such a flop that 50 out of a 100 had to be changed to Roadsters in order to sell them, then as Joe pointed out, the Hi-Rider wouldn't have survived for more than a year, yet it remained in production for
five years, going from 750 to 850, and through various part changes including a seat restyle and the late fuel tanks made from steel instead of glass fibre which seems a lot of trouble to go to for a model when only a total of about 50 were supposed to have been sold!
Only around half would be expected to survive and there's clearly more than twenty five Hi-Riders still in existence going by the number in Google images and offered for sale etc.
There are nine Hi-Riders on the Access Norton register which can only be a small percentage of those that are left.
We also know from previous discussions that a considerable number of Commandos in the 235000-235500 range were Hi-Riders although the '235' series production apparently doesn't seem to officially exist in the eyes of the NOC except where some 'short-stroke' 750 engines are concerned!
Mike was definitely talking world wide 50,000 Commandos.
No argument with that, only production during the first three years was somewhat short of "10,000 per year" and included other models and not just Commandos.
I thought the NOC had the factory records?
Do they confirm 50,000?
The problem with the VMCC/NOC records is they have gaps and practically nothing on the 850s. AN has 850 records but there are also gaps, so it's not possible to confirm exactly how many Commandos were made.
