Total commando units made??
- Thread starter yvesnorton
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David its way more evil than your honest logic can apply. I spent some years searching online to finally find pdf file on official testimony admission by the main UK financial officer [whose famous name I forget] it was purely an early socialist experiment and on purpose only gave enough moola to get some hope up to see what would happen with worker/cooperative "opportunity" I have no interest to contest over this, just pointing out a fact you may be able to find. My files disappeard with hard drive burn up this summer. The pdf file investigative report was almost book size to read through to find what I knew had to be and sadly was right again. Some of the clues i followed to find this was searching up important agents names with <Rothschild>, then pages of google and hours wasted on dead ends. Its a confirmed conspiracy way bigger than just motorycle industry and don't care if I'm thot of as a nut case by those w/o the decades of background I've got. I hurts ones belief systems to the core I'll tell ya and we can't do anything about it so unless you care to live in deep depression on past and future, I suggest don't swallow the Matrix pill. I got the low down on above as sideline issues on getting out of IRS, banking w/o SSN and passport w/o having a legal presence in United States Inc. My motorcycle hobby would not be possible otherwise hardly working in middle of nowhere.
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Interesting read...
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/cul ... al-decline
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/cul ... al-decline
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I think Hobot was referring to Triumph Meriden which was kept open as a socialistic experiment. There is documentation that the government wanted to see if it could survive on it's own, and they turned their backs on Norton assuming that Meriden would be the motorcycle industry in England. Whether they understood that the industry could be saved or not...I question that. I don't think any government has that much vision...personal opinon...but just look at history.
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Maybe my history is a bit muddled, but as I understand it, the rapid collapse of the British motorcycle industry caused the UK government to offer bailout money to Norton-Villiers and the BSA Group if they merged and rationalized.
In this rationalization, it was decided to end production of the BSA brand, Triumph production would be concentrated at Small Heath, and Norton production would be based in Wolverhampton. With news of the impending closing of Meriden, the workers struck, and since Meriden supplied parts to the other factories, Wolverhampton was hamstrung and Small Heath essentially shut down, except for a trickle of Tridents. A new government came into power in the UK, the Meriden Worker's Cooperative was recognized and given money. NVT, or Norton-Triumph by that time, subsequently had a loan recalled and their export credits non-renewed. Norton-Triumph went into bankruptcy and was finally liquidated in 1978, with Meriden given the rights to sell under the Triumph brand. Meriden finally went into receivership in 1983, with assets being sold off in 1984. John Bloor bought the company, licensed Les Harris to continue building Bonnevilles for 5 years while he built a new factory in Hinckley, then started selling modern Triumphs from 1990 through the present day.
As I understand it, that's the collapse of the industry in a nutshell.
It's amazing to me that an industry would go from 30+ brands to 3 in 20 years (don't forget AJS and their Stormers)
In this rationalization, it was decided to end production of the BSA brand, Triumph production would be concentrated at Small Heath, and Norton production would be based in Wolverhampton. With news of the impending closing of Meriden, the workers struck, and since Meriden supplied parts to the other factories, Wolverhampton was hamstrung and Small Heath essentially shut down, except for a trickle of Tridents. A new government came into power in the UK, the Meriden Worker's Cooperative was recognized and given money. NVT, or Norton-Triumph by that time, subsequently had a loan recalled and their export credits non-renewed. Norton-Triumph went into bankruptcy and was finally liquidated in 1978, with Meriden given the rights to sell under the Triumph brand. Meriden finally went into receivership in 1983, with assets being sold off in 1984. John Bloor bought the company, licensed Les Harris to continue building Bonnevilles for 5 years while he built a new factory in Hinckley, then started selling modern Triumphs from 1990 through the present day.
As I understand it, that's the collapse of the industry in a nutshell.
It's amazing to me that an industry would go from 30+ brands to 3 in 20 years (don't forget AJS and their Stormers)
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BillT said:
The loan was the one the Government "gave" them and then recalled it and refused export credits until it was repaid...so the government had a hand in the collapse. The government wrote off 8.2 million pounds in loans owed by Triumph in order to keep the Meriden plant co-operative operating but demanded that Norton repay the loans it owed. The powers that be wanted to try a socialistic experiment...with no help to the company they forced to take over Triumph.
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We are now talking about hard life and times of the workaday people used up as pawns. Not unlike today with globalization inflation raising costs faster than production and people can keep up. Part of the confusion of who did what to who and why is the hidden influence of THE City vs England or Britain or UK. If ya got the stomach for it here's a brief history on basis of British Industrial Revolution.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/shelley-k ... 9013802008
East India Company flag fake president Washington ordered Betsy Ross to sew up.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/shelley-k ... 9013802008
East India Company flag fake president Washington ordered Betsy Ross to sew up.
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Right-o i can't read much of it either and always the same mean story anyway. Look up East India Co. Flag, but don't report back here.
I am pleased to see that its entirely possible that Cream of the Crop Combats were the most produced and sold model even though equal figure shown for '73, I'd think with all the warranty work and bad press Combats produced, would of tended to drag next years production down some. What other cycle got 5 yrs best of the magazine pick - but Norton couldn't top the Combat so lost its standing from then on. The Commando is so good in so many ways likely next generation there may be more surviving than ever produced!
I am pleased to see that its entirely possible that Cream of the Crop Combats were the most produced and sold model even though equal figure shown for '73, I'd think with all the warranty work and bad press Combats produced, would of tended to drag next years production down some. What other cycle got 5 yrs best of the magazine pick - but Norton couldn't top the Combat so lost its standing from then on. The Commando is so good in so many ways likely next generation there may be more surviving than ever produced!
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hobot said:
Haven't we been here before? :roll: most-common-commando-model-t12836.html#p151276
According to Mike Jackson, approximately 1,500 Combat models were returned to the factory to be "detuned", so how should we count those?
Thanks for bringing it back on topic, L.A.B. 
My recollection is that there were plenty of drum-braked 1972 models around in the UK. Certainly most of the Interpols were and presumably the US had lots of standard-tune Hi-Riders as well as drum-braked Roadsters ? I am surprised though at the apparent low numbers of 1974 850s as I'd have guessed that Mk2As were the most common. Maybe they just survived in greater numbers ?
My recollection is that there were plenty of drum-braked 1972 models around in the UK. Certainly most of the Interpols were and presumably the US had lots of standard-tune Hi-Riders as well as drum-braked Roadsters ? I am surprised though at the apparent low numbers of 1974 850s as I'd have guessed that Mk2As were the most common. Maybe they just survived in greater numbers ?
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79x100 said:Thanks for bringing it back on topic, L.A.B.
I am surprised though at the apparent low numbers of 1974 850s as I'd have guessed that Mk2As were the most common. Maybe they just survived in greater numbers ?
1974 was when Meriden was shut down by the strike. Since this plant built Tigers and Bonnevilles, there are almost no '74 models of these bikes. Small Heath and Wolverhampton were dependent on Meriden for supplies of parts, so both of these plants ran at greatly reduced capacity. If there had been a greater supply of Tridents and Commandos in 1974, 1975 would have been a better year for Norton-Triumph. Instead, Norton went into bankruptcy and Triumph shut down Small Heath.
I think T160s and MkIII Commandos would have remained competitive for several more years if given the chance
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BillT said:
The '74 models had been in production for around 2 - 3 months before the Meriden "sit-in" began (14 Sept. 1973) so that's not entirely true.
BillT said:
I can't honestly believe the Norton plant at Wolverhampton would have been dependent on Meriden for a supply of Norton Commando parts, considering the NVT deal didn't even happen on paper until April '73.
BillT said:
If the numbers are to be believed, there were more than 14,000 Mk2 & Mk2A Commandos built during the "1974" period. I'm interested to know where you got your figure of 6,000 from?
BillT said:
Truth is, the Triumph and BSA triples had been poor sellers, especially in the USA where buyers still preferred the Triumph twins to the triples.
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Ugh, good point L.A.B on the 1500 Combats de-tuned, not counting as Combats and best I can glean many were so scared of The Bomb they also de-tuned, un-sucessful though if just switching to std cam, d/t detonation. The more I learn and see of Commandos the more I see Combat as peak of Commando product, most minimalist in plumbing and wiring and pretty easy to upgrade to take power band glee routinely to get ahead of the others now and then.
So which model was most popular or which model still has most examples still existing runing or not? There was the de-tune wave soon after The Bomb saga but then again about every manual and book on Commandos had the specs listed to return to Combat Bomber power plant. So which side won out in the end?
So which model was most popular or which model still has most examples still existing runing or not? There was the de-tune wave soon after The Bomb saga but then again about every manual and book on Commandos had the specs listed to return to Combat Bomber power plant. So which side won out in the end?
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hobot said:
Count mine back to the dark side full combat spec with superblends. End of this season I put a combat camshaft back in after discovering a previous owner installed a standard with the resulting engine pinging. Why the Norris RX camshaft failed is another story.
hobot said:
If I was looking for a Commando to upgrade for more power without going big budget, the obvious choice would be a Mk3 but with a rh10 head modded by Jim. The Mk3 has the beefed up crank as well as cases and quite a number of other improvements. The frame also has improvements as does the whole bike. Remove the e start and mechanism and now the weight is virtually the same as other models. This way you are starting with a bigger engine, more power potential and a greater chance of it actually hanging together because of the factory strengthened components. Trying to get even more from a Combat seems like a shaky proposition, they did not hang together well at 65 crank hp. My cousin had an original purchased new which we enjoyed for one month and 1500 miles until she blew the bottom end into many pieces. Would it have held together longer with Superblends.? Maybe, but most go for a bit of a detune to stay safe.
Glen
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