Wiki Entry Unduly Harsh

The magazine that awarded the Commando with Machine of the Year was Motor Cycle News, which was a British motorcycle magazine and the award was through voting by its readers who of course were very British

regardless of the patriotic voters, the Commando was awarded this five years in a row from 1968-1973

I've said it before, when I get off my 162hp Sportbike and onto the Norton(850 mk3) the Norton feels great . It is definitely not lacking in power and in fact has more down low than the sportbike. I don't have to downshift the Norton thru three gears to get power for passing. Also, the low speed handling is much nicer on the Commando.
I won't pretend the Commando can come anywhere close to the sportbike for ultimate power, but for high speed handling I find it at least as good. The Featherbed Norton is even better in this regard.
Glen

he ‘Combat’ engine was introduced in January 1972 with a 10:1 compression ratio, but the stressed ''750 cc'' twin proved extremely unreliable, with main bearing failures and broken pistons

Don't know why the statement Combat introduced Jan '72 keeps popping up. Of the two combats I've owned the first had a build date Sep '71 and my current Dec '71. The carnage of the combat is well documented, but there are still a lot of them still running. Mine has well beyond 50,000 miles. I wouldn't want to run it over 100mph all day, but short blasts above 6000 rpms are still a thrill.