My first taste of Norton was as an impressionable fourteen year old, the local council had recently resurfaced a road near my home, Baynes park Rd near the swimming pool, this road has a straight stretch followed by a descending right hand sweeper and then a steep climbing straight, two guys on loud bikes were giving it the berries fast down into the sweeper then hammering it up the steep hill, they did about four or five runs up and down the hill, the noise thundering through the valley, awesome! Then it seemed like they had had enough and stopped in the park for a Durrie, I wandered over for a closer look at these two awesome machines, there they were the toughest looking bikes I had ever seen, all polished alloy with chrome peashooters and a purposeful lean to the massive engine, chrome header pipes exiting the finned head, the blue metal flake of the tank shimmering in the sunlight with the flowing script “Norton proudly emblazoned on the tank, soon the guys finished their smokes pulled on the helmets and kicked the beasts into life and thundered off up the road.
You could say they left quite an impression on me, such that found a Commando confidence poster and proudly hung it on the bedroom wall.