Norton Motorcycles Live On

James Lansdowne Norton, the father of the company, began the story in 1898 with a factory that made cycle chains in Birmingham, UK, but by 1902 he was importing engines from Switzerland and France to create his own motorcycles, and success followed quickly with a Norton ridden by Rem Fowler winning the twin-cylinder class at the first Isle of Man TT race. This was the start of Norton's long lasting love affair with racing, which didn't end until the 1960's. The prize that everyone coveted was the 'Isle of Man Senior TT''; a race that Norton's went on to win ever year from 1947 to 1954 to add to their ten titles claimed between the wars. Norton built their own side-valve, single engine in 1908, which served them well until the 1950's.

However, after a solid start, the business saw a downturn and faced extinction, only to be saved by R.T.Shelley & Company who created Norton Motors. James Norton became a director of the company, but sadly died at the young age of 56 in 1925, but not before he saw his motorbikes win the Isle of Man TT Senior and Sidecar categories in 1924. Walter Moore designed the CS1 engine in 1927, but left the company for NSU in 1930, leaving Arthur Carroll to come up with a completely new OHC engine which was to become the bedrock of future OHC and DOHC singles. Norton had been buying Sturmey Archer gearboxes and clutches, but when the company discontinued production in 1934, Norton purchased the design rights and asked Burman, a gearbox manufacturing company, to pick up the reins.

After the Second World War, Norton needed to pick up production, so began introducing more models, with the Norton Dominator 500 appearing in 1949. However, the marque's mastery in racing was being challenged by AJS (who won the first World Championship) and multi-cylinder Italian models. In that premier World Championship year, Norton only managed fifth place. In 1950, the McCandless brothers of Belfast developed the 'Featherbed' frame, which shot Norton back to the top again. The Dominator took on the 'Featherbed' frame in 1951 and success on the race track transferred to the public sector, but despite this, Norton found itself in financial difficulties and in 1953 was purchased by Associated Motorcycles, who also owned AJS and Matchless. Sadly the factory in Birmingham closed in 1962 when production was moved to Woolwich in London. A silver lining to this development manifested itself in the shape of a new, better version of the Norton gearbox which was used on all of the larger models under the AMC banner and in 1955, the Dominator 99, powered by a 600cc engine, was added to the catalogue.

By 1960, a new version of the 'Featherbed' had arrived on the scene which accommodated shorter riders. The altered upper frame rails made the bike slimmer and reduced the width between the rider's knees. This frame was to become known as the 'Slimline' and the original, the 'Wideline'. In 1961, a 650cc Manxman was offered to the American market and a year later the Norton 650SS and Atlas 750 were introduced in Britain.

The Japanese invasion in the 1960's hit Norton, hard, along with the rest of the British motorcycle industry, leading to the failure of AMC in 1966. The fledgling company of 'Norton-Villiers grew from the ashes, and the famous Commando resulted in 1969, which proved to be the most powerful and best handling British motorcycle of the day. A choice of dual or single carburettors was offered along with the style of choice, including Scrambler, Street Model or a Tourer which was badged as the 'Interstate'. Electric start became available in 1974, but despite these improvements, the company once again fell into decline and went into liquidation in 1975. In 1972 BSA was also struggling, and in order to secure government help, was forced to merge with Norton-Villiers to form the Norton-Villiers-Triumph company. The 'Triumph' name came from BSA's Triumph subsidiary. Moving of production to BSA's Smallheath site caused industrial unrest at Triumph's Coventry factory. The workers at Triumph finally created a co-operative and went on alone. 1974 saw the release of the 828 Roadster, but the company was in dire straits and by 1975 was only producing two models.

The 80's and 90's was an unsettled time for the company, with ownership changing hands several times, both in the USA and Britain, but was purchased in 2008 after 15 years of US ownership, by British businessman Stuart Garner, so the marque that carried Che Guevara on his South American adventure lives

Suzuki Katana GSX 1100S 1983

These Suzuki GSX models were the evolution of the GS series of 2-valve per cylinder air and oil cooled four stroke motorcycles. The first 4-valve engines were produced for the 1980 model year, but retained the "GS" designation for the US and Canadian markets until the release of the GSX-R models in 1986 (1985 outside the US). These GSX engines were based on Suzuki's "TSCC" (Twin-Swirl Combustion Chamber) engine design, and shared little with previous 2-valve models. The bike called Suzuki Katana in the US had this engine design, with designations of GSX-S, but has little in common with the more modern GSX-F Katanas, which are sport-touring bikes.

The early GSX four-cylinder engines are arguably among the most reliable motorcycle engines ever mass-produced, with the 1100cc and 1150cc engines still very commonly used for drag racing and hillclimbing competition in the US.

The TSCC engine was once again redesigned in 1983 with the introduction of a completely new GSX 750, Suzuki's first modern mono-shocked sportbike in both a naked (GSX 750E) and half-faired (GSX 750ES) version. Although this bike received solid reviews from testing magazines (and came to be the testers' preferred 750 sport machine for the year), its release was an ill-timed duel against Honda's all-new V4 engine in the form of the VF750 Interceptor.

The 1983 GSX 750ES was a ground-breaking model in its own right, with air-adjustable anti-dive forks, preload and compression-adjustable rear mono-shock ("Full-Floater"), disc brakes at both ends. Some of the futuristic features it pioneered, like a fuel gauge, have since become far more commonplace. Others, like the digital gear indicator, turned out to be redundant marketing ploys now considered retro and obsolete.

Good Choice

RZ350 1985

Yamaha RZ350 (RD350LCII) (Liquid Cooled) in some countries) is a motorcycle powered by a twin cylinder two-stroke engine, reed valved 347 cubic centimeter engine. The bore and stroke are 64x54 mm. It produces 30.4 ft·lbf (41.2 N·m) of torque at 7500 rpm. Coming out in 1983, it was the evolution of Yamaha's popular and well known RD350 (1972-75) and RD350LC (1980-82). Production was carried on into the 1990s and a different version with no YPVS power valve in the engine was used in Yamaha's Banshee ATV until its final model year in 2006 in the United States. Yamaha Motor sold the Banshee in Canada until 2008. There were several other models, the 1985 RZ350F, 1986-92 RZ350F2,N,NF, and the 1992-5 RZ350RR was produced in Brazil.

RZ350 is now a sought after collectors bike, due to it being the last road going two-stroke motorcycle in America, and its association with world famous 3 time GP champion Kenny Roberts, as it was sold exclusively in the USA as a signature model. It is also raced extensively in Vintage racing leagues, as well as its own racing leagues, often dubbed "RZ cups" in Europe. A perfect bike for those just learning to race or those with nostalgic ties to the old days of racing.

This bike was only sold in the United States for two years 1984-85. In the USA it came with catalytic converters in the exhaust for emissions requirements, and was the first motorcycle to do so. It was only sold in California in 1985, as the RZ350NC, and a second version was sold in late 1985-86 as the RZ350NC2, both of which had an EVAP canister and an additional catalytic converter in the exhaust pipe header to mee California emission regulations. It was not sold to the public after because Yamaha decided it would cut too far into their emissions quota mandated by the EPA and limit sales of other larger displacement bikes which were more popular sellers. The RZ350 was also the first Yamaha street bike sold in the USA that used a "perimeter" frame as opposed to the standard frames of the era which ran under the center of the tank.

The two 1984 USA models were yellow and black(Kenny Roberts Special) and a sparkle red-white and blue model that had different graphics and no Kenny Roberts signature on the upper cowl. In 1985, the red-white-and blue versions had identical graphics to the yellow and black "bumble bee" Kenny Roberts version, complete with signature, but the had a red frame. There were also the leftover models with revised graphics that somewhat resembled the 1983 UK versions, but had gold rims and a Kenny Roberts signature, that were sold as RZ350NC2 in California only from late 1985-6. Estimated RZ350 production for the USA is about 20,000 motorcycles.

The RZ350 had a variable exhaust port valve called the Yamaha Power Valve System (YPVS) that was controlled by a basic computer. The YPVS could adjust the height of the exhaust port and thus affect the exhaust port timing. The result was more lower RPM torque while retaining high RPM power. Many of these bikes were salvaged because of the interchangeability of many of the major engine components with the Banshee ATV. There was a 500 cc version called the RZ500. (It was this bike that gave the RZ its name, while the 350 was more of a basic, beginners bike. It came in a red on white color scheme.) It was a twin-crank V4 cylinder version (much like the GP bikes of the era) and was a quite different bike. Some distributors and dealers sold these bikes with custom paint jobs, causing confusion about OEM paint schemes.

In many countries, these bikes were known as RDs, but in North America and Australia they were called the RZs.

Note: in Australia, England, Canada, and the USA the Yamaha RD series (RD125,RD250,RD350,RD400) from which the later RZ/RD were descended, were first released in the 1970s as air-cooled 2 strokes. Later, (1980), the bikes had a major redesign using ideas Yamaha gained from 2-stroke GP and production race experiences. They also became liquid cooled and had an 'LC' appended to the name to designate this eg: RD350LC - some people referred to them as "Elsie".The Elsie is the link between the earlier air cooled RDs, and the later power valve(YPVS) equipped RZ series. The most common capacities sold in Australia were 250cc (maximum capacity allowed for new road riders) and 350 cc and were very popular with production racers. The first models of these were supplied without a thermostat in the cooling system and many were retro fitted as they ran too cool even in Australia.

The name changed to RZ in (Australia at least), with the introduction of the variable exhaust valve (YPVS - Yamaha Power Valve System) design in 1983 on the 'K' model. This was a whole new bike and did not resemble the earlier LC series in any way.

The RZ has retained a huge cult following and there are several businesses that are based solely on supply parts and services for it, which is amazing given that the bike went out of production many years ago.