There’s a lot of cool stuff going on with the Norton Commander – just 253 examples were built, it uses a Wankel rotary engine, it’s got some Yamaha parts in it…and it just looks so delightfully 80s!
First – the production quantity. The Commander was offered in two variants: P52 was for police, and P53 was for civilians. You’d probably expect the police version to be the rarer of the two, but in this case you’d be wrong. Norton introduced the Wankel engine to their stable with the ’87 Classic, but the Commander gained liquid-cooling to help bump up output to 85 horsepower and 55 pound-feet of torque. And the Yamaha parts? The forks, front wheel, and brakes were all sourced from the Japanese firm.
This example (VIN: 3236) has just 3,298 miles and is one of the rarer P53 civilian variants, and the motor has apparently been given a treatment with molybdenum that supposedly extends engine life. I never understand how people are able to keep the break-in warning stickers on the tach, so it’s interesting to still see one on a 27 year-old bike.
Find this Commander for sale in Leicester, England for $18,150 here on North Leicester Motorcycles (scroll down 3 bikes).
This bike-uriousity brought to you by Harold K!