Norton Bikes

Norton Motorcycles is a British marque based out of Donington Park in the United Kingdom. It was originally from Birmingham. It is almost as old as Royal Enfield, and started in a similar fashion: it was a parts manufacturer for two-wheelers when it came into existence in 1898, and started assembling motorcycles with crate engines in 1902. 1908 was the year in which Norton had its own engine powering its products. Norton became a very successful manufacturer leading up to World War 2, and had good sales even during the 1950s recession even though it wasn’t the biggest of the British marques during that period. Norton has a few iconic models in its history – the Atlas, Dominator and Commando are the most well-known ones. They were all typical British parallel twin motorcycles that follow the kind of styling that India associates Royal Enfield with. The last change of ownership came in 2008, when UK businessman Stuart Garner bought the rights to Norton. Since then it has revived the Commando marque and also has a V4 superbike whose deliveries have begun. Norton has had a long, successful link with motorcycle racing and aims to leverage that once again by signing Isle of Man TT legend (and 23 time winner) John McGuiness to the Norton factory racing team for the 2018 edition of the event. Norton has launched in the Indian market with the Commando and Dominator. It is an extremely niche brand, and commands a large premium over equivalent products.