This year commemorates the original Norton Commando’s decade of production being kick-started 50 years ago in April 1968, after this iconic twin-cylinder model’s debut in 750cc guise at London’s Earls Court Show the previous year—although it’s also the 40th anniversary of the end of production, in 1978. To mark the earlier, more festive occasion, today’s reborn Norton Motorcycles Co. has introduced a trio of limited edition 50-off birthday bikes based on the existing Commando 961 Sport and Café Racer, as well as adding a third new variant named the California, which represents an alternative take on bringing yesterday once more but in a modern context, to Norton dealer showrooms around the world.

For this, the new interpretation of the Commando 961 is available in a choice of 10—yes, 10—different cleverly chosen ‘70s-style color schemes ranging from a truly retro metal flake red to a gaudy white-and-blue combo that entirely lives up to the California tag in evoking echoes of cruising the Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu to the Sunset Strip in the So-Cool Seventies. For the new Norton is further distinguished from its sister models by carrying a high-rise handlebar with pulled-back grips taken straight from the famed Norton Girl ads that made Britain’s sportiest motorcycle brand such a firm favorite with American customers in the 1970s.


Otherwise identical in every way to the existing Commando 961 platform, the new model’s official name is a bit of a mouthful—so take a deep breath here, folks. It’s the Norton Commando 961 Mk.II Limited 50th Edition California, aka, the Cali to you and me, as it’s also known inside the company’s classy Donington Hall factory a stone’s throw from the legendary GP circuit. But what this tells you is that not only does it have the copious upgrades to its air/oil-cooled 88 x 79mm 961cc parallel-twin motor that were introduced almost two years ago in its Mk.II update, but it also benefits from an all-inclusive component upgrade at no extra cost.

So in the case of the California that means its GBP 16,495 (US$ 23,000) price in the UK (including 20% local tax) includes a carbon fiber front mudguard, plus ditto rear hugger and number-plate hanger, while the fully adjustable 43mm Öhlins fork, twin piggyback Öhlins gas shocks, lightweight sprocket and assorted chassis parts, are all polished brightly, some to a mirror finish.


Also included is a brushed aluminum oil cooler and a chrome chain guard and headlamp bowl/bezel, while the engine has been finished in the classic combo of a silver cylinder head and polished rocker covers sitting on a black cylinder barrel, as first featured on the hotted-up Combat version of the original 745cc Commando back in 1972.

The 2018 Commando family, of which the Cali is one, all incorporate the improvements to the air-cooled OHV 961cc Norton motor delivering 72 bhp at 7500 rpm, with peak torque of 67Nm a thousand revs lower, to be found on the Mark II version of the Commando introduced in 2016, as Norton design boss Simon Skinner explains: “It was a pretty significant evolution of the original 961 engine, because the motor was retooled almost in its entirety. We have new crankcases, new cylinders, a new cylinder head, new pistons, new crankshaft, and a new gearbox, all in order to reduce NVH [noise vibration and harshness], and to improve overall quality as a means of refining the product. We’ve been able to go to suppliers that we couldn’t go to before because our volumes didn’t support it, but now they do, and so we’ve got a different manufacturing process for those parts.

They’re all die-cast components now instead of sand-cast, although the sad thing is that we now have to go overseas for a few parts that are simply not available in the UK. But not only has the price for these parts come down for Norton, which increases sustainability of the business, the quality of them has shot through the roof as well. So not only have we refined the bike enormously, it’s also benefitted the business too, so we’ve ended up with a much superior product.” One that’s also now Euro 4 compliant, with Bosch ABS linked to the Brembo brake package, which sees fully-floating 320mm steel discs gripped by four-piston radial calipers, with a 240mm rear disc and two-piston caliper.