Report: Norton Planning A New Small-CC Lineup

[advrider]

When the Great Norton Meltdown of 2020 happened, followed by TVS’s purchase of the brand, we knew changes were coming—but at first, it sounded like the new India-based ownership wanted to keep Norton as a premium brand. Now, reports out of India suggest that might change. Sort of.

Moto-mags from Asia are reporting that TVS wants to put the Norton brand on motorcycles in the 300-500 cc range. This long-term plan will kick off with a 300-400 cc  bike introduced by 2028. Actual displacement is unknown, but it would have a single-cylinder engine that’s based off the fuel-injected TVS 300 that’s coming to market now. The idea is that it would probably be a hot-rodded version of that single, and with a new frame.

While there have been no confirmed reports of what exact models to expect, there are the usual suspicions of retro roadsters en route, as well as perhaps a new scrambler.

Would that excite Norton fans? It depends; Triumph has certainly had no trouble selling its Scrambler 400X and Speed 400 retro roadster. Royal Enfield’s middleweight and small-cc bikes, with flashy fit-and-finish, are selling well. Honda’s 350 retros are also going great guns in India’s market, and slowly spreading to the West as sell. People still want nice-looking motorcycles in the 2020s, even if street performance is less of a determining factor than it used to be.

Fans of the Norton 961 Commando might not be enthralled with a 300 cc knock-off. Or maybe they would. Royal Enfield’s booth is always busy, swarming with older men at the motorcycle shows. Maybe Norton can poach some of that business. Photo: Norton

On the flip side, Norton owners are typically won over by starry-eyed recollections of the hairy-chested Commando roadsters, not the smaller bikes that the British firm manufactured before its instability in the 1970s and 1980s. When scammer extraordinaire Stuart Garner revived the brand in the 21st century, he focused on bringing performance bikes to market (when he wasn’t raiding pension funds). The traditional Norton coveter was into it for muscle and handling, not just looks.

But things have changed; Garner’s scams stained the brand’s reputation, and the designs of that era are now dated anyway. While Norton’s engineers are working on new ideas, don’t be surprised to see an increasing reliance on modified Indian engineering instead of ground-up designs from the British R&D center. TVS’s decisions, as always, will come down to dollars and cents, as things always do with any company that plans on staying in business for the long haul.

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