1973 Norton Commando 850
Miles: 495
Clean Title
Listed Price: $12,998 Or Best Offer
Listing Ends: March 20th, 2025
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Japanese manufacturers had begun to flex their engineering muscles, building world-beating engines that put the European brands on notice, even if their frames and suspension weren’t quite up to the task yet. But Norton, working with relatively limited funds and outdated engine architecture, still managed a trick with their Commando, building a fire-breathing, agile machine based around a non-unit construction, overhead-valve parallel-twin with a 360° crank that, left to its own devices, might have vibrated itself and the bike that housed it to bits, while turning its rider in to a boneless, jelly-like substance. Introduced in 1967 and originally displacing 745cc, the new machine significantly incorporated Norton’s “Isolastic” system of rubber bushings that isolated the engine and swingarm from the frame, allowing it to happily vibrate without shaking too many parts loose or killing the rider. By 1973, the updated Norton Commando 850 displaced 828cc and featured a host of reliability and performance improvements. In this guise, the engine put 58hp through its four-speed gearbox and could push the bike to an impressive top speed of 115mph.
1973 Norton 850 Commando 500 miles since fully restored. New wiring harness, new battery new switches, new carb etc. This bike is very nice, show quality work was done. Recent oil service with the tank re-cleaned. This classic bike is ready to enjoy cruising or a display piece in any man cave. We are located in Escondido CA, bike shown by appointment only.
Classic Norton Commandos are extremely collectible classic sportbikes, with power and handling that allow them to keep up with modern traffic surprisingly well. They were built in a variety of configurations and displacements between 1967 and 1977, and I’m no expert on the finer details of each variant. The non-original “gunfighter” style seat seen on this example seems to be, or at least have been, a popular modification, but purists will certainly scoff. Other than that, I can’t comment on this bike’s originality. It certainly looks very nice and the $12,998 asking price appears pretty reasonable, considering the work that has obviously gone into it. That’s definitely more than the going rate for a good Commando, but if this really is a ground-up restoration, it might represent something of a bargain, and save some lucky Norton fan the trouble of polishing all that metal themselves…
-tad
good looking bike, the right cylinder looks to be a bit lean