1971 Norton Commando

Back in 1972, a guy by the name of Scott Brown purchased this Norton brand new. Officially it's a 1971 Norton 750 Commando "Dunstall" Roadster. Paul Dunstall was the Carroll Shelby of his day doing factory authorized upgrades and improvements on select motorcycle models.

By 1979 after a few major breakdowns, Scott took the bike apart again, bought a wide variety of new parts, but now with a wife, kids, other interests, it was stored in boxes for the next 30 years.

Fast forward; you are now looking at the same one owner, numbers matching bike, resurrected by the owner and brought into our studio for some upcoming magazine features. Enjoy!

Every nut, bolt and factory upgrades has been reworked, making this a 10+ restoration.

Using all upgraded internal parts along with exact tolerance specs, the motor is now as nice on the inside as it looks on the outside.

Google Paul Dunstall to read more about his involvement in the high performance world.

Disc brakes were a rarity in 1971. Another Dunstall factory authorized upgrade.

Can never have too much chrome. Can you imagine doing 150 mph on two wheels back in '71?

One thing the owner preserved was the mural he himself airbrushed / screen printed on the tank in the mid-70's. A tribute to Searchin' For A Rainbow by The Marshal Tucker Band. Remember, this was the rage - all conversion vans had murals, too.

For those that need to know, this is a numbers matching bike. Check the next photo.

Motor technology was not the best back then, so to have the original still intact, is amazing and worth big $$'s.

This Norton was judged and won multiple awards at the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA) show, held June 14th & 15th 2013 at the MN State Fairgrounds, hosted by the Viking Chapter. Most notable was the "Junior First Award" earning an outstanding 96.75 points out of a 100. Only pts. deducted were for being "too perfect"; for adding a few upgrades, thus exceeding it's original condition - wow! That's the highest award given by the judges for a bike's first showing. Wait until next year...

A couple other awards worth mentioning were for "Oldest rider to ride to the event" & "Longest Distance Ridden". This is no "Trailer Queen" even though one would think it is.

Be sure to check out some of the other bikes we've photographed in the "Piston" section of our website: www.thoenphoto.com