Norton Motorcycles’ Commando, Dominator Bikes Coming To India: What All You Need To Know
UK-based Norton Motorcycles and Kinetic Group owned Motoroyale has signed a joint venture to bring the former brand’s Commando and Dominator superbikes in India.
The bike launches, as part of the joint venture, will start off in the first quarter of next year by launching a limited edition all British CBU version of its existing models.
The launch of Norton Commando series is going to begin by end 2018 for India. This will be followed by the Dominator; and its variants, Commando 961 Sport; Commando 961 Café Racer; Dominator Sport and DomiRacer.
Estimating the superbike market in India to be about 12,000-15,000 bikes annually growing at 20 per cent, Motoroyale expects Norton to take 10 per cent-14 per cent market share of the same, which works out to 1200 – 2000 vehicles in the coming years.
The motorcycles will be assembled in India at Kinetic’s Ahmednagar plant that holds a capacity of assembling 30,000 vehicles annually. Motoroyale has planned an investment in the range of $10 million including the setup, working capital and marketing expenditure required to make this a successful project, in a step by step manner.
Before Norton Commando and Norton Dominator come to India, let’s take a look at what the bikes are currently offering to its global customers.
Norton Commando
The bike comes in two variants - Norton Commando Café Racer MK II, and Norton Commando 961 Sport MK II.
Both the Commandos have 961cc, in house developed parallel twin with dry sump lubrication, air/oil-cooled engine. Their 5-speed, constant mesh transmission churns out an output of 80PS at 6500rpm, and torque of 90Nm at 5200rpm.
Norton Commando has a wheelbase of 1420mm, and a seat height of 813mm.
All Commando 961 models are available in the dual seat option and available in all colours. The easy to attach single seat cowl gives the rider and pillion seat as well as a single seat configuration.
It is available in six colour options – Galactic Black with Gold Pinstripe, Manx Silver with Red/Black Pinstripe, Titanium Grey with Black Pinstripe, Steel Green with Black Pinstripe, English White with Black Pinstripe, and Royal Red with Gold Pinstripe.
Norton Dominator
Following on the success of the Domiracer comes the production Dominator.
It comes equipped with 961cc, in house developed parallel twin with dry sump lubrication, air/oil-cooled engine. Its 5-speed transmission churns out a power of 80PS at 6500rpm, and maximum torque of 90Nm at 5200rpm.
Measurements wise, Norton Dominator has a wheelbase of 1450mm (30mm higher than Norton Commando), and seat height of 813mm. It is available in Titanium Grey with Black Pinstripe colour.
