Norton Domiracer Limited Edition
Norton Domiracer Limited Edition | |
Manufacturer | |
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Production | 50 units |
Engine | Four stroke, pushrod, 4 valve parallel twin |
Transmission | 5-Speed |
Frame | Tubular steel Featherbed style with tubular steel swingarm |
Suspension | Front: Öhlins, Ø43mm inverted forks adjustable for preload, compression and rebound Rear: Single Öhlins TTX monoshock with adjustable ride height, preload, compression and rebound |
Brakes | Front: Dual Ø320mm Brembo discs with Brembo four-piston radially-mounted calipers Rear: Single Ø220mm Brembo disc with twin-piston Brembo caliper. |
Front Tire | 120/70-17 |
Rear Tire | 180/55-17 |
Seat Height | 813 mm / 32 in |
Weight | 175 kg / 386 lbs (dry), |
Fuel Capacity | 19 L / 5 US gal |
Manuals | Service Manual |
Engine[edit | edit source]
The engine was a Air cooled cooled Four stroke, pushrod, 4 valve parallel twin.
Chassis[edit | edit source]
It came with a 120/70-17 front tire and a 180/55-17 rear tire. Stopping was achieved via Dual Ø320mm Brembo discs with Brembo four-piston radially-mounted calipers in the front and a Single Ø220mm Brembo disc with twin-piston Brembo caliper. in the rear. The front suspension was a Öhlins, Ø43mm inverted forks adjustable for preload, compression and rebound while the rear was equipped with a Single Öhlins TTX monoshock with adjustable ride height, preload, compression and rebound. The Domiracer Limited Edition was fitted with a 19 L / 5 US gal fuel tank. The bike weighed just 175 kg / 386 lbs.
Photos[edit | edit source]
Overview[edit | edit source]
Norton Domiracer Limited Edition
The
Limited Edition Norton Domiracer. The Domiracer is built around the new
961cc Norton Commando engine and features a specially designed featherbed style
tubular frame. The new bikes bodywork is made up of a lightweight carbon fibre
seat, air box and front fender and a handmade aluminum tank gives it a distinct
Cafe Racer style which was the exact intention. The Domiracer was designed to be
a modern interpretation of Cafe Racer motorcycles and what better base to use
than the modern interpretation of a Norton?
I wanted to build a bike that was the pure essence of a café racer, with no expense spared. The kind of bike that I would build if I took home a Norton Commando and stripped it down to its bare essentials. - Simon Skinner, Norton Motorcycles
So the Norton Domiracer is a purpose built, high power, bare bones street racer but it has one small problem, it's not street legal.
Norton Domiracer First Ride
Lets get the bad bits out of the way immediately:
The cynic in me knows that, essentially, the Domiracer is just a
rehashed, 80-horsepower pushrod Twin. It comes with no modern,
electronic trickery, is barely road legal, our test bike had a
slight electric fault, theres not much steering lock and, even if
(unlike most of us) you can afford its £24 grand price (£26K if you
want a road legal version), you cant buy one anyway. The 50
examples being built have already been snapped up.
But I dont care about any of that. Having stood
next to it, smitten by its sheer beauty and sublime detailing.
Having been aurally assaulted by its cacophonous open exhaust. And
having ridden it (all too briefly, mind, but still the first person
in the world outside the factory to do so), Im not ashamed to admit
the Domi has stolen a big chunk of my heart. But its not love
were talking. Nothing so sweet and civilized its sheer, animal,
passionate LUST.
I cant think of any other machine of recent years
that gives such an enormous sensory experience and on so many
levels. Actually, scratch that, there are two: Ducatis full-blown,
ultra-exotic and harmonic Panigale R, all £27 grand of it, and MVs
£19,999 F4 RR, both of which look good, sound good, ride good, too.
But, on second thoughts, nah, I dont want either of them as much as
I want the Domi and cant get as much out of them, either.
Shortly after arriving at Nortons sumptuous new HQ
in the grounds of Donington Hall just outside Donington Park,
photographer Ian Jubb and I were ushered through to the capacious,
carpeted workshop where the gleaming Domiracer stood on its paddock
stand, center stage.
Even at silent standstill its a wonder.
They say beauty is subjective, that its in the eye
of the beholder, but the Domiracer is one of those rare exceptions:
Its unequivicably, unambiguously, no doubts, no questions stunning.
The eye-grabbing centerpiece is That Tank, of course: alluring alloy at its most voluptuous; waisted and curvaceous with an appointment between your legs. (Dont tell me theres no sex appeal here.)
But theres so, so much more. In profile youre
almost as instantly drawn to the Featherbed-alike frame. That
shoulder curve below the seat is just so, purebred, almost regal,
but then the Spondon swingarm and monoshock reminds this is no
classic, no retro. This is a Featherbed for the here and now; a
Norton café racer for the 21st century. And you can stuff your
dribbly, shonky old Tritons
Hand-in-hand with the modern monoshock is the
cutting edge carbon fiber, lashings of CNC-milled-and-hand-polished
alloy and top-spec, state-of-the-art cycle parts. Golden Ohlins and
radial Brembos never fail to enamor. Here theyre the pearls and
diamonds adorning Venus de Milo.
Designer Simon Skinner says there were two main
thrusts to this labor of love, a very personal, pet project that
began in the middle 2011. The first was to get the stance, the
posture of the bike right. We tried to make it look more butch,
more aggressive, like a British bulldog if you like, he told MCN.
Thats why the front is pushed down, with the headlamp back and
down, the rear raised up.
The second was to blend the old and new just so.
Its NOT a retro bike, emphasized Skinner. The mix of old and new
is very intentional and trying to get the balance of those two right
was very important.
Personally, I think theyve got it spot on.
The jewel in the crown is detailing and touches that
take the Domiracer above merely a special-framed café racer with
well-appointed suspension and brakes. The special, delectable milled
and polished alloy top yoke and heel plates are the most obvious
examples, but the whole bikes littered with them. Theyre also
touches that take the Domiracer into true exotica territory. Being
CNC-cut then hand-finished theyd be too expensive to produce for
conventional mass manufacturers, yet impossible for specials
builders, too. In short, the Domiracer, mouth-watering as it is, is
the best demonstration yet of what Norton can do.
A SOUND LIKE NO OTHER
And all of thats before the things even been fired
up.
After 25 years as a motorcycle journo I thought Id
pretty much heard it all. Hailwoods Honda Six drawing crowds of
cooing men at Goodwood. Joeys dry-sounding but indomitable V4
droning down the Sulby Straight. Every variation of road bike of the
last quarter century
But thumbing the open-megga-ed Domiracer into life
was like opening a whole new dimension of sound and sensation, like
Dorothy crossing the threshold from monochrome Kansas into
Technicolor Oz.
At low revs the big Twin burbles and blarts with a
richness and vibrancy that can only make you smile. Then the merest
blip of light throttle has it racing violently up to five and with
it a whole orchestra of sound and volume is unleashed. Brass?
Strings? Timpani? The whole bloody lot of em and all bass and
treble and so, so loud. Then, on the over-run, sucking and spitting
like a bath plughole draining its last.
Theres not much point revving above five, but
theres lots of joy in just blipping and blipping. The whole aural
experience is intoxicating and addictive checkout the video and
hear for yourself.
AND A RIDE THAT BETTERS THE LOT
But the biggest surprise of all is how the Domi rides. That Nortons new baby looks so good is reason enough to want it. That it sounds so primeavally delicious is the unexpected bonus. There was almost no need for it to be a decent bike as well. But thats not even the half of it. This being the first completed example (hence the No. 1 sticker on the carbon airbox) it perhaps unsurprisingly is going to remain the property of Norton owner Stuart Garner himself. Which is why, leathered and helmeted, and astride the Domi ready to head out onto the road for the first time, its his parting words rather than the exhausts deafening thunder which were ringing in my ears the most. If you crash it, dont bother coming back! I think he was joking. With hindsight, the Domi was so well behaved (slight starter motor glitch and limited steering lock aside) there was never really any danger of that. Although the Nortons café racer stance appears fairly extreme, the riding position offered by the lowered ace bars and raised and moved back footpegs is no real problem, even for this slightly aging six-footer. The thinly-padded solo seat and tank rear is slim, its weight fairly neutral, its controls reached naturally.
A handful of easy-enough clutch ,a prod down into the first of five ratios, a slight blip and clutch slip and were away, easy as pie. Within 200 yards I was out of the HQs grounds, onto the open road and starting to feed it revs and gears. Dont get me wrong, theres no performance revolution here. Nortons pushrod Twin, despite what the fiercesome exhaust note may suggest, is no firebrand. Its 80-odd horses, progressive delivery and slightly clunky and sloppy, old school nature reminds most of a worn, air-cooled, two-valve, Ducati L-Twin, so this babys not going topside of 125 mph any time soon. But its still enough to excite, please and, more importantly, invigorate. Best of all, its enough to let the real star turn of the whole plot the Domis chassis shine. To be honest, I hadnt expected much of the new Featherbed, Ohlins or no, hadnt really thought about it, even. I was too distratcted by the look and the loud. But after only briefly letting it stretch its legs into third then fourth gears on the Derbyshire A-roads the whole plots class was already shining through a racer-ish firm but refined ride, utter stability, instinctive steering and quality brakes. We didnt have much chance to push the Domi hard, of course. But thats not really the point. Few will or want to. But on our main photo corner the one turn I did time after time, faster and faster the Nortons chassis was so calm and composed Im sure it couldve done it 30 mph faster without a flinch. And all to that wonderous cacophany bouncing off the farm walls and in the reflected gleaming glory of that ally tank. Some bike, this. VERDICT
New Nortons dont come along very often, especially ones with featherbed frames and looks like this. That is enough, in itself, for the Domiracer to be considered special. The fact that its 83% British with much of it (frame, tank, pipes, engine and final assembly) all done on site at Donington, is another big plus. Then theres the look (which makes the 961 now seem old hat), the wonderous noise, the quality and the components and the ride itself. Best of all, though, I reckon, is the price. For £24,000 you are getting something very special indeed. Or should that be were, cos sadly theyre all snapped up already. I dont blame those buyers one little bit. The Domiracer is a truly great bike not great because of its abilities, dynamics or performance. Great because of the wonderously rich biking experience it delivers, Compared to this every modern superbike is flat, bland and sterile. The Domiracer, meanwhile, is one of my bikes of the year. Source Motorcycle USA
Make Model | Norton Domiracer 961 Limited Edition |
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Year | 2014 |
Production | 50 units |
Engine Type | Four stroke, pushrod, 4 valve parallel twin |
Displacement | 961 cc / 58.1 cu in |
Bore X Stroke | 88 x 79 mm |
Cooling System | Air cooled |
Starting | Electric |
Max Power | 65.6 kW / 88 hp@ 7700 rpm |
Max Torque | 79.9 Nm / 8.14 kgf-m / 59 lb-ft @ 6000 rpm |
Transmission | 5-Speed |
Final Drive | Chain |
Frame | Tubular steel Featherbed style with tubular steel swingarm |
Front Suspension | Öhlins, Ø43mm inverted forks adjustable for preload, compression and rebound |
Rear Suspension | Single Öhlins TTX monoshock with adjustable ride height, preload, compression and rebound |
Front Brakes | Dual Ø320mm Brembo discs with Brembo four-piston radially-mounted calipers |
Rear Brakes | Single Ø220mm Brembo disc with twin-piston Brembo caliper. |
Wheels | Alloy, laced multi-spoke |
Front Tire | 120/70-17 |
Rear Tire | 180/55-17 |
Seat Height | 813 mm / 32 in |
Dry Weight | 175 kg / 386 lbs |
Fuel Capacity | 19 L / 5 US gal |