I know you guys are more "car" people, but I found this sweet bike while looking for parts for my bike. It's a 1989 Norton F1 Rotary.
General information
Model: Norton Commander
Year: 1989
Rating: Do you know this bike?
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Engine and transmission
Displacement: 588.00 ccm (35.88 cubic inches)
Engine type: Dual disk Wankel
Power: 85.00 HP (62.0 kW)) @ 9000 RPM
Compression: 9.0:1
Cooling system: Liquid
Gearbox: 5-speed
Transmission type
final drive: Chain
Physical measures Weight incl. oil, gas, etc: 262.0 kg (577.6 pounds)
Chassis and dimensions
Front tyre dimensions: 100/90-18
Rear tyre dimensions: 110/90-18
Front brakes: Dual disc
Rear brakes: Single disc
Speed and acceleration
Top speed: 192.0 km/h (119.3 mph)
Other specifications
Fuel capacity: 23.00 litres (6.08 gallons)

a picture is at http://www.wemoto.com/wem/pic/z17.jpg

 

Looks Sweet, I bet it sounds great too!

 

damn, 1989??? and it looked that sweet??? hell yes.

 

Sweet. Do you have any pics of the motor?

 

One of the rotary guros, who i'm buying a cam from shortly has a 75 Suzuki RE-5 is excellent shape. new baby blue paint. You can tell he's a rotary obsessed person because he has it and doesn't even ride motorcycles. This is also the same person who has a few rotary snowmobiles. I'll see if i can get a pic of his bike sometime

 

I didn't see any pics of the engine, but I didn't look at all of the pics. Try searching for Norton Rotary on google. That's where I went for the pic I posted.

 

Nice stuff, never seen a rotary bike. I'll keep my eyes open
in the road. Bet it sounds nice.

 

I think there was only like 120 Notron F1s ever made.

 

there is one on ebay now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

matt

 

http://www.der-wankelmotor.de/Motora...otoraeder.html

click the links at the left for some more info on the bikes.

http://www.jpsnorton.com/start.asp

This one is about Norton race bikes, some usefull info on the rotary ones aswell.

I have seen and heared a few rotary bikes in 2002 at a big meet in Lahr, Germany. This was the place Felix Wankel was born then 100 years ago, and there were rotary cars and bikes of all makes. What about these: Citroën M35, Citroën GS Birotor, Mercedes Benz C111, NSU Wankel Spider, NSU Ro80,... and of course a lot of RX-7's including my own one
There were some bikes aswell, and these had come there on own power!
Norton, Van Veen, Motoprom (russian make)...
I'd love to own a Norton F1 one day, but they are so rare (and therefor rather expensive)...
Maybe building a 12A powered bike would be an option

 

I'm fixing to get a Suzuki RE-5 its in rough shape but that's what restoration is for. hopefully I'll have it in a couple of weeks soon as the details are worked on it. I've only rode dirt bikes and never a motorcycle but I figure if I'm gonna start my first is gonna be rotary. I've wanted one of these since I first knew a motorcycle came with a rotary and I sooooooo look forward to getting her and restoring her.

 

yeah nortons kick ***, i saw the re-5's at sevenstock but damn, that f1 selling on ebay is one of the sweetest bikes i've ever seen in my life...im still drooling!

 

Hope you dont think im being picky bencb44 but the spec you posted up for the Norton Commander does not apply to the F1 which was more powerfull and quicker.
If you are interested have a look at my homepage...

Click here for my Norton Rotary Motorcycles webpage
No advertising.
The pic you posted is the F1, i will try to put a photo of the F1 sport on here...

 

nice one , hoping to have a ride!

 

Try again... (file size too big at 104kb)

 

Damn, those bikes put out some nice numbers. They're getting about the same power as my bike (a slightly modified Ducati 916) and my engine's almost twice as big. I guess that's why we all love rotaries isn't it? Nice Bikes.

 

No offense to anybody but the Norton bikes are way superior to the Suzuki RE-5. I wouldn't get the RE-5 for anything other than the rotary engine part of it because they are unreliable, burn lots of fuel, really heavy, and aren't that fast. But I guess the cool factor from the rotary engine kinda makes up for all that doesn't it?

The norton rotary bikes are absolutely amazing. Norton had some race winning wankel powered bikes out in the early 90's.

 

They sure did! won the British Superbike series in 1989 and 1994 and the Isle of Man TT in 1992.

 

Dunno if this will work...
http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Sounds/Norton%20Rotary.mp3

Click here for Norton Rotary Motorcycle mp3