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The Commando
"R" Model
When the Fastback was
introduced, conservative motorcyclists did not like its avantguardistic
design, which now, 40 years on, is at last recognized as a milestone
in motorcycle styling.
Dealers and customers demanded a more "masculine", i.e. say
conventional model, and the "R", an interim measure not widely
known in Norton circles, was just that.
With a new petrol tank, described in the brochure as "neatly
rounded", traditional dualseat and rear light fairing, the bike bowed
to the taste of the average motorcyclist. Oil tank and exhaust sytem were
inherited from the Fastback models. The successor of the "R",
the "Roadster" later sported the now legendary
"peashooter" silencers, tilted upwards, and a smaller oil tank.
The "R" is
described in the sales blurp as "A rugged street scrambler with all
the sports appeal of an Ascot flat tracker."
It was a short lived model that danced for only one season before the
"Roadster" replaced it.
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