Norton trademarks point to potential future models

WITH much of Norton Motorcycles' recent history darkened by sub-optimal owners and piss-poor management, it’s really very nice when we come across green shoots of hope from the iconic brand.

And what could be better for fans of one of the UK’s most famous motorcycle brands, than a load of new motorcycles landing in the Norton range?

And that’s just what we have, as Motorcycle.com has unearthed a series of trademark filings from Norton that seem to point to new models from the company.

Norton Commando Moto Corsa

The names aren’t all new though, in fact, most of them have adorned motorcycles in Norton’s past. The names covered in the application are Norton Navigator and Norton Nomad. The Navigator name stretches back to the 350 parallel twin of the mid-60s with the Electra being a relative of that bike. The Nomad is a name that was first used by Norton in the mid-50s and then again more recently when Norton unveiled it’s two-bike 650cc scrambler range. We also have the Norton Electra, Norton Fastback, Norton Ranger, and Norton Combat listed on the EUIPO.

The Fastback is a name that should be known to most, it adorned the 750cc Commando and was notable for the swept and slender tail unit that covered the rear mudguard. Other names listed in the filing are Norton Ranger and Combat.

With such a host of names from Norton’s past seemingly making a reappearance, it’d be very easy to simply assume that the models' modern versions of the bikes of old. Indeed, that may well be the case, although to make room for so many new models, Norton will need to clear some floor-space.

Something that it already looks to have done, as the best selling bikes from the modern-day Norton catalogue, the Commando, and Dominator, have been removed from the model range. Instead we now just have the V4 and V4 SS sports bikes and the Atlas Nomad and Atlas Ranger.

The reason for dropping the Commando and Dominator machines could be two-fold. The first theory is that the new owners are trying to distance themselves from the previous administration, by ditching its most popular model names. The other is that they will be filling that void with their own range of retro roadsters sooner rather than later.