Indian motorcycle outfit TVS purchased the historic band Norton last year, promising to bring the British marquee back to life after mismanagement from its prior owner. And the owner before that. And the one before that one, the one before them, and so on and so forth, because it turns out Norton is on its 11th owner since it was formed.
That can be hard to keep straight, so it’s convenient that Ryan from FortNine has a helpful little guide detailing the brand’s over 100 years of history. From owner to owner, success to failure to further failure to even more failure, all the hits are here.
Some of Norton’s owners — most notably James Norton, whose name adorns each bike — actually seemed to want the company to do well. They made good bikes, had interesting engineering ideas, did what they could in terms of costs. Others just wanted to use the name to leech money from the British government, and never had much of an interest in the whole “building motorcycles” part of the deal.
With Norton in the hands of a motorcycle manufacturing giant, it’s possible the company’s long sting of misfortune may finally be over. TVS has reach broad enough that even I have owned a bike built by the company: My old BMW G310GS came not from Germany but from India. With any luck, that kind of established brand can reinvigorate Norton the same way we’ve seen with Royal Enfield.
Norton is a stalwart British motorcycling brand, but it’s had more misfortune than fortune since its founding in 1898. Hopefully, that long reign of terrible ownership is ending, but it’s nice to know the marquee’s history before looking to its future.