Norton Commander (motorcycle) Norton Commander (motorcycle) The Commander was a Norton motorcycle with a Wankel rotary engine. The first Norton Wankel motorcycle was the 1987 air-cooled Classic, built as a special edition of just 100 machines. It was followed by the air-cooled Interpol 2 model. The Commander was a liquid-cooled successor to the Interpol 2, liquid cooling being adopted for greater power and reliability. The Commander's final-drive chain was protected by a full enclosure. Some cycle parts (such as front wheel, forks & brakes) were bought-in Yamaha items. Two types of Commander were built. The P52 was a single-seat model equipped for police
Motorcycle fork forces rotate 'downward' relative to the fork's pivot point — this action can be disconcerting to riders used to telescopic forks, which have the opposite reaction to braking forces ('brake dive'). Several motorcycle manufacturers licensed the Earles patent forks for racing motorcycles in 1953, such as MV Agusta and BMW Motorcycle, while other companies (such as Douglas motorcycle) used the Earles design on their roadsters or off-road machines. BMW used Earles forks on all their motorcycles between 1955 and 1968. One of the earliest types of motorcycle front suspension, the girder fork consists of a pair of uprights attached to