Norton to launch all new Dominator SS in 2015

Named the Dominator SS, a fully homologated road going bike will be privately previewed at an exclusive evening to be held at Donington Hall at the end of January 2015.

The Dominator will be an ongoing model for Norton and will be initially launched with the SS limited edition, first only in the UK with 55 Dominator SS bikes. Later in 2015, Norton Motorcycle plans to launch the SS throughout the world.

The design of the new Dominator SS will be more or less carried over from the Domiracer café racer, a result of Norton head of design Simon Skinner’s efforts, based on inputs from Norton factory workers.

The first design of the Domiracer was showcased at the Norton factory floor for two weeks. After incorporating many of the workers’ suggestions, the final Domiracer was developed.

Now, the acclaimed café racer will take the form of the all-new 2015 Dominator SS. The engine will be the same 961cc mill carried over from the Norton Commando 961SE, another iconic model which was revived in the early 2000s. The engine is an air-cooled, 961cc parallel twin which makes 81PS at 6500rpm and 90Nm torque at 5200rpm.

The first Dominator, a twin cylinder motorcycle, was developed to compete against the Triumph Speed Twin. The original Dominator was designed in 1947 and 1948 by Bert Hopwood, who had been on the Speed Twin design team at Triumph. This design set the basic pattern for Norton twins for the next 30 years.  

The Norton Motorcycle Company was originally founded in 1898, first as a manufacturer of “fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade”. By 1902, Norton began manufacturing motorcycles with bought-in engines and in 1908, a Norton-built engine was first added to the range.

In 1924, Norton motorcycles won the Senior and sidecar TTs with the 500cc Model 18, Norton’s first overhead valve single. By the mid 1930s Norton was producing over 4,000 road bikes annually. With the onset of World War II, Norton withdrew from racing but between 1937 and 1945 manufactured almost 100,000 side-valve motorcycles as their contribution to the war effort.

The company enjoyed further TT victories every year from 1947-54. The ‘60s saw the introduction of the first Commando, with the engine unit what Norton calls “isolastically” insulated from the frame for a smooth vibration-free ride. The Commando went on to become the bestselling motorcycle for Norton, producing and selling over 500,000 bikes over the next decade.

By the 1980s however, the domination of the Japanese manufacturers saw Norton, alongwith other great British marques, driven to the brink of extinction. The last Commando was produced in 1976. The decades of the ‘80s and ‘90s saw the company go through several incarnations, the rights to the name split between several companies in several countries.

Norton moved to its current home at Donington Park in 2008 and in 2009 Stuart Garner bought Norton from American ownership, working hard to bring the brand back to its former glory. The first Commando 961SE was delivered in 2010 and the success of the Commando 961 sees Norton Motorcycles return to production.

With the Dominator SS, Norton Motorcycles is now looking at a true revival of an iconic brand which dominated British bike racing for several decades.