1974 Norton John Player Special | Jay Leno's Garage 

If you want to see stuff he hasn't shown... He has about 300 more episodes

@@RevengeAvenger Correct me if I'm mistaken here, but wouldn't a vehicle necessarily have been "shown" if it were the subject of an episode of Jay Leno's Garage?

@@FoxMacLeod2501 If it was "Shown" it would have no other option than to be shown.

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🖖🏼🏍

@@RevengeAvenger I've seen all 300. Amazing he still has new stuff to share..

I have to go out in my garage and stare at the Triumph I just bought a month ago, and only got delivered last week. It takes me back fifty years to my teens. Not in the least disappointed.

HAHAHA, i used to have a 1974 Z-1 and I used to look at it like that but after close to 10 years and several explosions from big cams, etc. i sold it, nothing but a tinker toy. Speed and performance is relative to the time period, years later i had a 2005 Ninja ZX-10 and that would walk on my Z-1, even with Megacycle 417 lift cams it revved 10 grand compared to the ZX-10 which was easily 2 grand higher with such a linear power band compared to the almost on/off Z-1. Just as the early 80's Suzuki GS 1100 dethroned the Z-1 the GSXR destroyed the GS 1100, my buddy had a GS 1100 and it was mid 11's with a Kerker header and a good rider, Suzuki had a superior head design with that 4 valve head

When ever I go out to eat I park my bike so I can look at it while dining. Especially the 1974 Norton I still have that I bought brand new.

Sing it Brother!

As I recall, the shifting pattern on my Dad's Norton Commando was all down--no upshift for first gear. Funnest motorcycle I ever rode. Thanks Jay, for the memory.

@@rcnelson yep, 4 down

Well said. I have a similar history with my 72 Commando (purchased new in 72.) Wonderful and beautiful pieces of motorcycle history. Jay obviously feels the same, and knowing he does adds to my appreciation of him.

50 years+ on a Combat! Wish I'd kept my Commando S; the oil-soaked jeans were my biggest operating cost

I have a 1976 CB360T too. They have rabbies. According to FortNine, Ryan. He did a review on the CB360T (paralell twin) and he said it "has rabbies." Because it's way faster and more vicious than it should be. I remember getting a CB360T in 2002, and it was one of the most vicious engines I've ever experienced, it just wanted to rev off the tach. No amount of abuse was enough, the engine just wants to flat out SCREAM and go 100mph. I have no idea how Honda built such vicious engines, with only 2 valves per cylinder. Be sure you have the absolute stock air box and carburetors, and stock jetting, otherwise you're going to totally destroy the jetting, and there's no way it will ever have as much power as the original. The one I had, had totally stock air boxes, without any holes in the air boxes, and it would go 105mph (indicated) on the speedometer. The mistake people make is thinking that they know how to tune a carburetor and air box better than the 180 IQ Honda engineers in Japan... Well we don't. P.S. I should have never sold my running CB360. I've since puchased a non-running one, and it needs to be fully restored. One day, when the world isn't ending, I'll work on it.

The 360T was just a perfect platform for a cafe racer. It was a strippo model to appeal to the guy who wants to fiddle. No electric start, 5 speed vs 6 speed transmission (IIRC) for cost savings. Longer rear swingarm for better handling at speed. Fun bike. I think I still have a brochure somewhere. Edit: my memory fog. The stripper was the C*J*360. I still stand by it being a good basis for a cafe racer, with the longer swing arm, 2 into 1 pipe and tailpiece it was halfway there.

I had a honda 360 too. I drove it all over town with my wife on the back and to the beach as well . GOOD TIMES !

I opened up the engine case of my 1976 CB360T just today. The threads in the case for the cam chain tensioner set screw are stripped. So . . . the set screw will no longer hold the tensioner push rod in place. I'm going to try to install a 6mm Helicoil tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Pronounced “Caff”.

Hi Ben brilliant to see another youngster into classics :) they are as good as you think to ride an experience I use my Nortons as dailys a Commandos a good option as there's pretty much every bit available new :)

Glad to see younger people get into classic bikes. I'm 21 and putting together a norton commando for myself. Still a long way to go but can't wait to someday get it done and riding.

They look like H&H, he needs to upgrade to Corcorans.....

Those are jump boots ha! Regular Army boots would fit under the shifter better, but Jay don’t care.

They look like Red Wing Iron Rangers to me

Only wooses wear lace up boots, real men wear elastic sided work boots, like Baxter’s, RMs or an really old pair of Blundies, old enough to actually be made in Tasmania. Boots that can be simply flipped of while cracking open a beer at the same time.

I would say that's fighting talk Mick, but then you go on to say you prefer elastic-sided boots? I mean.. mate.. I'm freaking speechless. What's your favourite colour comfort blanket?

Something people haven't realized... Dual headlights are the best looking configuration for fully faired bikes. The 2002 sportbikes are going to sell for $200,000 soon. Modern sportbikes look so putrid that they should be boycotted and banned by consumers.

BTW, $3K would be about $17K today.

People have been trying to sell "Nortons" for decades and haven't been able to manage it. So trying to sell a JPN has no shot.

@@Ritalie I don't agree with the rest, but I agree that dual headlamps are best: GLASS LENS headlamps, that is. NOt the cheap plastic-lensed garbage infesting most current motorcycles.

@@caribman10 Well, in terms of the overall look and the function, it just makes sense to have 2 headlights on a bike with a fairing. Because it provides twice the light and you can get much better lighting coverage. My 2002 Ninja had huge twin headlights and it was like "daylight" with the high beams on. You could see out into the sides of the forest, very easily when driving late at night on back country roads. They switched to single headlights on many Suzuki's and I'm not even sure where the headlights on located on some of these new monstrosities, like the Yamaha R7 twin.

You're right about the frame. I believe it originated in the Norton Manx racer but I was told my 68 Matchless G15 MK2 had a feather bed frame. I'm not so sure because my favourite Norton the P11 was said to have a Matchless frame. Does anybody know?

The Featherbed Manx Norton. Perhaps the most beautiful racer of all time.

@@nelsong4719 The G15 and the P11 both used the Matchless frame. Matchless, AJS and Norton were all part of the Associated Motor Cycle group and used quite a lot of each others parts.

Yes, Featherbed frame predated the Commando. It was a frame design used by numerous models and legendary for handling, but solid mounted engines vibrated in it. My recollection was that Bob Trigg was the innovator of the Isolastic frame, not Bernard Hooper. Hooper was designer of engines for several makes of British motorcycles

I look at the modern stuff and I see impressive machines, I look at these classics and I see Works of Art

@@asacarrick1440 I Agree, even the more modern 916 was built in the eyes of the designer to form from above the hour glass shape of a woman and to look good, the reality of the 916 was the shape was as aerodynamic as a brick, the single sided swing are extremely heavy and not overly stiff, and the pipes become a great right leg cooker lol but it looked fantastic 👌

Quite a few of the european bikes had them, I had a couple of Bultaco Sherpas and Alpina which had the RH-shifter as well, some of the Montessas as well from memory Its not an easy transition to get used to

*dual

@@MrSapper21 My father smoked Camels . . .

Ten Number 6. The choice of discerning 1970s 12 year olds the land over.

@@moosey62 Ten number 6? Luxury. We could only afford 5 Park Drive.

I imagine you know it is not a featherbed frame though. I bought my MkIII in 1977, still got it.

Hi from a fellow Vancouverite! My '74 Commando keeps me busy wrenching btwn rides.

Former UK market Dominators owner here. Some Dunstall bits. Slayed Atlases Bonnie’s Beezers and Hogs except one 750 Dunstall Atlas. Great bike. Want a Commando now.

Yes, I recall the Norton 750 Commandos, Honda CB-750s & the Kawasaki H-1 500 c.c. Shoot outs. They were called superbikes. I had the Kawasaki. I miss it. The Triumph Street and Speeds have my attention for the triple induction roar.

@@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710 I would love to have an H1, or any of the other multi cylinder 1970s 2 stroke street bikes. In highschool I had a friend with a Suzuki T500 Titan, and another with a Yamaha RD350. Both bikes at that time(early 2000s) just seemed like beat up, ratty old junkers. But man oh man when you rode them! You had to be careful or you'd be wearing the bike as a hat. Easy wheelies

@@middlesiderrider Yes, " easy wheelies ". I rode an RD-350 once. The H-1, I considered to be an heavy ( 385 lbs. ) motocross bike for the street. When compared to the MX bikes of that era. It had the thrill of a fast horse. Loved the induction howl. I'd shift mine at 7400 as both the torque and HP were all in by then. Only saw the higher rpms approaching top speed in 5th. The fastest that I ever pushed it was 121 mph, but there was more left in it.

@@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710 I'm not sure how much the RD weighed but I could literally pick the whole bike up by myself(I was a big kid, 30lbs heavier back then). Unfortunately that bike meet a sad end when my friend let everyone ride it. Two of our crew crashed it, one of them standing it straight up, hanging off the bars and dragging his legs. It ground a hole through the license plate because it was dragging on the asphalt. Just dumb kids ruining everything, not knowing what we had. My cb750 I got going 135mph on a deserted farm road in Iowa. Of course that's 135 indicated on the speedo. I had a Dyna ignition and hot coils, a pipe and rejetted carbs, and that fairing helped aero. Been a long time since I've gone that fast.

Dyou know TR6 is also a classic Triumph sports car. Look them up...a fella driving one always had a sweet Chic along side

I'd like...love to see those mate

It's even more complicated than that. What Jay didn't tell you is that first gear is all the way up and fifth is all the way down. So, you're up-shifting by pushing the lever down and down-shifting by pulling the lever up. And all that with the wrong foot. Try to remember that when you are chasing somebody on a Honda on a windy road...

My uncle got on a friend's Norton or Triumph back in the day, going down a steep hill. He thought he hit the rear brake, but was the shifter instead, and went over the handlebars.

I had a 441 Victor BSA that had to have a compression release lever just to kick it over. I loved the yellow and silver tank. That single cylinder thumper sounded like "half-a-harley" when it idled... It was so cool. 😅 😂 🤣

@@DeutschlandGuy Those were the days: kick starting, tickling the carburetor, advancing/retarding the spark & on and on and on...!

Yes, more bikes, please!

That seat is far from lazy boy . Just saying .

Ha! I was just about to say the exact opposite thing. ... Not being a "bike guy" at all, I always feel like I was cheated out of a week of waiting when Jay does a bike video. 😅 😂 🤣

Not with that riding position, and the padding did not look that thick either.

@@DeutschlandGuy Most of us around here are fully bilingual between bikes and cars. I really enjoy his bike videos and wish he made more.

Jay has a 1966 Munch and has made a video of it. It has twin headlight too.