Music to my ears...

In my first book, The Third Revolution, character Joe Adams rides a 1972 Norton Commando. Obviously, this particular ride wasn't selected arbitrarily. Here's a brief look at an identical model:



My own Norton is still up on blocks. It was originally a 1970 Model S, with the upswept "off-road" pipes. I later purchased a basket-case Norton that had been in a fire; after I took it apart and cleaned it up, it turned out that it had been a 1972 Combat Roadster, so I threw that engine (and roadster pipes) on my bike and got her up and running. If memory serves, the Combat engine was manufactured for only six months during the 1972 model year. It had larger (32mm vs. 30 mm) carburetors, high-compression pistons (10-to-1 vs. 9-to-1), and the famed "SS" Combat cam. As you might imagine, there aren't many of them left, since the bulk of them were owned by crazed lunatics who'd wrecked them within a year or two. Mine ran when I put it away, and, I hope, will run again someday...