EICMA 2017: Kinetic Signs New Alliance To Bring Norton Brand to India

Indian two-wheelers brand Kinetic Engineering, today announced entering a new partnership with British motorcycle manufacturer Norton Motorcycle Company. Ajinkya Firodia Managing Director, Kinetic Engineering said that they signed a joint venture with Norton to create a new brand - Kinetic Norton Motorcycles, which will manufacture and sell motorcycles in India and rest of Asia. The new joint venture (JV) was announced at the 2017 EICMA show. Confirming the development to carandbike, Ajinkya Firodia said that there will be a formal announcement at a press conference in New Delhi on November 15, 2017.

(Stuart Garner, CEO, Norton Motorcyles and Ajinkya Firodia, MD, Kinetic Engineering, signing the JV)

The first motorcycles to be introduced by Kinetic Norton Motorcycles will be the Norton Dominator and Norton Commando. Initially, the motorcycles will enter our shores via CBU (completely built unit) route and later in future as CKD (completely knocked down) units. Both the bikes were showcased at the EICMA show earlier today. Interestingly, earlier Mahindra Two-Wheelers was also working on partnering with the British motorcycle brand but there are no updates on that front right now.

Both the Norton Dominator and the Norton Commando are true blue café racers and are powered by a 961cc air/oil-cooled parallel twin engine that comes with fuel injection and makes about 79 bhp and develops 90 Nm of peak torque. The motor comes mated to a 5-speed gearbox while the final drive is achieved through an O-ring chain.

(Ajinkya Firodia, MD, Kinetic Engineering)

The Norton Dominator comes with 43mm Black-line Ohlins USD forks and Ohlins TTX 36 mono shock with a remote reservoir at the rear. The Commando, on the other hand, gets the same USD forks up front but the Ohlins twin shocks with a remote reservoir at the rear. Braking duties in both the bikes are taken care by twin Brembo 320mm fully-floating high carbon stainless steel discs & Brembo 4 piston "Monobloc" radially mounted calipers and single Brembo 220mm disc & Brembo 2 piston calliper at the rear.

The Norton Dominator is the more expensive model and comes with high-tech features, the Commando is a more affordable café racer offering almost the same level of performance.