Norton Superlight Road-Legal Racer Launched

Norton Motorcycles has unveiled the new Norton Superlight 650, a road-legal race version of the Atlas 650 twin roadsters which were unveiled some time ago. The Norton Superlight has carbon fibre bodywork, carbon wheels and a single-sided swingarm. And while the two Norton Atlas 650 twins - the Norton Atlas Nomad and Norton Atlas Ranger has the same 650 cc parallel-twin engine putting out 84 bhp of maximum power and 68 Nm of peak torque, the Superlight dishes out 105 bhp of power and 75 Nm of peak torque, and the engine spins up to 12,500 rpm. And thanks to the carbon fibre bodywork, it tips the scales at just 158 kg.

And while the Atlas 650s use a steel tube frame, the Superlight, whose main job will be to win races, uses a lightweight aluminium tubed design. An optional titanium race pipe sheds 6 kg more over the standard weight and also bumps up the power by approximately 6 bhp, but it's not homologated for road use. The Superlight also uses top-end superbike components, including Ohlins suspension, front and rear. At the front are fully adjustable NIX 30 forks, and at the rear is a fully adjustable TTX GP monoshock, with braking handled by a Brembo system, with 330 mm discs up front and M50 calipers.

Also Read: Norton Atlas 650 Models Unveiled

Twenty-four time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness may race the Superlight at next year's Isle of Man TT

Also Read: Norton Atlas 650 Scramblers To Be Launched In India

Also standard is an up/down, bi-directional quickshifter, full-colour LCD instrument panel, a full IMU-based traction control system, which provides wheelie control and launch control capability, as well as standard ABS. The Norton Superlight also gets ride-by-wire system with three riding modes - Road, Sport and Pro-Race. The best part is, the Superlight is a street-legal machine, and has been priced at GBP 20,000 (that's over Rs. 18 lakh under current exchange rates). While it's a road-legal machine, Norton will be hoping to win some races at the Isle of Man TT next year, where 24-time Isle of Man winner John McGuinness is expected to pilot the Superlight. So far, there's no word on an India launch yet, and Norton's India plans with partner Kinetic Group still involve full imports. It will be interesting to see when Kinetic MotoRoyale will start assembling and possibly even manufacturing some Norton bikes in India to make them price competitive.