Norton's First Bike In 2025: What Could It Be?

TVS-owned British bikemaker Norton Motorcycles’ future plans have been revealed with as many as six bikes scheduled to launch from 2025 onwards. After buying the collapsing brand in 2020, TVS has managed to get Norton back to a more stable place with pending deliveries from past ownership now being carried out. However, what the future holds is likely to be quite a bit different from the 961 twins. And we think the first bike that makes the most sense for a British bikemaker such as Norton should be a sporty neo-retro roadster in the hotly contested sub-500 cc segment.

What Is Norton’s Core Identity?

For those unfamiliar with Norton Motorcycle’s history, the second British outfit to be based out of Birmingham, has had much success in motorsport. It is the most successful British brand in MotoGP as well as at the hallowed Isle of Man TT. It has always backed its brilliance by adhering to the mantra of “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday,” something that also resonates loudly with its parent company: TVS. 

Nortons have always had a sporty edge to them. After all, the legendary Geoff Duke tore apart the competition in both the 350 cc class as well as the 500 cc class, winning a fair few TT races along the way as well. His steed, the Norton Manx, was one of the most adored and quite successful motorcycles in road racing history.

And since TVS has such a core ethos of making sure all of its products are thoroughly tested on the race track and the special ones have the ‘TVS Racing’ stamp of approval, the Hosur-based manufacturer knows that it has a golden opportunity with Norton. Not only to do right by the brand, but it also understands the values that come along with owning a Norton.

Why The Sub-500 cc Space?

Global motorcycling data suggests that motorcyclists in developed markets are getting older by the day. Whereas markets like India, South East Asia, and other developing ones have been looking at bikes in the 400-500 cc space as aspirational and yet achievable purchases. 

Just in the past 12 months, we have had a plethora of new options flooding the market from various manufacturers, and a lot of them have chosen India as the hub for their creations. The Triumph-Bajaj partnership fruition brought the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X, Harley-Davidson rolled out its X440 that it developed alongside Hero, Aprilia went solo and yet delivered a cracker in the form of the RS457 and KTM has benefitted from Bajaj’s low cost manufacturing for over a decade now, with the current 390 Duke being a stunning motorcycle. Not to forget, the Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 also makes a bit of its presence felt here.

But most importantly, the one bikemaker that has been the biggest player in the space has also gone modern. Not only does Royal Enfield have a chill and pure retro roadster in the Classic 350, it has also launched a far more modern take on the roadster format in the form of the Guerrilla 450. We have ridden the Guerrilla 450 and the review of it will go live on July 27. But until then, why not whet your appetite and take a look at its detailed video.

Roadster Makes Most Sense

Unlike British brands’ forte of twin-cylinder bikes, the first Norton roadster is highly likely to be a single-cylinder unit. Having said that, it is likely to be up to date when it comes to technology, liquid-cooling, 4-valves, ride-by-wire and electronic rider aids being the bare minimum. And since it will lock horns with the Triumph Speed 400 and the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450, the Norton roadster will have to be something remarkably special to overlook these two bikes.

The roadster is likely to take its design cues from the outgoing Commando 961. Norton as well as TVS engineers should like to keep the heritage aspect of the roadster alive and resemblance with past Norton bikes is key here. Under the clothing, though, we expect the roadster to have top-shelf components. It has to be feature rich, which shouldn’t be an issue for TVS given its latest offerings. And given how well TVS has managed to build the 310 cc bikes that it developed with BMW Motorrad, we can expect high levels of build and finish from the Norton as well.

More so, we have seen manufacturers opting for platform versatility and it wouldn’t be surprising that Norton thinks of that as well for its upcoming products. Much like Royal Enfield with the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 twins, as well as the Triumph Speed 400 and the upcoming 400 cc cafe racer, Norton could also offer a cafe racer befitting its British roots. And as appealing as a roadster is, cafe racers are just special, brilliant to look at and wonderful to ride. And with a name like Dominator, you know just how good Norton’s cafe racers have been in the past.

What Could Be Its Pricing?

The new bikes have to be locally manufactured in India for them to be commercially-viable. While its Solihull facility will continue to make motorcycles, likely to be the larger capacity ones, Hosur should be the hub for global expansion. We have seen the BMW-TVS partnership producing some fantastic quality motorcycles that have been priced and positioned-well, at least on the TVS side. The bikes have been built to a great standard without compromising on quality or fitment levels.

Given the fact that the first Norton bike will roll out by the end of 2025, there’s still a lot of time before we can speculate about the prices. As mentioned, if the direction chosen is for a roadster, it will serve the brand well to position the bike as a premium and sportier alternative to the Triumph Speed 400 and the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450. Its British rivals have formidable pricing strategies with the Speed 400 carrying a sticker price of ₹ 2.33 lakh while the Guerrilla retails at ₹2.39 lakh, ₹ 2.49 lakh and ₹ 2.54 lakh depending on the variant you opt for. 

We hope that this chapter of Norton's tormented journey is anything but harmful to the brand and we too get to enjoy the brilliance of the British bikemaker, quite like our grandfathers did. And maybe when the electric Norton does go on sale, our children experience the same as well.