The rotary used in the Commander was actually a clever piece of engineering. The German Wankel rotary design was first created by Felix Wankel in , using a triangular rotor, a very small number of moving parts, and excellent high-revving capabilities. Earlier Norton rotaries were twin-rotor, air-cooled designs but by the time the more highly developed Commander came along liquid cooling was being used — helping to stabilise engine temperatures and reducing mechanical noise.
The Norton Commander was the civilian touring version of the Norton Interpol 2, both bikes sharing more than a passing resemblance. Both bikes had built-in hard pannier cases, a full fairing and faired in engine , a windshield, seating for two, and disc brakes front and back with two in front. The total swept volume of the twin-rotor Norton rotary is cc, and to produces 85 hp at rpm, with a compression ratio, and a top speed of mph.
Classic Walks Cornwall: v. Don't miss an opportunity! Auction 3 Fixed price Amazon 8 eBay 47 Gumtree 1. Black 1 Gold 1 Red 1 Silver 1.
First edition 1 Limited 1. Refine your search. Sort by. Sort by most relevant Sort by most relevant. Sort by highest price first. Sort by lowest price first. Sort by newest results first. Sort by oldest results first. All All. Your region. It took until to produce the Norton Wankel, which was first used for the Interpol II police machine; the Wankel engine was well suited for police cruising, and around were built. A water-cooled version of the motor was used for the Commander model of , with around built.
All were essentially touring machines, which raised complaints about a company with such an illustrious racing history. Those complaints were rectified with the F1 model of , which was based on the Norton RC racers that won the British F1 Championship in With 95 HP, a Spondon aluminum frame and the best chassis components available, the F1 was a powerful and very beautiful sports machine with a menacing all-black look.
Only were built, and they remain rare and coveted to this day. This Norton F1 is No. When I purchased this particular machine, it was in the condition you see in the photos, but it did not run.
I went through the entire machine and got everything working. All of the major engine, transmission, and braking components are operational. The tires are in good condition and are most likely original to the machine.
The brakes have also been completely rebuilt, front and rear. The engine and transmission are original and are in perfect running condition. The bike is very easy to start.
A new battery was also recently installed. The paint is original and in very nice condition, considering the age of the machine. The seat is original and is also in very nice condition down to the pan, which is also original. The Hercules on the road is very easy to handle, and rides down the road tight, with no shakes, shimmies, or rattles.
It shifts and accelerates smoothly and holds the road as it should. There is absolutely nothing that needs to be done to this machine to ride, show, and enjoy it. The new owner will have a fantastic and incredibly rare original survivor machine that can be ridden and enjoyed as well as shown at any vintage motorcycle show. I have a rotary motorcycle collection made up of Hercules pre-mix and oil injected machines, as well as Suzuki RE-5s, so if you have specific rotary questions, just want to learn more, or are looking for something in particular, please let me know.
Engine: cc air-cooled single rotor Sachs Wankel, 8. Hercules was a brand of motorcycle manufactured in Germany until The Hercules Company was founded in and began producing motorcycles in In the s and s Sachs was the largest European fabricator of two-stroke motorcycle engines.
Many of these engines were used in the Hercules line of small motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. In Hercules became the first company to offer a Wankel-engined motorcycle for sale to the general public. A prototype was first shown in at the West Cologne Fall Motorcycle Show to a mixed reception, and the production bike was sold as a Hercules product except in the United Kingdom, where it was marketed as a DKW motorcycle.
The W had a single-rotor air-cooled engine of cc that produced 23 hp, later increased to 32 hp. Cooling was by a large fan placed in front of the engine and the slipstream breeze while riding and engine lubrication was by manually adding oil to the fuel in the tank. In Hercules launched the W Injection in which engine lubrication was from a separate oil tank via a pump. It had inch wheels, a front disc brake and a rear drum brake.
That review also declared the W to be a daily commuting bike, not a sport motorcycle. The following is an excerpt from Motorcycle Classics…. The Hercules W is referred to as the first mass-produced Wankel rotary-powered motorcycle. Envisaged in by German engineer Felix Wankel, the rotary power plant was thought by many to be an ideal engine.
The Wankel rotary had far fewer moving parts than a four-stroke engine, and was theoretically more efficient. The transportation industry took notice of this new engine; from aircraft manufacturers to automakers to motorcycle builders, everyone seemed interested in the new technology. In the s, German motorcycle maker Hercules used Sachs lightweight two-stroke engines to power their many different motorcycles, mopeds and scooters.
Hercules developed the W using the Sachs rotary engine in the late s, and a prototype machine was first shown at the West Cologne Fall Motorcycle Show. According to the article, 20, of the cc Sachs rotary engines found in the prototype W had already been used in U.
How the Rotary-Powered Motorcycle Works:. A set of bevel gears transferred power from the rotary shaft through degrees to the transmission mainshaft, and the clutch was a seven-disc affair running in an oil bath. Of course, what is of primary interest is the Sachs rotary engine, which used a single spark plug firing a single rotor with apex seals.
Instead of a crankshaft, a rotary uses an eccentric shaft with the rotor riding on the eccentric. A stationary gear on the end of the eccentric shaft keys the rotor to the eccentric shaft. Combustion pressure pushes the rotor away from the combustion face, causing the eccentric shaft to rotate. As the rotor spins, its axis shifts, causing the rotor to orbit and alter the combustion chamber for intake, compression, ignition and exhaust phases.
When first introduced, the Sachs engine was rated at 23 horsepower, a figure that was later improved to 32 horsepower. While listed at cc, for comparison to a piston engine that figure, in theory, should be multiplied by two for a cc capacity: A single-rotor Wankel produces one power stroke every crank revolution, whereas a single-cylinder 4-stroke requires two crankshaft rotations for each power stroke. Fuel and air are mixed in a 32mm Bing carburetor, and a single exhaust header splits into two under the engine and feeds two mufflers, one on each side.
Unlike the Suzuki RE-5, which uses liquid-cooling to help dispel the great heat generated by a rotary, the Hercules W relies solely on a large axial fan at the front of the engine — and, of course, the cooling breeze of the slipstream once underway. The running gear consists of a tubular steel frame with twin front downtubes that bend back and run over the top of the engine. The front forks are Ceriani with 4. The Hercules wears inch wheels at both the front and rear, and the front brake is an Period tests of the Hercules give the machine credit for its cornering stability, but fault the 6.
Original distribution of the Hercules W
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