BAJA NORTON La Commando más fina

Words & Photos by David Edwards

MEXICO

Retirement just isn’t working out for Doug McCadam. A selfdescribed ski bum, McCadam ended up in Vail, Colorado after a long motorcycle ride in 1973. For the next 24 years he owned and operated D-J’s Café, a popular local diner. His real passion was Nortons, though, and when he sold the restaurant in 1997 the goal was to build a few nice bikes in his newfound spare time. Didn’t work out that way. For the next five years Doug shepherded Colorado Norton Works, a successful twoman shop specializing in tastefully improved Commandos.

More than any other Britbike, Nortons are fettled and tinkered with, hopped-up and modified, brought up to date and freely customized. Part of this has to do with the Commando’s Isolastic engine-mount arrangement, a system of rubber biscuits that lets the motor rumble about at idle but

n(Above) Neatness and attention to detail are hallmarks of a Doug’s Nortons build. Single Mikuni carb conversion with K&N filter is a popular option. (Right) Chrome ’n’ clocks: Mexican coin used to cover steering stem nut is a nice touch. (Below) Drilled after- market rotor is also part of the brake upgrade package.

squashes vibes at speed. Besides packing an extra 100cc, Nortons were (and are) eminently more rideable than BSA 650s and older Triumphs, which did nothing to insulate their operators from the buzzy tingles of their paralleltwin engine designs. When building better Commandos at Colorado Norton Works became more of full-time job than he really wanted, McCadam sold out to partner Matt Rambow, who has taken CNW to the next level. Rambow’s upgraded Norton rebuilds now start at $27,000 – that’s with you supplying the donor machine – and he just sold out the last of a limitedproduction run of full-boat Café Commandos, each of the 12 bikes priced at $45,000! McCadam, meanwhile, enjoyed his time out of harness but predictably it wasn’t long before he hung out a shingle as Doug’s Nortons, the plan (once again) being to make one or two bikes a year for friends. Then life threw McCadam a curve ball when love took him to Mexico, the remote southern Baja peninsula to be more precise, where he and new girlfriend Abril built a tidy little compound – house, outside bar, swaying palm trees and the cutest little grass-roof hut just big enough for a workbench, a tool rack and a single bike stand. Doug’s Nortons had gone native.

“Commandos are what I do,” explains McCadam (dougsnortons@ hotmail.com). “But how does a boy raised in the deeply planted culture of Boston end up building Nortons in a crusty little agricultural pueblo in southern Baja Mexico? Well, at 68, you do a lot of reflecting and being the only one of 200 people in town

who speaks English, I do have a lot of conversations with myself! I don’t find it a very unusual scenario, however many of my friends think it to be quite amazing…or certainly interesting. My personal discoveries have been profound, and I find my freedom and spirit to create have turned a new page. What I have found down here is that ‘less’ results in a life much more abundant than people can imagine. I am putting many more hours of handwork into my rebuilds but charging the same as before because I can do that down here and be very comfortable with it.”

Simplification is sometimes by necessity. Caliman is the town’s only paint and body man, does excellent work, and is happy to fit Norton tinware into his usual gig patching up villagers’ trucks and clunker cars.

Stainless-steel hardware is used throughout a Doug’s Norton, each piece individually polished, no small thing. “It amounts to about 100 bolts/fasteners, but keep in mind that nuts and washers also get massaged – including any bolt tips showing through the nut,” McCadam says. “I figure about 15 minutes each which amounts to 25 hours just on that detail alone.” Girlfriend Abril has become expert on the buffing wheel and now handles all the stainless polishing, keeping costs down, quality up and the supply line short. Shown here is DN07, the seventh Doug’s Norton built but the first to be Hecho en Mexico,

destined for a customer in Santa Barbara, California. Like all of Doug’s bikes it is tastefully restrained but virtually every aspect of the machine has been considered and improved upon. The original British electrics, oft times the butt of jokes, have been replaced with modern, more reliable components. An O-ring chain runs between the sprockets. Hagon shocks control rear suspension, while the Norton forks get new springs, better damping and quality seals. The stock single Lockheed brake caliper does just fine when fed by a new Nissin master cylinder via a braided-steel line. Sun aluminum rims are laced with heavy-duty stainless spokes and fitted with sticky Bridgestone BT45 Battlax tires. Call it a Commando fully realized.

It’s clear that Doug McCadam is a Norton lifer. He’s just downsized, kicked back and taken things south of the border.

n(Left) Funny, he doesn’t look Mexican. Doug McCadam hails from Massachusetts with a long life stop in Colorado, now calls Baja home. (Below) Quaint “del Sur” HQ of Doug’s Nortons. “Down here I can apply the level of detail work that is not possible in the States given the cost of doing business there,” he says. Outside the hut is one of his next projects, a red Long Range Fastback Commando getting custom upgrades.

DOUG’S NORTON PHOTO