2019 Norton Atlas Ranger & Nomad Walkaround & Specs.

Welcome back to another Motobob video where today we're going to be looking at the Norton Atlas which was on display recently at the London Motorcycle Show. Now normally I like to vlog these shows and events each year but quite often I get comments on those videos saying that people want to see less of me talking and vlogging and more of the actual bikes themselves and I totally understand because that's why I go to the shows myself as well to see all of the amazing bikes that are on display. So this year I'm going to do things slightly differently, instead of doing long vlogs trying to cover everything at the show I'm just going to pull out a few of my absolute favourite bikes from each event and go into a lot more detail on each one. And I don't think it was just me that was really keen on the Nortons, the stand was really busy the whole time that I was at the show so it seems like something that's really kind of hit it off with bikers. Before we get going though it would really help me out if you could leave a comment below giving the bike a score out of 10. That way I can get to know the kind of bikes that you'd like to see more of and of course I can do a bit less of the stuff that you're not so into. Of course as well if you're new here and you want to see more walkarounds like this then do hit subscribe and you can also hit the bell button to get notified every time I upload. But without further ado let's get into it and look at these beautiful bikes in a bit more detail. The Atlas comes in two models, there's the Nomad which is really road orientated and that's the cheaper of the two bikes and comes in at just under £10,000. Then for a couple of grand more you can get the Ranger and that is the bike that I think Norton have kind of described as their genuine off-roader and they've been quite clear in their press releases and stuff that they wanted to build something that was really off-road capable. So we'll look at some of the difference between these two bikes and we'll see the kind of difference in equipment and whether that's truly the case. There's a lot going on on this bike lots of drilled out holes and mesh and bits and pieces but overall I think it makes a good looking package with lots of nice little retro touches. Of course the tank is iconic, the silver paint with the black Norton logo and although you can get it in red and black and white and the grey that you can see on the Ranger here I think I'd be going for that classic silver finish. There are loads of other retro touches around the bike so of course things like spoked wheels, round headlight, twin clocks and you've got that flat seat with the diamond stitching. So there's lots of nice little touches and it looks really well finished. One of the differences that I noticed between the two bikes apart from that overall stance is the fact that the Nomad has a lot of polished parts so the rims, the front mudguard, the radiator guards and the heat shield on the exhaust. The Ranger on the other hand tends to go for things like the titanium finish on the rims, a high mounted painted front mudguard and then the radiator guards and heat shield are both a brushed or matte finish metal. I don't expect this bike to be for everybody looks wise but that's one of the reasons I like it. It's a really bold design. The bike's built around a steel trellis frame and on first impressions it really reminded me of the frame from a Triumph Tiger. One of the features that Norton have said makes this bike a legitimate off-roader is the fact that the subframe can be bolted on or off. What they're saying there is that if you come off the bike, damage the subframe and bend it then you can unbolt it, remove it, straighten it out or replace it I guess. Another thing that stood out to me about this bike is that when I was looking at the specs it's quite lightweight for the retro market anyway. It's 178 kilos dry. So although that's a shade heavier than a Ducati Scrambler it's about 30 kilos lighter than a Triumph Street Scrambler. So combined with some pretty decent looking engine figures that should make for quite a good power to weight ratio and I think that's going to mean it's quite a fun bike to ride. It's a 650cc parallel twin and it puts out a peak of 85 horsepower at 11,000 rpm. So it's definitely designed around that top end rush that's quite high revving compared to other bikes in this market and the peak torque is around 47 foot pounds so lower than the Street Scrambler. So definitely a different type of bike to ride. And I think that high rev in nature is based on the fact that the engine is derived from the front two cylinders of Norton's V4 Superbike. It's got a 270 degree firing order so that's going to give a nice V-twin feel and sound and I actually reckon this bike is going to sound pretty good from the off because the exit port on the exhaust is massive. It looks like it's going to be quite a decent throaty noise. I thought this might be an aftermarket can but I checked with the rep on the stand and they said that this was in fact the stock exhaust and that it's fully Euro compliant. Both bikes have 320mm dual floating Brembo discs at the front with Brembo calipers and they've got a two pot Brembo at the back with a 245mm disc. So that should be quite decent stopping power for a reasonably light bike. The Ducati and Triumph that we just mentioned both only have a single disc up front. Suspension is from Norton's own Road Holder brand and the front is fully adjustable whereas the rear is preload adjustable only at the monoshock. The Ranger with it's kind of off road focus has a bit of extra travel. I think it's 200mm at the front instead of the 150mm on the Nomad so that's going to give you a bit more clearance. And it's also got things like the bash guard underneath, the high front mudguard and it has a slightly more off road focused Avon set of tyres on it. I think those are the Trek riders whereas there are trail riders on the Nomad which despite looking scrambly are their kind of more road focused adventure tyre. There's LED lighting all round and I like that kind of combo of a retro classic looking round headlight but with internals that are LED because it gives it a slightly modern flavour especially when the light's switched on because it projects a bit of a whiter light. And the indicators are also nice little sleek LED units so that's quite a tidy front end. The lighting at the back as well, the brake light's a nice thin strip of LEDs and then you've got the same indicators there and I don't know, they've done a pretty good job of trying to build a sort of stem to get those lights and number plate over the end of the back wheel there as per the kind of legal manufacturing requirements. But despite it being better than the plastic units that you get on a lot of bikes I think that's probably something that people will look to replace quite soon after buying the bike. The rep said that they are going to offer a full range of over 150 accessories so presumably a tail tidy might be one of them. With the rest of the electronics you've got a ride by wire throttle so that gives you an on road and off road traction control setting as well as the ability to fully disable the traction control. And of course there's ABS and the ability to fully disable the ABS as well for sliding around in the gravel and what not. There's no TFT display or anything like that, they've kept it quite traditional at the front so really the electronics package is subtle and sitting beneath this very retro exterior. Seat height wise the Ranger because of it's slightly longer suspension is at 875mm so for some of us slightly shorter riders that's quite tall so the Nomad could be a better choice because that's down at a more reasonable 824mm. Seating looks pretty comfy, some nice detailed stitching on there and there also looks to be a non-slip suede type section and there's also a smallish pillion seat. So the bike comes with pillion pegs, it's designed to take a passenger but Norton have said that some special editions of this bike might be available that are more focused on solo riding. All in all there's loads to like about this bike, I'd love to find out what that high revving motor feels like if I ever get a chance to test ride one. The styling's really distinctive as I've said, it's not going to be for everybody but at least it's something different. Let me know what you think of it in the comments and of course subscribe if you're new because we've got more of these walk around vids coming up and hopefully I'll see you in the next video.