Mkll or MkllA?

Previously scott_stuber wrote:

How can I tell if my 1974 Commando is an Mkll or an MkllA? Matching frame and engine numbers: 311981 - 12/73. See photo attached. Thanks in advance for your replies! Scott

As far as I recall the Mk 2 850 was solely a US export model of which around 800 odd were produced and shipped over the pond in last quarter of 73.They had thehigher US spec bars and I believe were fitted withpre-noise control peashooter silencers and air filter. (Noise control bean can silencers and the large moulded airbox with foam filterwere first introduced on the Mk 1A in Sept '73). The Mk 2A was the next UK model after the Mk 1A.

I'd say you've got a Mk 2A of which around 7,000odd bikes were produced before the Mk3 electric start model was introduced in early '75.Your engine number actually falls well into '74 factory productiondata although the12/73 stamp indicates Dec '73 production. (Jan '74MK 2A engine number is supposedto startat 307311).Norton's engine / frame numbering process was notoriously unreliable around this period whenthe company was enteringreceivership. I've got a Mk 1A850 where the engine number is actually 140numbers before the official factory records first model introduction in Sept '73 - the VIN platecorrectly shows 9/73.

Take a look at your battery tray, if its ordinated so the battery length is across the bike its a mk2a, if its front to back its mk2. The air filter and silencers are easy to change, battery tray is much more effort and no real reason to do it. My mk2a is numbered earlier than yours and is Nov 73, model years started after the summer shutdown of the previous year, long before Jan of the model year to make sure the showrooms only had the new model year in stock.

The MK2 was sent to the US and the MK2A was sent to UK and Europe and built concurrently, so if you are in the US then MK2 it is.

That is what I believe, John and I think that Scott has a Mk2.

Hadn't twigged you were in the states although house style in the background might have given that away - yes , a MK 2 almost certainly. Agree about the blue colour scheme - sets the bike off nicely.

Most MK2A models over here in UK had the original stifling bean can silencers changed for peashooters later in their lives with many owners also replacing the noise control airbox filter arrangement for the earlier type as fitted to the MK1 850 and the 750's, so Mk 2 and 2A models still on the road today often look more or less identical.

There are a number of subtle and not-so subtle differences between the European and U.S. market brochures for 1974. The studio motorcycle shots look the same but are of the different versions. Only for the States though did they mention that the Commando is something of a chick-magnet !