Norton Manx R first ride review: The perfect everyday superbike?

The Norton Manx R is a superbike that is as Indian as it is British. Its arrival marks the revival of the Norton brand, its 14th revival to be specific. But this time around it is under TVS Motor Company’s stewardship and this is just the start. A lot of the components on the Manx R are designed and developed in India and sent to the UK for assembly. In fact, the 72-degree V4 1200cc engine too is made in India by TVS. We got to ride the Manx R at the race track and on the streets of Seville to put Norton’s claim of it being a road bike rather than a race bike that is road-legal to the test.

Norton Manx R: What’s it all about?

Let's start with the philosophy behind the motorcycle. Norton says their rivals from Bologna, Noale and Bavaria – namely Ducati, Aprilia and BMW Motorrad are basically making race bikes that you can also use on the road. With the Manx R, Norton follows a different path. It obviously is very powerful, with an engine that puts out 206bhp and 130Nm of torque – the highest torque rating amongst all its peers. But Norton insists that this motorcycle is as much to be used on the road as is to be used on the track. The result? There are no wings and aero appendages on the motorcycle, the surfaces are clean and that's because this has not been designed to go racing – but rather to be a beautiful motorcycle. Norton are talking about modern luxury with this the Manx R and also more usability than all the hypersport super bikes that are currently out there.

Norton Manx R: Design

The design philosophy is of modernism and reductivity. Now where have you heard these terms before? You've heard it in the car world with JLR, with Land Rover and Range Rover. Jerry McGovern, chief creative advisor at Norton Motorcycles, was the former design director at JLR. He serves as an advisor to TVS's big boss Sudarshan Venu, and the guy overseeing a lot of the design elements for the entire group. The Manx R has obviously been done by Norton but Jerry is one of the main influencing characters for the design – which is why you don't see many or rather any graphics. Everything is clean, following a design philosophy which Jerry executed so well at JLR. In fact, he's also overseeing the new look and feel of Norton's dealerships and their front-end which obviously is going to come to India. Norton will be launching in India before Diwali.

Coming back to the motorcycle itself, you will notice there are no winglets or massive aero appendages because the Manx R has been designed to be beautifully clean as we’ve mentioned before. Also Norton doesn't have the baggage of a racing legacy. The Signature edition we rode makes use of full carbon-fibre bodywork, a single-sided swingarm, carbon fibre wheels and top-drawer chassis componentry. From the rider’s POV, you’re greeted by an 8-inch colour TFT touchscreen, which apart from being used to alter the plethora of electronic rider aids available on the bike, can be customised for greeting and good-bye messages.

Norton Manx R: What’s made in India?

The engine is assembled in India using components that come from all over the world, before being sent to the UK for installation in the motorcycle. The aluminium frame is cast in five pieces in India and sent to the UK, assembled, machined, before going into the motorcycle. All of the bodywork, including the carbon bodywork is done in India. The fancy LED lights, which in the case of the Signature Edition get a customisable DRL signature, are also made in India. And finally, the 8-inch TFT screen, the hardware and software are all done in India.

Norton Manx R: Engine, performance, ride and handling

Apart from engines developed for aerospace purposes, the 72-degree 1200cc V4 in the Manx R is probably the most sophisticated engine that has been made in India. It makes 206 bhp at 11,500rpm and 130Nm of torque at 9000rpm. As the rpms might suggest, the Manx R doesn’t have a ludicrous top-end, neither does it have a really high redline. The primary ethos is that its meant to be a superbike you can ride daily, with a focus on usable torque rather than outright top-end performance.

I rode the motorcycle on the road as well as at the Monteblanco racetrack and the first impressions from riding on the road is that the riding position is not nearly as committed nor as aggressive as other superbikes, so you don't cramp up when you are on the road. The ergonomics are a lot more accommodating for riding on the streets without making you feel like you’re scrunched up like a prawn hiding like prey. The second aspect which stood out was the comfort, something Norton spoke about a fair bit. Despite its superbike stature, the Manx R is actually a comfortable motorcycle, relatively speaking.
Obviously the roads around Seville are near pristine and they have zero potholes or features which make up an average Indian road, so we can't really judge outright ride comfort. But this seems like a motorcycle that you can actually use on the road and a big reason for that is the power delivery. All of it is not made at the top. There's a lot of grunt in the low and mid-range, which in turn allows you to ride it in a higher gear. The engine is tractable. It pulls really hard and it sounds very powerful, almost like a muscle bike. It does have a really nice exhaust note. Norton's philosophy is to make the bike usable for the average rider. With a very committed motorcycle you probably won't be as fast as you would with a motorcycle like this, unless you’re a more advanced rider. This attribute, at least for me, helped quite a bit.

Suspension duties on the Signature Edition are handled by a set of Marzocchi USD forks and monoshock, both of which are semi-active and work with a potentiometer which helps in reading the terrain. What it does in tandem with the ECU is that it reads what the bike is doing. It knows what you're going to do before you actually do it so that the electronics can help you. Take for example the wheelie-control system. Instead of mitigating the front wheel from coming up, it understands if you’re trying to pop a wheelie and will assist you in carrying a controlled and safe one – tech similar to what we see in the car world, the likes of a side slip control on a Ferrari that lets you drift the car. If the electronics know you can actually hold a slide, they assist you and make good drivers look like Gods. Same with the Norton.

Out on track, this is proper fast. In fact, most customers will only be able to exploit maybe 60-80 per cent of the true potential of this motorcycle. You need to be a really, really good rider to push it to its limits. What I’m getting at is that despite being a more road-oriented bike, it can boogie around a race track and how. Handling is predictable, aided by the tractability of an engine that really takes care of the mistakes that you make. Even if you're in a higher gear, you still can pull out of corners without bogging down. When it comes to braking, you have the crème de la crème from Brembo’s arsenal for road motorcycles. Brembo’s Hypure callipers chomp down on two 320mm discs at the front and a twin-piston calliper mated to a 245mm disc at the rear. As you would expect, dropping the anchors is just a matter of thinking so and you’re shedding digits as fast as you’re adding them on the speedo. All in all, it is a forgiving motorcycle that riders of most skill levels will be able to thoroughly enjoy.

Norton Manx R: The TVS advantage

TVS has got the purchasing power. They've got the strength to negotiate with suppliers, suppliers like Bosch for instance. Norton claims that the engine management system is amongst the most sophisticated in the world and the reason for that is TVS's might in ensuring that solid partners, vendors and also suppliers, then listen to, and get what Norton wants. A small example of this is the TFT display. It has all the hardware for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. It's not yet active, but I suspect that's because it's going through testing at Apple's end and should soon be offered on the motorcycle. And that's just one of the key elements where all the TVS's purchasing power and their global might aids Norton.
Remember, TVS is now the world's third largest motorcycle manufacturer and that helps Norton get pricing right, relatively speaking, and also helps them deliver what you actually expect from a bike like this. Let’s get this out of the way right now, Norton is going to be a premium brand, as it always has been in the past. It even says that the paints used on the bike are Bentley quality, so they are looking at the high-end market, at least to start off with. But TVS’s positioning helps Norton source top-shelf kit without pricing the bike out of the realm of reach for the class it is competing in.

Norton Motorcycles future plans

The Manx R is just the start of Norton's journey. In fact, for India what would be really important and really interesting is the Atlas and the Atlas GT. They call it the 650 but it is actually a 585cc parallel-twin and that engine has been designed by TVS. In fact, the Atlas is going to be made by TVS and India is going to be the manufacturing hub from where it will be exported all over the world. Norton's facility in Solihull, a brand new greenfield facility has a capacity of around 7,000 bikes a year.
With the Manx and Manx R, all of it is going to be taken up, while the Atlas will be more of a volume product made in India. The Manx R and Manx will be the heroes sitting at the top of the range, with Norton following a top-down strategy by introducing the more affordable Atlas and Atlas GT later on to appeal to the masses. Will the Manx be assembled in India? I don't think so, because it will be the hero motorcycle and there's no real need to do assemble it in India, given the UK-India FTA and the fact that motorcycles will also come under it eventually. But since so much of it is made here, they will have a pricing advantage.

Norton Manx R: Pricing, availability and verdict

In the UK, the base version of the Norton Manx R which is priced at ₹26 lakh (India prices TBA) is roughly £4000 (₹5.2 lakh) cheaper than the equivalent Ducati Panigale V4. It’s by no means cheap. The Manx R Signature edition that we rode, replete with carbon fibre (also made in India) and the electronic bells and whistles costs a whopping ₹50 lakh in the UK (India prices TBA). The Manx R will be launched before Diwali and TVS is going to set up a new Norton dealership network, which will be present in markets with a bustling premium motorcycling scene. When launched, expect it to be priced between the BMW S 1000 R and the Ducati Panigale V4. The Manx R of course is just the start and it is the Atlas that will push the columns for Norton, at least in India.

But more importantly with TVS is overall hand on Norton's operations, it wants to make this a much bigger story. The engine is something I just can’t get over and the fact it is made in India, along with several other crucial elements, is a phenomenal achievement. As far as the Manx R is concerned, in more ways than one, it delivers on Norton’s promise of being a motorcycle that is genuinely usable outside of the confines of a racetrack, at least on the stellar roads of Spain. And when taken to the racetrack, it thrives there too. In a nutshell, with the Manx R, Norton has delivered a motorcycle that can truly take the fight to the more established Italians, Germans and Japanese motorcycles in the segment. Whether or not it does, only time will tell.