1970 Norton Mercury

1970 NORTON MERCURY BACKGROUND
The Norton Mercury-series ran from 1968 to 1970 and represents the last model in the Dominator family. With Featherbed Frame production having ended in 1968 with the death of the Dominator 650SS and Atlas 750, and the launch of the new Commando. Production records indicate that all Mercury’s were built in 1968, right up to the end of the year, and that those that went unsold were retitled as 1969s and 1970s.

ABOVE: The Mercury used the Dominator’s 650cc twin cylinder engine, set vertically in the Featherbed Frame. This would be the last Norton to do so as the Commando superceded the Mercury, Dominator and Atlas becoming Norton’s one-and-only product, and it had forward-slanting cylinders. This was accomplished quite simply by using the same engine as all the rest but mounting it at an angle in its mounts. Being a non-unit powertrain, the engine was separate from the primary case and gearbox anyway, so it was mostly a matter of redrilling some mounting holes. But for the Mercury, it ran a single Amal carburetor, had 12-volt electrics with a capacitor that allowed running it without a battery, and being the last development in the Dominator lineage, it was made to run on unleaded fuel.

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1970 Norton Mercury SPECIFICATIONS