At some point in their career, every good custom motorcycle builder sees a client point at a bike in their portfolio and say; ?build me one just like that.? It comes with the territory?especially if your work is as good as that of Union Motorcycle Classics.
Union’s Mike Watanabe and Luke Ransom have a long list of classic restos and stunning customs to their names. So they found themselves in that position not too long ago, when a customer called and reference a Norton Commando cafe racer he spotted on Union’s website.

?Our response was: ‘We?re happy to build a Commando custom, but we have something else in mind’,? Mike tells us.
That ?something else? had to do with Union’s fascination with Peter Williams, and his John Player Norton. Back in 1973, Williams took Norton’s outgunned pushrod twin, built a monocoque chassis and aero-fairing for it, and cleaned up at the Isle of Man TT.
Mike and Luke weren’t out to build a pure replica?but sure wanted to pull inspiration from Williams’ groundbreaking design.
?The customer said that he really didn’t like how John Player Nortons look,? says Mike. ?We asked him not to look at the factory production bike based on the Roadster model?we asked him to look at the actual race bikes.?

?This sold the deal. The customer basically said ‘I trust you fellows?have your way with the idea’.?
Luke tracked down 1974 Norton 850 Commando donor in Boise, Idaho. ?It was a pile ...