Cassandra the Canadian Commando

After landing a new job and with time on his hands, a young man in Vancouver decided to restore a British motorcycle considerably older than him.

- CHRIS COOLING

In 2009, I decided to find a classic British motorcycle to restore. I had spent the last four years flying airplanes in Northern Canada and was just given the opportunity to move back to my home city of Vancouver at the age of 24. I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and no hobbies to occupy myself. My dad had restored a 1960 Austin Healey my whole childhood and I thought that maybe he’d be interested in restoring a motorcycle with me as a nice father and son thing. He’d had a Triumph Bonneville and a BSA Lightning in the late 1960s so it was obvious that this would be a British bike. I liked the Bonnevilles and BSAs, but nothing was sexier to me than a Norton Commando… So where would I find one?

I joined a British Motorcycle Owners’ Club (BMOC) to help navigate this community. My dad came with me which was good, because I stood out as the youngest person by 40 years. Before my first meeting even started I found the club president had a love for Nortons and he even joked about selling me one. I hounded him again after the meeting and he agreed to sell it to me for $2500. Everything was going according to plan!