This machine is one of a family of hybrids built by AMC from 1963 through 1968, using a chassis developed for the AMC large singles and heavy twins and the engine forks and wheels of the Norton Atlas. The series had its origin with the release of the 1962-3 Matchless G15/45, a bike with a Matchless designed 750. The engine had a design flaw that made it prone to failure. Matchless had hoped to market the bike as a desert racer in the open class. Norton, also had a brand of AMC at the time, tried to race its new Atlas in the same series but the featherbed frame was not robust enough to handle the rigors of cross country racing. Someone in California had the thought to place the Atlas motor in the Matchless frame and came up with a winning combination. The factory initially built 200 of these G15N’s for 1963.
They were popular enough to market this combination as 7 different models over the following 5 years and in all roughly 5,000 machines were built.
This bike G15CS/123594 was dispatched for Matchless of New York in September 1967 but was titled as a 1968 model. At this time, they were also shipped with 2 sets of badges and could be sold as either a Norton or Matchless regardless of the “G” or “N” stamped on the case.
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