1970 Commando

IMO, a commando is easy to thrash if you run high RPM's. I think frequent high RPM's also shorten their life if it doesn't cause a fatal break. That's why I went to a 21 tooth front sprocket instead of the stock 19 tooth one that was on there. The math is simple with ~20 teeth. Every tooth more is roughly a 5% reduction in RPM's, so when you are doing 5,000 rpms, I'm only doing 4,500 to do the same speed since I am 2 teeth up on you.

I use a site: https://www.gearingcommander.com/ to calculate my speeds. It allows me to enter my custom wheel circumference and custom gears to calculate a lot of different results. You should check it out and bookmark the site. You chose your bike from the drop down boxes, then click "load gearing". All the gearbox ratios are plugged into all the tables at that point. If you have custom components, you can modify their dimensions in the green line marked "custom". Then you can use the tables for either stock or custom and compare results.

On your bike with a 19 sprocket and 100/90/19 rear wheel you are going 77.4 mph @ 4,800 RPM's
On my bike with a 21 sprocket and 110/90/18 rear wheel I am going 84.2 mph @ 4,800 RPM's

I cruise the hiways at 70mph, which translates to 3990 RPM's. It's not too high and a commando should handle that workload all day without wearing down the engine, I would think. On a stock bike the RPM's would be 4,352 @ 70mph.

“Cleaning, lots of cleaning”, my old mechanic used to say.

The only way to find a problem before it becomes terminal was his thought.

Little update. Got tank and sides back from Brent Budgor, excellent job. More on that later.
Gas in the tank, bike started 3rd kick and held a nice idle for as long as I would have let it. First kick now that the engine is warm.

Thrilled, bike sounds amazing. Paint is amazing, engine sounds great. Rear wheel is a bit tight, I will have to look into that later. Surprised at just how easy it was to get started... I am a happy man at the moment.

Still far from over but I would do it all again in an instant, the time, the money, everything has been well worth it. Here's a photo of Brents paint until I can get some better ones up, beautiful job and amazing color, as with anything photos don't do it justice.

It's a purple people eater. From what little I see in the pic it's going to be very nice to look upon.

I'm not surprised that the bike started on the third kick and runs well. If all the key engine components are fresh and timed correctly, a commando will tick over like a clock if the carburation is right. I'm interested to see more pictures of the finished bike and hear your impressions after you get some seat time on it... Well earned, and well done!

Still dealing with side panel fastening so I'm holding off on photos until I can get it all together and take some proper shots.
I can tell his bike has character, looking forward to riding when I get the paperwork sorted out...

wunnerful the purple is gorgeous good job

Excellent! That feeling when all goes well with your work is priceless.

How satisfying.

Hey Pete,

Sorry if I missed it here, what type, size tires did you settle on and have you ridden them much yet?

Avon roadriders. Had them on another bike of mine. Im not too picky on tires. K70's and roadriders seem to cover it for me.

I like the roadriders, I can check the size when I'm back at the bike. Just had my first ride a moment ago, beautiful man, just beautiful.

Avon's are English so... You know.

Just checked tire size. Standard size.

90/90- 19 front
100/90- 19 rear

Hope this helps

Thanks. I had Avon front/rear, but changed the front 3.25(too big) to a Metzler 3.00.

Good to hear you’re showin the bike off. Impressing the ‘ladies’?

BusDriver330 said:

Thanks. I had Avon front/rear, but changed the front 3.25(too big) to a Metzler 3.00.

Good to hear you’re showin the bike off. Impressing the ‘ladies’?

Click to expand...

Why do you think it's sparkly purple? Looking to have some good photos and a bit of a project wrap up posted by the end of the weekend.

Having a ton of fun, really a great ride on this bike. Quick and nimble, responsive it every way, couldn't be happier.

Been having a lot of fun riding the Norton this past month. Really a great bike and much more than I was expecting. Hard to put in to words really, just such a pleasure to ride, sounds great too!

Ive gotten the drum to perform reasonably well, I have the stiffening kit but Im not totally sure how to go about tackling the riveting(??) aspect. Euro bars are on the bike now, couldn't find a suitable brake cable for the semi-western bars, still looking. Front suspension is lumpy, but really pleased with how well the isolastic mounts work. The clutch is heavy but I don't mind much, the gears shift well and the right side 1 up 3 down pattern is great.

Don't know if Ill ever get used to the sound of my clutch plates jingle jangling...

Looking forward to hitting some finishing touches this weekend. Need to install the reed breather, drain and inspect fluids, refill with quality oil. I bought a pair of Amals, which may become a winter project.

Here are some photos I took awhile ago. You may notice the purple paint, it really brings out the "patina" of the rest of the bike heh. Brent Budgor did the paint, great guy, great job, in love with the color, just a beautiful thing to look at. Couldn't be happier with the way it turned out, I love everything about this bike.

Cant think of what else to say for now, Ill go ahead and continue posting photos when I can. Want to thank everyone here who helped out when I needed it and everyone else who contributed elsewhere on the forum.

Like I said when I started here, if I had 40$ left after "completing" my project I would become a VIP member. Ironic that I just spent the past hour copy and pasting from postimg before remembering to sign up... Anyway, enjoy the photos and thanks again.



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Great job Pete. Glad to hear you're ripping around on the old girl... That's always the best part.

*the other stuff like clutch pull weight and the simplicity of rivets for another post.

Sharp bike there.

Nice enough for me!

"A touch of the grape" as Hawkeye (Alan Alda) remarked about Radar (Gary Burghoff) being inebriated with NeHi Grape soda... (M*A*S*H)

The flake is what sets that color off. I always disliked working with flake, but it sure can take a color I wouldn't give a second glance to and leave me mesmerized in a rapture when the lights strike it. Forgive my prattle.

hey pete
wear did you get the white caps for the pinch bolt headlight brackets
bushytail