Any Pictures of the Jim Lee/Mick Grant Commando Based Race Bike?

The Gus Kuhn Commandos were more successful than most. They were PW's greatest rivals. I was surprised to find that Ken Blake rode one, when he first went to the UK. There were also another two Australian riders, who I also think rode Kuhn Commandos. If the Ken Redfern Drainpipe frame did not have the centre tube, it would almost be a Mk3 Seeley/

acotrel said:

The Gus Kuhn Commandos were more successful than most. They were PW's greatest rivals. I was surprised to find that Ken Blake rode one, when he first went to the UK. There were also another two Australian riders, who I also think rode Kuhn Commandos. If the Ken Redfern Drainpipe frame did not have the centre tube, it would almost be a Mk3 Seeley/

Click to expand...

Kuhn had close links with Norton, so for a while in the early '70s had an advantage over everyone else who didn't. They were well funded and had Dave Potter who worked for Kuhn!

Most likely the Australian visitors traded rides for workshop work.

Pretty much ended when Norton ended and Kuhn went BMW, Potter went TZ750. Thruxton Motorcycles then had the obvious Thruxton relationship, with riders Oxfordshire Farmer Tony Smith and Tony Holland, Holland being a works tester....based at Thruxton. Tony Smith's workshop in Brize Norton was an Aladdin's cave of ex works and works inspired parts, crankshafts in every variety tried, Monocoque/Space Frame front forks, ignition systems, heads.....

The Ken Redfern frame was not called a Drainpipe, it had a spine actually more like a Commando as shown on other threads here.

The Dunstall Drainpipe, had a vertical and a backbone spine tube, Oil in the vertical one. These frames were 'copied' by Paravani for Iceni racing as ridden by Greg Page and Bob Smith started racing on one of the northern built copies in '74 before going on to be British champion riding TZ700/750s, RG500s and riding Daytona BOTT and the Suzuka 8 hour.

Dunstall was pretty successful with Nortons, initially 650s in featherbed frames, then being instrumental in the Rickman 750 Norton Atlas installation before going to his Drainpipe.

For a while, post Ken Redfern and Dave Potter the most successful UK Norton Atlas/Commando riders with Seeley, Rickman and Commando and other frames rode at Club and National level and were, Tony Smith, Tony Holland, Roy Toyne, Stu Armitage, Dave Rawlins, Bob Smith, John Evans, with a few circuit specialists like Brands specialist Mike Shoesmith and Cadwell specialists Lloyd Dickinson, Dave Saville, and Martin Whitely, an avid Beano reader. There were others, but these were most active where I was racing.

I knew most of these guys and one or other of them will have won a significant number of the 501 to 1000 races I rode in between 1975 and 1979.

Photos of the Jim Lee Commando frame. Thanks Howard!
Look at the gearchange crossover set up. Altogether a strong looking frame. It also has the trade mark keg oil tank seen on the Yamaha & Suzuki 2 stroke frames.

That makes a Seeley look ‘busy’ !!

Been caught up in This!
Really not a lot on the web.

Paul Dunstall was successful in the early 1960s. Some of his race parts were imported into Australia. They did not do much. In those days, most four-stroke race bikes had separate exhaust pipes with megaphones. Most of the more modern Norton twins have two into one pipes. The approach to power delivery is different. With megaphone exhausts, the bike is usually slower in corners, but faster down the straights. That might be better for the IOM, but worse for small race circuits. One of the main things about the Seeley frames, is their light weight while still being rigid. The Kuhn Seeleys were Mk3 - the lightest frame.