Asking for advice on new rebuild project

I am about to start a 71 commando project . I also have another 69S project that I may start at the same time .
these will be a total rebuild .
looking for opinions or advise on good company’s to deal with ?
companiies or individuals that give good service with good results and stand by their work .
not looking for the cheapest , just reliable .
nothing has to be Built to factory origional specs .
I don’t mind buying or sending parts across the country .
I need to buy or replace just about everything .
i want new chrome parts as most are pitted .
i would think buying new would be cheaper than re-chroming?
where can I go to get new wheels laced to my hubs ? I want use stock size chrome rims
I have a guy to repaint the fireflake parts for me .
who or what company should I order my parts from ? I do need a lot of stuff and want to order in one time shipment .
I do have the parts books to get the numbers .
I want upgrade anything that makes sense .
electronic ignition ?
i will put on electric starter .
new wiring harness’
new style engine mounts , front and rear ?
stock Amal 2 carbs .
steering head bearings type ?
the frame will be painted
the engine And transmission I want to keep stock but gone thru .
i am looking for reliability not high performance .
I do have the ability to replace all the parts , I did a total rebuild on one of my 69S models 35 years ago .
i want to farm out the engine and transmission . I have been away from my nortons since 1990 and now I am ready to get them back on the road after this winter .
I am open to and do invite any info , opinions and information given .

I am in the process of doing a complete restoration on a '64 Atlas. As far as getting parts I've had very good treatment from Andover Norton in England. They show the parts and #'s on their website and seem to be the most reasonable as far as pricing goes.
I did most of the engine work myself with the aid of local machine shops. I think the other Forum members could direct you better as to what other services would be available and how to contact them.
Good luck with your project. Sounds ambitious but fruitful as it comes together.

I revived a 68 and a 69. Wes in Lauderdale was my go too. Great guy.

I am just finishing up a 74 850 and I cannot say enough about Old Britts. The best Parts service and knowledge.

Good luck ordering everything you need in one shot!
That is why I like Old Britts. Their shipping is reasonable because in my experience it takes several orders.
Nothing wrong with stock isolastic mounts. You don't need the later type.

You’ve got a lot of choice of good suppliers over in the US actually, and I’m sure our US members will advise re wheel builders, painters, etc.

As you mentioned wanting to do certain sensible upgrades, and as you sound like a guy who prioritises quality (of goods and service) I would highly recommend you check out the offerings of:

https://coloradonortonworks.net/

Matt is one of the best in the business.

I shard my source list some time ago, don't remember where it went...

British Cycle Supply
Buchanan's Wheel & Rim
Burbank Plating
Clubman Racing
Colorado Norton Works
Disc Brake Recon.
Carl Hokanson isolastics
Don Hutchinson Paint
Fair Spares
Glass From The Past
H.H.Polishing
Joel Levine meter repair
M.A.P.
Mainely Mags
Megacycle Cams
Old Britts AN PARTS
Walridge AN parts
Wilcox alloy bodywork

Post a few photos to offer some insight on your project.
If you "need to buy or replace just about everything" break out the credit card, you are in for an adventure.

Buying everything at once may not be your best option. Things can change in mid project in a hurry,
I dealt with a lot of the vendors GrandPaul listed and found them all solid.
I will offer up the same endorsement Fast Eddie did. Your bio reads you are in Vegas. You cannot go wrong with Colorado Norton Works (reasonably close) in Aurora CO. and doing biz with Matt is a pleasure.

This forum will keep you pointed in the right direction in terms of vendor accountability and technical information. Watch the for sale section, right now there are some good offerings.

I realized all the above while doing a ground up on my 74 850 2 years ago.

Buying everything at once is a lofty goal, but in my experience with old motor vehicles difficult to do. Don't get ahead of yourself and take your time. You'll have a better idea of what you really need once everything is disassembled. If you want to build bikes with some lasting value, original spec is what you want to do.

Might want some flame retardant for your credit card, because it'll be on fire doing two complete Norton restorations.

I have nothing to add vendor wise. The people I worked with are mostly dead or too old to remember their names. Maybe JS Motorsports if you want to build a hot stroker motor, and tritonmotorcyclparts for fancy brakes.

Yes on electronic ignition. Points and that crappy advance unit are manly, but a PITA.

If you haven't done so already, I suggest you check out the 'Technical Information' thread on this Commando Classic forum. I find it very useful.

Building your own commando is an eye opener technologically. When you rebuild your first commando, you see a lot of clever design and follow along with the stock applications. Once you are done and ride for a while, you realize that you could have taken your bike to the next level in almost every category.

This is because once you are done you see the big picture so much better. Not everyone wants the expense of light weight pistons, but certainly superblend bearings, a crankcase reed breather, and gearbox layshaft bearing are all widely accepted as standard enhancements.

The list of cool stuff you can do to make your dinosaur of a motorcycle into a much more ridable bike is pretty long and you should at least go through the list and understand why (or why not) you are (or aren't) pursuing a certain modification. Things like alloy rims, lower the unsprung weight of the wheels making the suspension and handling improve. The alloy rims also allow you to chose a more modern tire profile which increases sidewall stiffness and again improves handling... If you are already committed to buying new rims anyway, then you are spending money on rims, so why not get modern rims, modern tires, and better handling for just about the same money??

As I said, the list of improvements you can make on a rebuild is long. It would be a good idea to go through that long list of potential improvements and understand which ones are essential, and which ones are more high performance options that a street bike doesn't really miss.

You may know all this already, so I apologize in advance if I'm telling you something you already know... good luck. Nothing is more fun than riding around on a well running commando that you rebuilt yourself.... (at least it is until that guy on the self built vintage vincent pulls up next to you)

Thanks guys for the thoughts and leads .
this time it is not about the money , it’s about what I want , my way.
I do want electric start as I am not getting any younger and likely some day I won’t be able to kick it.
I have been riding over 50 years now.
all my modern bikes have electric start , I like it .
I do not plan to make a factory origional for lasting value .
i plan on giving all my bikes away at some time . To friends and family
I almost bought another one yesterday but I am also trying to stop the addiction .
I am also into experimental ( homebuilt ) aircraft . High performance and STOL . Another crazy addiction , but I like it .

This is one my 69 nortons . As it looks today . Out of a long slumber

Knucles, forgive me if you’ve already seen this clip, I do post it quite often, but only because I am SO impressed with the kit.

This is the cNw electric start kit, starting a (newly built and still tight) 920cc, 11:1 compression ratio, Commando. This bike was SO hard to kick over, and the e start makes it look SO effortless...

I know of NO negative reviews of the CNW e-start kit. It is absolutely excellent.

I will install the electric start .
I do know about the CNW Kit .
I heard that besides just installing the kit that there was some machining to be done ?
i contacted by email to CNW to ask about this and if their starter would interfere with the the S style pipes ?
i never received a reply ?
i do like the idea of the belt and no chain or oil ?
i am still open to theirs if I can get the answers .
I just received a new seat ( bought on eBay ) came from Vietnam in a week .
opened it this morning . Looks good .
starting to order parts . I would like to have most things here when I start .
read some info last night on painting the engine cases .
have a guy here that can do some vapor blasting .
get the carbs done this way and likely some other parts as I get into this .

Went to the OLD BRITS site last night , on your advise .
I saw a lot of good tech info Arcticles .
i suppose I should make a list of most major things I will replace with parts numbers and send it out for a quote .
thanks for the leads .

Have any photos of the bike in its current state?

Knucles said:

I will install the electric start .
I do know about the CNW Kit .
I heard that besides just installing the kit that there was some machining to be done ?
i contacted by email to CNW to ask about this and if their starter would interfere with the the S style pipes ?
i never received a reply ?
i do like the idea of the belt and no chain or oil ?
i am still open to theirs if I can get the answers .
I just received a new seat ( bought on eBay ) came from Vietnam in a week .
opened it this morning . Looks good .
starting to order parts . I would like to have most things here when I start .
read some info last night on painting the engine cases .
have a guy here that can do some vapor blasting .
get the carbs done this way and likely some other parts as I get into this .

Click to expand...

Knucles,
Never got your email. You would have heard back from me. There is absolutely no machining or modifications needed to your bike in order to install my e-start kit.
I have delivered the kit to several ‘s’ style pipe customers with no reported interference, so you should be ok in that respect.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Email me directly at nortonworks@fone.net
Matt