Combat questions

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1up3down said:
You never heard a Norton being coined the widow maker due to poor handling at higher speeds.

kind of depends on which Norton

when the Commando came out and after guys had a couple thousand or so miles on them it really never occurred to any of us that is was very important to reshim the isos, especially the rear.

In fact, the more miles on Commandos the smoother they got because the iso clearances got looser.

And that was the problem, a real damn scary experience that scared the hell of of riders, caused accidents and even deaths.

I don't need to remind anyone here on a Commando forum about the "dreaded" Commando weave when banked over at a higher speed and letting off the gas, the weight shifts to the front and unloads the rear wheel, aggravating the now looser rear swing arm and setting off the Weave.

I remember the first time, at age 20, that I experienced it, I had no idea that such a thing could happen on a motorcycle and as I went into an almost completely uncontrollable weave I fought it to a standstill with white knuckles on the bars and my sphincter puckering like there was not going to be a tomorrow.

If Ralph Nadar wasn't tied up writing about the Corvair, he would have called his new book "Unsafe at Speed".

Guys were hurt, some were killed, and we will never how many because the dead can't talk and the traffic reports just say Motorcycle Fatality.

Although rubber mounting the swing arm was necessary to keep the vibes acceptable to keep on selling an aging design in a new era of smooth Japanese fours, I personally wish that much stronger language and training was given to new Commando owners to alert them of the importance of reshimming the rear iso within specs.

Ok, I know some will bash me for what I have said about our beloved Commandos, and I do love mine, but I can only speak my own experiences honestly with no glossing over.

Well doesn't that just sum it all up. The iso design was less revolutionary, and more a necessity to cope with an archaic, well past its due date engine design. As much as I love these machines, and I do love em... I'm not such a zealot as to overstate their competency compared with other bikes of the same vintage that were faster, torquier, more reliable and all in all "true" advancements of motorcycling technology. In one sense, the japs were the best thing to happen to the brit motorcycling industry, because without them who knows how much longer the brits would have plodded along in their own stale complacency. The commando was, for all intents and purposes... the best that norton could come up with given their resources, labour obstacles... and general lack of forward thinking during the previous decade... if i had a dime for every time I've had to listen to some old wog at a norton rally brag about how their "combats" can stand up to a hayabusa I'd be a rich man
 
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