Commando Steering

I don't know if this topic has been covered before.
When my mate Peter Lynch built my last Commando, we fitted a disc brake mounted right side aft of the fork. Every thing worked very well except that hands off the handle bars, the bike would pull slightly to the left. It was very puzzling and neither Pete nor I could fathom why. Then one day in some technical notes I had from the NOC of England I discovered a short paragraph stating that Norton found this odd behaviour occurring on all disc brake Commandos. But when they reversed the disc brake to left side forward of fork, the problem disappeared. It appeared that even Norton did not know why. I headed over to Pete's and asked if we could reverse the forks. He looked at me as though he thought I was a nut. But he did what I asked and bingo!! No more pulling to the left, just dead straight steering with hands off handle bars.

The odd thing is that my original disc brake Combat had it mounted left side aft of fork, but I never noticed any pulling left, or right for that matter. And I would certainly have noticed. I simply can't tolerate any bike that doesn't track straight, especially a Norton for God's sake!! It causes me sleepless nights and eventually drives me into a frenzy, taking an axe to the machine!!

Sorry guys, I meant to say my original Commando had the disc RIGHT side, aft of fork.

Many cycles tend to drift left besides most Commandos [google it and see] and there's a number of reasons from tendency of type of tires to climb road crown to out of wack alignments and tires with a side stand set. I've been able or forced to explore this fairly deeply dangerously to come to the conclusion that in the case of which side the single calipier is on has to due with the extra mass on one side pulling fork over that way d/t gravity. RH caliper tends to swing forks to face R which tends to aim cycles leftward. I have also over loaded one side of Combats, like oil cans or beer cans in one hard bag or lop sided cargo on top across hard bags and lug rack to find it can add to drifts on nullify it. C'do's are slightly heavier on the LH side which also tends to lean bike to drift left and has a slight effect or which side they can fling down on easier, though its fairly subtle so takes almost crashing level flings to feel at speed. Caliper in front gives a bit more leverage to fork to fall to that side hands off or in so harsh a turn bike begins to fall over on its own w/o help of forks, which can induce a sudden fork jerk into straight steering tank slapping state, except for my Peel which didn't oscillate doing this but boy howdy do the other C'do's and moderns I tried such fun on to swear off dong that on them forever more.
Some of this can be investigated with bike on center stand.

That's interesting. I'm just finishing-up a bunch of upgrades on my `73 850 after a long winter hiatus and one
of the issues I was looking at was a constant pulling to the right. My Commando has it's disk brake caliper on the right.
During the past winter I removed the forks, checked everything for straightness but found nothing amiss.
Then I tried to check the frame as best I could for straightness, level, plumb head stock, and it all looked fine.
The previous owner informed me that the fork springs were mis-matched so I replaced them with a new stock set.
Haven't ridden the bike yet but I expect the RH pulling to still be present. If so I will try the fork leg switcheroo.

Mark
http://s646.photobucket.com/user/mschmi ... t=3&page=1

I opt for the left side disc this winter and also have yet to ride. When stringing the new rims sometime ago, I went through the offset and alignment extensively.

Although I used to cop a slight lean with hands off, I really cannot recall which way, after this process it ran straight and true. Hope I didn't ruin it. The tire has also be rotated accordingly.

Perhaps a poor reference but this is truly a winter of discontent.

Phil, I assume you are down south, as in hemisphere. If applicable, I hope your winter is kinder than our has been.

Pete.v,

Why did you choose to go left side on your disc brake? Any particular reason?

SquareHead said:

Pete.v,

Why did you choose to go left side on your disc brake? Any particular reason?

Click to expand...

Someone here did it recently who had the an RGM front brake kit (or the like) and the orientation offered the fender brace to the back/bottom and I liked the look. Wish I could remember who it was. I remember, it was Fast Eddie's post from back in December showing his nice build.
mk11a-few-pics-t18001.html

My bike has ceriani forks and I use two discs, both with Lockheed calipers mounted behind the fork sliders. My feeling is that this makes the steering tend to self-centre, and this is desirable if you happen to break the front tyre free and go into a tank slapper. Though I always use an hydraulic steering damper which should stop that nonsense. Little things can mean a lot ?

They all steer like a wheel barrow with a flat tire.. what's the diff?

Pete
I did reply in here somewhere but can't find it.
I'm in Southern Highlands of New South Wales
Australia.

Great riding.
A bit cold in winter.
But nothing like you guys suffer.

Phil

concours said:

They all steer like a wheel barrow with a flat tire.. what's the diff?

Click to expand...

Ah, another badly set up Norton,

Fullauto said:

concours said:

They all steer like a wheel barrow with a flat tire.. what's the diff?

Click to expand...

Ah, another badly set up Norton,

Click to expand...

Yes, when they're right, they're righteous. But when they're off, they're awful.