Don't let friends with Harleys...........

...ride your Norton. My buddy and I swapped bikes in the beach parking lot. He stopped at the stop sign, started to move, changed his mind, hit the front brake and dumped it. He's fine. His pride is hurt. I'm annoyed, but not mad at him. Brembos happen. The bike, minimal damage. Clutch lever (still usable until replaced) shift knob broke off.......fun riding home without it. Toe for downshift, heel of shoe grabbing the lever for upshift. Gravel or pavement scratches under side of the primary cover. Rizoma mirrors, paint and signals at unscathed, thank goodness. I found a bolt with like thread for the shifter, drilled out the snapped bolt, had to cut the knob with a hacksaw to shorten it 1/4 inch. Rideable. My handle bars may be slightly off. Felt a little out of alignment on the highway. Very slight, but off. So.......anyway, don't let these full dresser Harley riders ride your bike.

Ouch!
I hate to hear stuff like that.
I guess it was the first time a Harley rider used real brakes. :lol:
And things were going so well otherwise after the engine work.
Is the shift lever assembly fixable?
Don't think you wanna be toe shifting around town.

Oh yea, Ed. It was just the bolt through the shift knob that snapped. I drilled it out and put a too short / same thread bolt through it. I had to shorten the to piece a little, but that's a cheap part. I'll replace it. Thinking of an after market set of levers. Only an inch and change snapped off of the clutch lever. Nice set of gold Rizomas maybe? Thank you Richard for posting the #17 lever replacement manual. :lol:

Oh man! Curtis, you have an indelible sense of humor ... or maybe just calm. Hope things go back together quickly.

Sad day today. Sorry to hear.

OMG ! You should be able to get most of the nicks polished out of the primary case . It would be best to take off the cover and use a buffing wheel on a grinder. But you can always put one on a hand held drill and have a go at it.

TonyA said:

OMG ! You should be able to get most of the nicks polished out of the primary case . It would be best to take off the cover and use a buffing wheel on a grinder. But you can always put one on a hand held drill and have a go at it.

Click to expand...

I have a high speed DeWalt buffer. I'll give that a whirl.

Britfan60 said:

TonyA said:

OMG ! You should be able to get most of the nicks polished out of the primary case . It would be best to take off the cover and use a buffing wheel on a grinder. But you can always put one on a hand held drill and have a go at it.

Click to expand...

I have a high speed DeWalt buffer. I'll give that a whirl.

Click to expand...

Coming out quite nice actually. Never really polished metal before. Have the buffer to do my boat. Do I have to be careful, or just hold it there and let it rip? I'm not using it full blast and the scratches are coming out, but if I can really crank it, I will.

You would think that a rider who can keep a 900 pound Harley upright would have no problems with a 500 pound Norton.
But then not all Harleys stay upright all of the time, I suppose.
I still don't understand how they manage those things. Had an Indian Chief 1300 when I was young, it toppled over on me quite regularly

Glen

Are you using a metal polishing paste with it ?

Britfan60 said:

TonyA said:

OMG ! You should be able to get most of the nicks polished out of the primary case . It would be best to take off the cover and use a buffing wheel on a grinder. But you can always put one on a hand held drill and have a go at it.

Click to expand...

I have a high speed DeWalt buffer. I'll give that a whirl.

Click to expand...

Curtis,

If the scratches are deep, you may have to use a buffing clay like Tripoli (brown clay) for aluminum.
If the scratches are just superficial, then White clay will buff them out easily.

Start with fine and go a little coarser only if fine grit isn't doing it. It's nice to have a selection of grits.
There are small inexpensive kits that contain 5 or 6 bars from coarse to fine.
Once you have applied a given buffing compound to the wheel, it's best to fit a fresh wheel before changing to a finer grit.
This is because bits of the first compound will remain and prevent the finer compound from giving you a finer polish.
No problem going coarser with the used wheel.

Glen

I started with just a white average compound and was using mothers metal polish after that. I took some out, still a little there. I started at 1500 rpm, then cranked it to 3600. That DeWalt is pretty powerful. Not a bit bench wheel, but still pretty good.

Britfan60 said:

I started with just a white average compound and was using mothers metal polish after that. I took some out, still a little there. I started at 1500 rpm, then cranked it to 3600. That DeWalt is pretty powerful. Not a bit bench wheel, but still pretty good.

Click to expand...

The spots only the size of a coin. As for the buddy with the Ultra Classic, he's only been riding like a retiree for about 6 years, always had good control, but all he's ever owned is cruisers. Shadow 1200, Kaw Vulcan 1500 (piece of crap) and the Harley (which is quite nice) I was on his bike. As soon as he went down, I should have thrown his over. :mrgreen: