First ride on a Commando

ashman said:
I know but I like reminding AL its not all about racing but then the only thing he has come close to a Commando is his motor, never owned one and not even sure if he has ever ridden one on the road, if he did take a Commando for ride on the road he might enjoy it as much as the fellow in the video.
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He usually says he has never ridden a commando
But a year or so ago he said he has
So who knows!
 
acotrel said:
You talk about prices of Commandos. When I built my Seeley 850 in about about 1979, I bought the rolling chassis for about $200. The 850 motor cost $1300, and the gearbox cost $300. I made the engine plates with a hand-held jig saw, and a linisher and the rest was mainly nuts and bolts. The front brake cost less than $100. I bought a couple of Suzuki steel discs which fit the Honda hub. The other Lockheed calliper was a trade for a GP carb. The fuel tank was badly corroded but reclaimable, and my mate had the oil tank in the roof of his shed. If you want to build a classic race bike, you need to remember where you see things. I usually build the bike in my head before I start.
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If you were to ask Les or Jerry, they might make a Seeley or Race Forum. You keep posting in the Norton Commando Forum when not talking about Norton Commandos. To me (and I think most others), the Norton Commando is as much about the frame and especially isos as it is about the engine that preceded Commandos by decades. Today, you should be posting in Other Motorcycle Discussions or in the Access Norton Pub - they are there for a reason.

AFAIK, you have a Commando-like engine in a Seeley frame that is a race bike. And then, you don't really explain anything of interest about the Seeley frame. I looked because I recently exported a Commando engine and gearbox in a Seeley cradle, and I had questions about the best way to go about some things. The cradle was owner provided and the first I had ever seen.

Les/Jerry,

How about one or two new forums. Would Seeley/Race make sense or one of each? There are quite a few who are/were involved with either/both who might enjoy having a place to discuss without a-holes (like me in this post) jumping them. I suspect that many just don't post much about either subject since they know it is not really appropriate for this forum. It could even be an alternate frame/race forum. There are a decent number of posts here about Commando engines in non-Commando frames (e.g. Atlas). You already have Triton covered.

Or, if I'm just wrong and this is really the 68 and later Norton-related forum I'll just shut up on this subject.
 
I think it was 1973 when a guy moved in across from me with a new Commando. The guy was little (about 120 pounds). He often could not start the bike when the engine was cold and would ask me to start it for him when we went out for rides. I was on my Triumph 500 and him on his Commando. One day I asked to take it for a ride. We lived right off Interstate 66 which was barely used from Oakton to Manassas back then. As soon as I got on the Interstate and opened it up I was amazed. WAY more powerful than my bike and the vibrations went away.

So much like the guy in the video, being extremely poor when young, I simply couldn't afford a Commando. Besides, the insurance on a under 500cc bike (The Triumph was 490 cc) was WAY less than bigger and I could barely come up with the premiums for what I had. I've worked on Triumph, BSA, and the occasional Norton for all of my adult life but have never owned a new motorcycle. I wanted a Commando and a Trident for about 40 years and finally bought a used one of each for myself. Now, I have lots of each and still have my built from a partial basket case Triumph 500.
 
Greg I post mostly in the Commando forum although my Norton is 75% 74 Commando and the rest 57 Featherbed and other non Norton upgrades bits and pieces as most of us here do over our life time of playing with our bikes, most of the things I post is about the Commando bits on my build and I brought my 74 850 Commando new when I was 17 and as I have said many of times I did the conversion to the Featherbed frame in 1980 to mid 82 when it got on the road.
Since doing the conversion to the Featherbed over 42 years now and doing 90% of the building myself (first bike I ever built) and over those 42 years I have worked and rebuilt a few Commandos for mates as well others who were told about my self skills of working on Commando's motors/gearboxes, primaries, I don't do machine work mostly disassembling/reassembling etc, I also have a knack of finding faults quickly and fixing and all the rebuilds I have done for others they are still going strong and still reliable, I no longer do paid jobs as my last big rebuild job and time I put into it to find out the Commando was a stolen bike that my mate brought then later he wanted me to change the crank case which I didn't want anything to do with, so now only work on trusted mates bikes.
So most of my work is Commando related and if I can help others I will, as I say I am no expert or professional but I do know about Commandos in what I have leaned in 47+ years of ownership as most on here have also learned.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
Greg I post mostly in the Commando forum although my Norton is 75% 74 Commando and the rest 57 Featherbed and other non Norton upgrades bits and pieces as most of us here do over our life time of playing with our bikes, most of the things I post is about the Commando bits on my build and I brought my 74 850 Commando new when I was 17 and as I have said many of times I did the conversion to the Featherbed frame in 1980 to mid 82 when it got on the road.
Since doing the conversion to the Featherbed over 42 years now and doing 90% of the building myself (first bike I ever built) and over those 42 years I have worked and rebuilt a few Commandos for mates as well others who were told about my self skills of working on Commando's motors/gearboxes, primaries, I don't do machine work mostly disassembling/reassembling etc, I also have a knack of finding faults quickly and fixing and all the rebuilds I have done for others they are still going strong and still reliable, I no longer do paid jobs as my last big rebuild job and time I put into it to find out the Commando was a stolen bike that my mate brought then later he wanted me to change the crank case which I didn't want anything to do with, so now only work on trusted mates bikes.
So most of my work is Commando related and if I can help others I will, as I say I am no expert or professional but I do know about Commandos in what I have leaned in 47+ years of ownership as most on here have also learned.

Ashley
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Hello, my name is Chris
This is all new to me-please forgive for posting in the wrong thread or what ever but I should start somewhere.
Having spent a total of 15 minutes in the saddle of other motorcycles I thought I'd have a friend ride my new to me bike the 25 miles to my parents house. From there I rode a block or two to a school parking lot and familiarized myself with its operation. I managed to not fall down for 3 or 4 years. Yay!
The moped I chose for my icon thingy is that of a J.C. Penney's Pinto that my father bought at a rummage sale for ~$30. You should be pleased to note that the moped has a couple or three things in common with a Norton. It has luxurious fenders made of stainless steel, just like my Norton! And, it's got the same key/lock (Neiman) assembly for the front forks, just like my Norton!! And, and, it's got a speedometer that's really 'only there to impress small children', just like my Norton!!! He, he, hee...
 
pinto2 said:
Hello, my name is Chris
This is all new to me-please forgive for posting in the wrong thread or what ever but I should start somewhere.
Having spent a total of 15 minutes in the saddle of other motorcycles I thought I'd have a friend ride my new to me bike the 25 miles to my parents house. From there I rode a block or two to a school parking lot and familiarized myself with its operation. I managed to not fall down for 3 or 4 years. Yay!
The moped I chose for my icon thingy is that of a J.C. Penney's Pinto that my father bought at a rummage sale for ~$30. You should be pleased to note that the moped has a couple or three things in common with a Norton. It has luxurious fenders made of stainless steel, just like my Norton! And, it's got the same key/lock (Neiman) assembly for the front forks, just like my Norton!! And, and, it's got a speedometer that's really 'only there to impress small children', just like my Norton!!! He, he, hee...
Click to expand...
Best to start a fresh thread & say hello. You will then be the focus. Some info about your Norton'd be fab.
 

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