First Swing Arm Rings and Threaded ISO Adjustors

One summer day in 1994 I got a phone call from my friend Heinz Kegler in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
He asked me to ride my 850 Commando over for an experimental swing arm fitting he was working on.
Heinz had machined two aluminum rings split in half to go around my swing arm with the rear wheel facing
half having a hole around 8 O'clock. Heinz and I took the rear wheel off and he drilled through to the
spindle and threaded a bolt through each ring until it pushed forward on the spindle.
He told me he had been working on this idea to take play out of swing arm and that my
bike was his test mule. He said a Commando without this fix handled like a "limping camel". It worked great immediately
and has been on my bike for the past 26 years now. Heinz was a great friend, he left his home town in East Germany
days before the Wall dividing east from west Germany was built, he rode his Norton International
to England to get some parts and tour the factory. He called home to find out he could not go back with the Wall
and got a job with Norton as a rider with directions to ride the hell out of the new Commandos to find any
failures and report back. Later Heinz came to America and worked for the Norton importer on the east coast.
His job was to travel to the dealerships teaching Commando repair. When the first Commando frames broke
(the widow maker frames) Heinz was told to do the welding repairs on all the bikes, He refused
and those early US Commandos where shipped back to England for that work.
Heinz came to Albuquerque and worked for Cummings Diesel for many years.
Also of interest is the story of another Albuquerque man, Brian Tyree, who was riding his Commando back
from a Norton National Rally in Torrey, Utah when he came up with the idea of installing adjustable threaded
ISO collars to replace the shims on pre 1975 Commandos. Once again Heinz called me over to his house and
fitted a very early set to my bike. The grub screws were too fragile so Heinz bored and retapped with larger holding bolts.
Along with his swing arm rings these are still doing their job on my bike.
Just a little aftermarket Commando history for those who may be interested.

Heinz’ swing arm kit might have been the first commercial solution. We in the Norton Clubs were modifying the swing arm with essentially the same fix by drilling and tapping for two 1/4” set screws. I did this to my ‘73 750 in 1982 and others were doing it much earlier. The first time I did it, the instruction was to drill into the spindle then tap the hole. The spindle is surface hardened so you had to grind into it a bit to get the hole started. The inside of the spindle is also hardened so was tough to punch through.

All good. The Bushings do not wear , It's the cradle usually. Crush it down to the spindle or machine clamps or weld fixing points. Never use grease.