Most common modifications for Daily use

trident sam · Oct 24, 2014

I used a Combat and an early 850 in the eighties on a daily basis with no real problems, just extra maintenance .
At the time they were both pretty standard bikes. Now I would fit a single carb and up rate the brakes, aswell as fitting electronic ignition and maybe a screen/fairing.
Also, if you are doing lots of small trips, make sure your oil isn't getting emulsified.
sam

mike996 · Oct 24, 2014

Front brake improvement is mandatory for daily use. The CNW brembo master cylinder kit will make a disc-equipped commando stop/feel like a current bike. A sleeved MC won't. I have had stock, sleeved, and the CNW. There is no comparison.

Everything else is just a matter of preference/opinion. Replacing the points/AAU, for example, won't make the bike run better (it may produce less midrange than stock depending on which E-system you use) but it eliminates maintenance. Does that matter? You have to decide.

Obviously all the bike's systems have to be checked and parts replaced as necessary …the usual things you'd do to ensure an old vehicle is safe. But as far as mods, that's more determined by your personal preference and the type of riding you do. For daily commuting, IMO, the front brake is the only thing that, REQUIRES improving.

acotrel · Oct 24, 2014

72Combat said:
I use a 1976 BMW 900 as a daily rider, probably what puts me off using the Commando is starting it when it stops at the lights....and the footpegs being too far forward, and the crap brakes. Oddly the BMW cost about 1/2 what the Commando cost and its never been apart :roll:
I have a set of Lansdowne fork bits , a madass brake sleeve kit, rearsets waiting ....
Suppose I could sell the BMW and buy an Alton electric starter, about the same $..... yeah...na :wink:

I love commandos even though I don't own a near standard one. However I think your comment is the most sensible one on this page. A commando might put hairs on your chest, however who needs that in traffic ?

ashman · Oct 24, 2014

I have owned my Norton for 39 years and it was a every day ride untill last year when I decided to buy a new bike, the Norton was only off the road for work but was off the road for 1 year while I built it for Featherbed frame, other than that it was my only transport, yes I do own a car but riding my Norton every day was better, if you keep the maintenance up they will do it easy, when I brought my Norton new the front brakes did work good and could easy lock the front wheel, its when they get old and worn is when they have troubles and after many rebuilds of the front brake and about 5 years ago my oginal brakes caught me out badly, I was off the road for 6 weeks with my first ever fractured bone and broken thump, that when I gave up and brought moden brakes for it.

Ashley

mike996 · Oct 24, 2014

The Alton E-start is great. I installed one on my Commando about two years ago and love it. As was pointed out, the fact that you have a one-kick-to-start Commando (as mine was) is pretty much meaningless when you stall it in traffic and have to get it over to the side of the road to restart.

So in that sense, I guess I'd call e-start a requirement for a daily commuter (at least for me) unless the commute is country roads and does not involve stop/go/bumper to bumper traffic.

Mark · Oct 24, 2014

Don't stall it in traffic.

comnoz · Oct 24, 2014

Mark said:
Don't stall it in traffic.

Nothing teaches you not to stall the engine in traffic like the lack of a starter button.

Generally the only time I have stalled in traffic the starter wouldn't have helped anyway- it wouldn't run. Jim

ashman · Oct 24, 2014

I don't know what you are doing wrong but I have never stalled it in traffic and if I did for some reason I would just kick it where it stopped as i know it will start straight up, make the boxes wait and when my motor is at temp its nomaly less effort to kick anyway.
For the price of a E/S there are so many things I could replace or change or more perforomacne parts, a E/S won't make a Norton more releiable.

Ashley

speirmoor · Oct 24, 2014

When I first got my Commando it would stall randomly. The worst was one evening on the 59th St Bridge rush hour. No shoulder so lots of flowery language from drivers having to go around me. Gas in the tank tickled carbs but no gas appearing? leaned the bike over to get all the gas on one side and the bike started. When I got home I pulled off the petcocks to find the PO had replaced the reserve tap with a normal one.

nick's_Cafe · Oct 25, 2014

Hello,

Again thx for al the reply's.

As far as to make an comparison with a bmw and a Commando, thats the wrong thing to do

So reading al the tips and tricks this will be the to do list:
.electrical system in order (battery, electronic ignition, charging system,)
.carbs resleeve, I like the old amals for there originality.
.brakes.

The problem or more the Luxury is that all three are still for sale, and I found number 4! all between €6-7K. Like I said I prefer originality, and if it needs some updating I'd like to do it myself and keep al the original parts.

I will let you know which one it's going to be and share my experience. Untill now it's waiting till december to get back to Holland.

Greetz,
Nick

comnoz · Oct 25, 2014

nick's_Cafe said:
Hello,

Again thx for al the reply's.

As far as to make an comparison with a bmw and a Commando, thats the wrong thing to do

So reading al the tips and tricks this will be the to do list:
.electrical system in order (battery, electronic ignition, charging system,)
.carbs resleeve, I like the old amals for there originality.
.brakes.

The problem or more the Luxury is that all three are still for sale, and I found number 4! all between €6-7K. Like I said I prefer originality, and if it needs some updating I'd like to do it myself and keep al the original parts.

I will let you know which one it's going to be and share my experience. Untill now it's waiting till december to get back to Holland.

That sounds like a good deal except I would skip the re-sleeve and go strait to a pair of Amal Premiers. Sometimes the re-sleeve jobs work great and sometimes they don't. Jim

CanukNortonNut · Oct 25, 2014

ludwig said:
comnoz said:

That sounds like a good deal except I would skip the re-sleeve and go strait to a pair of Amal Premiers. Sometimes the re-sleeve jobs work great and sometimes they don't. Jim

Click to expand...

+ 1
Even if you keep the old Amals , the anodised alloy slides that are now available make resleeving a thing of the past .

I have had good luck with re-sleeved amals from Bruce Chessell. I have 5 pairs repaired by him. Mind you... I have always replaced the needle and the needle jet when I get these repaired. It’s a good idea to flatten all flange faces. I modify the backside of the carbs to get at the idle circuit as per Bushmans carbtuning. This must be factored in to the price of the repair. If you are going to replace the stay up floats/viton tipped needle/gasket kit/filters/bolts/washers then the cost will get darn close to the price of new Premiers. I wouldn’t hesitate to get the Premiers though. I just like working on old stuff and making it better. 8)
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN

comnoz · Oct 25, 2014

I guess I just got spoiled the first time I bolted on a pair of premiers and they just worked with no fuss.
If I had a dollar for every hour I have spent farting around with old Amals......

Mark · Oct 25, 2014

comnoz said:
If I had a dollar for every hour I have spent farting around with old Amals......

AMEN!
I bet that there are a lot of guys here on the forum who would say the same thing.

mike996 · Oct 25, 2014

The only thing the original Amals need is resleeving and surface truing. My original 1973 (resleeved/trued Amals) have been totally painless - will idle smoothly at 500 RPM (though I set them for 900). An old, resleeved, set with all mating surfaces trued is as trouble free a carb as you can have. You can true the surfaces with a sheet of glass and some wet/dry paper. Of course, resleeving is not generally a home project for most of us. That being said, I would do now as others have mentioned - rather than having an old set resleeved, I'd just buy a new set of Premiers. That's what I'll do if my originals ever need another resleeve.

Frankly, it seems to me that most of the complaints re the Amals seem to ignore the fact that they are 40+ years old. It's hardly fair to compare it to a new carb of some other brand and then state that an Amal is no good in comparison.

Mark · Oct 25, 2014

mike996 said:
Frankly, it seems to me that most of the complaints re the Amals seem to ignore the fact that they are 40+ years old. It's hardly fair to compare it to a new carb of some other brand and then state that an Amal is no good in comparison.

Well...... if the goal is to make the engine run as good as possible, then yes new carbs are better than 40+ year old amals.
If originality is the goal, keep the old carbs. but then you should probably keep the points and chain oiler too. The bike is gonna give you more reliability issues, but heck..... it's original.

Torontonian · Oct 25, 2014

Bruce Chessell did an amazing job of reboring and brass sleeving. Of course new jets , needles , stay-ups ,gaskets. Pay attention to torque values. They are LOW. :|

Hobot · Oct 25, 2014

Peel then Trixie Combats worn out 32 mm Amals till wouldn't idle down, put some grease on slides that solved it till washed off so ordered the anodized slide in 2.5 cut out instead of 3 to make up some for the bore fluted wear and may more off idle response and worked at hoped about 10k mile more and like triple that to come. Amal bores can also get out of round so can use dowel and beat back rounder. Good Amals will do everything one would want starting in all conditions, slow idle, off idle response that pulls to top out scary speed and allows semi lugging hi throttle low rpm w/o stall of spin out on loose stuff.

X-file · Oct 25, 2014

mike996 said:
An old, resleeved, set with all mating surfaces trued is as trouble free a carb as you can have. You can true the surfaces with a sheet of glass and some wet/dry paper.

It's OK to flatten the float bowl surface by filing and sanding on a flat plate.

If the mounting flange is bent, don't file/sand it flat, because the slide bore gets distorted at the same time. Straighten the flange back to flat, and the slide bore becomes round again and the slide doesn't stick. It's done like this:

More discussion about it here http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=220880

olChris · Oct 26, 2014

Mark said:
comnoz said:

If I had a dollar for every hour I have spent farting around with old Amals......

Click to expand...

AMEN!
I bet that there are a lot of guys here on the forum who would say the same thing.

And there is also a lot of wind around too :lol: :lol: :lol:

Most common modifications for Daily use

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