Most disliked / Least Useful Commando part - EDITED 2/26

hobot said:

Ah dear Grasshopper, observe the wrists of our sensor monks, they show you are not real Nortoneer til you can snatch the horn from its mount w/o removing anything else and tuning its tone adjuster and remount functional in one afternoon... Many seek it and some even claim it - a fully fettered bullet proof Commando that sparkles and never leaks or loosens parts...

Click to expand...

I do so enjoy your Moody Blues reference. It's definitely one of my "go-to" groups.
"I think. I think I am. Therefore, I am.
I think..."

Hehe Nate and crew, are we having fun yet? Trippy subjects brought up in this thread. Life changing lyrics during a time I was eliminating many disliked least useful brain parts and life notions. The P!! was a life/death confusing presence back then, it had nothing disliked or useless left on it not even a mirror or race number plate. It helped me find out what the 'Silver Cord' is, merely ones memory of ones self to return too after far out flights left normal senses and landmarks behind. I have forgotten at times or instants though and still get Erie but pleasant P!! flash backs while at steady cruise. Ms Peel has given me out of body projection hallucination states, (like some extreme fighters and survivors experience) by removing replacing factory warts and omissions, yet even to me she looked a rat bike, so keeping the faith going with minimal changes to Trixie.

Ok another rather useless disliked item on '71's and before, is the in line-cable front drum brake light switch, ones life history can flash back with a death grip on its rubbery ness to slow TF down in time.

OK, I've got one more besides the previous mentioned oil tank mounting system. The Norton engine is a pretty simple device so not above the base understanding of most owners. It therefor irks me that many special tools, wrenches, pullers, etc unique only to Nortons are needed to take this engine apart.
And the word is fettled, hobot, not fettered.

Fettered was the slang term for wrenching i saw on NOC and BI lists for years as I don't know any better myself. When I realized I had to take my 1st Combat apart I was told its as simple as a lawn mower, dive right in, what could go wrong... Norton's full factory tool kits with pullers and all is still not enough to deal with all that a Commando can present. In the south we had a saying that might apply here,..
It they twern't so cute, there'd be a bounty on em...

Fettered. Fettled, it's all good. But you hit exactly on the mark about special tools. And the fact that a lot of the times the part one is trying to get apart just laughs at the touch and go ability of the tool to perform it's task as advertised. Grrrrr! :?

I'm new to Norton (so I'm no expert),but WTF were they thinking when they placed the horn under the battery tray?" So I'd say "the horn"

phillyskip said:

I'm new to Norton (so I'm no expert),but WTF were they thinking when they placed the horn under the battery tray?" So I'd say "the horn"

Click to expand...

"Legal requirement check (tic) box feature"?

Dear new to Norton Commandos, its age old joke that the factory hung the horn on a nail on a post and build the rest of the bike around that core, so had to be build to take it. Do note there were a whole bunch of famous Nortons before the Commando so don't put them in same class as the stop gap Commando models scabbed together while investing in a more modern version to market, which eventually turned out to be the over priced to general public famous Rorary winners.

I've broken some factory tools and puller with normal use and definitely must get inventive on various other tools needed to push pull turn reach clean clear and fit and alter than contained in full factory tool kits beyond what came with the Commando. I have routinely been overwhelmed over my head on various things during my initial owner decade and expect more to come. So common in past I named the initial sinking in of another dead end as my Blank British Iron Staring state. 1st time before I'd named it on 6th day of owning riding with locals mostly HD's but one '71 Commando the mufflers blew off on hwy.
So add fragil headers and rust prone and baffle beating exhaust system some where on the list, at least for me with a series of exhaust let down.

Tell me true have ya not ever felt like dealing with some issues like this? Ain't just vintage Commando with quirks to fumble ya up at first. Come on out and bring some funky spare parts with ya please.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Gw3o9W_GE[/video]

Best video of the day.

Was fun but embarrassing to fumble the clip so good I got it out to practice procedure. There's a biker bar in Eureka Spring Wes and I frequent that has a hanging display of old HD parts so this spring he and I will deposit the shot through peashooters as HD's are our kissing cousins much as that rubs many raw. I ran bolts thought the holes and silenced the silencers for a another season or so then got this forum vender bargain basement set. Strange the sound track and action got so separated but hey the digital world is full of useless undesirable phenomena too.

Most Disliked Why
Mirrors: Can't see anything
Horn: Can't hear it
Brakes: Don't stop the bike
Exhaust nuts: Don't do their simple job of holding the header pipes in place
Amals: High maintenance, gas on your fingers to start a vehicle - really?!?
Points/auto-advance More high maintenance
Tach drive housing Leaky

However, since i have resolved all of the above issues, as well as a few others - I LOVE MY BIKE!

hobot said:

Was fun but embarrassing to fumble the clip so good I got it out to practice procedure. There's a biker bar in Eureka Spring Wes and I frequent that has a hanging display of old HD parts so this spring he and I will deposit the shot through peashooters as HD's are our kissing cousins much as that rubs many raw. I ran bolts thought the holes and silenced the silencers for a another season or so then got this forum vender bargain basement set. Strange the sound track and action got so separated but hey the digital world is full of useless undesirable phenomena too.

Click to expand...

I just had a guy break the weld at the clamp end, which you can then remove the upstream baffle and then the loose baffle falls out, weld in the upstream baffle end again and you have a loud(er) half baffled pipe. Kinda like me.

Ugh, I don't want much over loud mufflers and figured my own eyeballing and wiping off was worth new set. On the other hand Ms Peel almost open hollow long dong megaphone would please you and scare cattle no end when giving the boot. Are we having any fun yet? I am waiting on temps to work on my Trixie again before any ride fun of course.

Yes, we are! I am waiting for my needle ablation for Dupuytren's Contracture to heal... and the new Gortnipper twins to grow past their two months now...

pkeithkelly said:

Amals: High maintenance, gas on your fingers to start a vehicle - really?!?

Click to expand...

And all over the engine too. Hated when I had a hot date and stunk like gas

Ugh, I've been through my own 3 events of DC's beside patients to flat state its main contribute is wear tear of old neck injury impinging on the upper spinal cord. I have seen cases that occurred about instantly after a strain on worn neck or gradually as neck decay progressed. Takes about as long a braces to correct buck teeth to resolve hands to not noticed and a whole less bother before resolution to keep ya interested. My first time was lifing 300 lb barrel on my move to Ozarks, saw it instantly in horror but also instant insight why its such a medical mystery trying to blame it on genetics. This 1st '98 event was by far mostly on the R and thought I'd be suct sore knuckles in my plam the rest of my life. Got caluses on em before softened to about nothing to even probe for. 2nd time '01 hit both hands bad following some weeks after i put Ninja on my head at ~120 from a wheelie crocked fork touch down, but by then knew it'd resolve with just neck attention. Broke me neck on that one but prior recovery work saved me. Totally gone by 3rd year but pain free knuckles within a few months. Third event '05 head butt deer strike onset some days afterwards and was largest knots almost 1/2" proud but got the pain out in days, took a bit over 3 yrs. I slam my plam on corner of stuff showing patients what they can expect once leaving the medical model. Had a few milder but painful flair up after some further milder crashes or intense extended labor like 85 feet of pick and hoe deep ditch for propane leak but resolved in days after job done, thank goodness. What seems to be happening is motor out put signal form the upper cord gets so intense to those particular muscles they contract and get stuck by both continued nerve contracture but also the fussing of the muscle fibers, which is the reason takes so long to undo because body must dissolve the scar inside muscles before they lay flat or so close to flat its a not noticed issue at all. If ya think the hand contratures are a bother wait for neck to decay that same thing happens in vital organs. I'll private mail neck protocols for DIY neck surgery and if intelligent enough to adapt and stick with it, bet ya extend your riding life for decades. There's lots of local treatments,
enzymes one my favorite internally but MD's inject and a good thing but don't solve the source. Sometimes folks call to see if I can help em after DC came back form local treatment and I have em press or grit till hurts some then hold their neck up to right with other hand and try again, often they note some lessening, so I can tell em worth their hours drive to get oriented on solution, then I whip up on the nervous system via muscles and rack em crack em, acupuncture, ultra sound and diathermy as case requires to get pain free first visit so don't think I'm full of it and made the trip worth while with some lasting relief. At that point I might do stuff to where they were hurting but usually a waste of both our time so usually don't. I didn't do squat to my own but have to wear gloves to do much tool use or dam callous in mid palm hand shakes implied I was trying to go blind in a hurry. Come on into hobot camp as may not know what ya missing out on.

M1 Garand
A Great rifle. Japanese would listen for the "kling or Ping" ....from the 8th round fired.
still it won the war. Just a little history lesson.

Never liked the fork design, that narrow lower IRON bush is prime to wear the alloy slider,and doe's!

The MI had its most disliked features too, most famous being the ping of clip popping out so solders could be rushed but also infamous for blowing out it crocked gas pressure tube as mine did last year shooting with friend in front yard. About $150 to fix. I did have a few rock knobs sticking up in driveway so me and Wes shot them down with couple-3 clips of military ball. I also have M14 long barrel and bottom placed 20 rd magazine. Rocks or roots in the way of holes or ditches are a delight to deal with vintage power hits. I am glad and lucky i missed out on going to war but did almost get snagged during Viet Nam raffle draft stopping just short of my number for 3 yr.

I just remembered to add to Norton list the stupid notch at top boss of AMC shell that needs the thick washer/spacer beaten in and out to align and costs $200-300 more for that feature than otherwise identical Atlas shell that slips in/out cradle w/o much effort. I asked a number of vendors why the notch in C'do and was told to ease tipping the AMC shell in cradle, ugh.