Pictures of your Norton Commandos

dantriumph said:

Hi.
Here´s a shot of my Commando, just before my girlfriend and I left for a 3 weeks holiday to UK and the IOM GP.

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Nice setup. Bags clear the upswept exhaust. Excellent.

Nice touches, M-bars and properly padded pillion.

New member and relatively new owner, happy and proud to post a few pictures of my '74 Roadster. Work by me so far includes front end rebuild and paint, new 'guards, new clutch, rear brakes and electronic ignition (thank you OldBritts!), corbin seat and lots of polishing and minor paint. I waited a long time and spent quite a few years looking for him.

Them Gunslinger seats and Roadster tanks are sure sexy but if ya want to be happy for the rest of your life take an ugly woman for your wife, so Dan's big ole cushy IS tank and seat with decent hard bags and luggage rack is something I could live with. They say good little girls go to heaven but the others go everywhere.

I found the biggest clucky-est vintage hard bags with bumper bars in a used cycle shop so snagged them to help pyche and tease the crotch rockets with back packs.

Hi , cleaned up my cafe style 850 the other day and took this photo ,i want to share it because a lot of ideas came from looking at pictures on this forum, cheers pete

Absolute beauty Peter! Like the combo of fastback seat and Dunstall style tank! And the exhaust, love it.

Cowboy Don said:

Absolute beauty Peter! Like the combo of fastback seat and Dunstall style tank! And the exhaust, love it.

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+1 ----where did you get that wonderful primary cover and the rear brake vents, did you make the z plate replacements yourself??-----what's inside the engine (or is that part top secrete) just looking at it, you know it goes ---rims, carbs, pipe, oil cooler with AN fittings etc...etc...etc... top notch, I mean DAMN - outstanding my man, outstanding !!

Just got this one on the road Monday April 8th.

peter nelson said:

Hi , cleaned up my cafe style 850 the other day and took this photo ,i want to share it because a lot of ideas came from looking at pictures on this forum, cheers pete

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You have GOT to be shitting me. ONE PICTURE?? Clean up the other side and take another! Seriously, if I had your bike and you had a feather up your ass, we'd both be tickled.

Niiiice work.

Hi, as someone asked im posting a few more pics of my cafe commando, the primary cover,exhaust system ,plates for the rear sets were hand made by my friend Murray Chamberlain who owns cyclecraft engineering in perth western australia, murray also made the engine,as always a compromise between ride ability and all out power. its a mk2 bottom end,rh10 head ported and milled for 9.5 to 1 compression, standard pistons with recesses cut for valve clearance, the cam is a 4s, keihn fcr 35 carbs on maney 34mm intake manifolds, lightened rockers, black diamond valves , auto cam chain tensioner , comstock sump plug breather, exhaust is 1 5/8 dia headers into a baffle type collector with loud megaphone.the primary drive is a maney 40mm belt with an outrigger bearing, again a bit of Murray magic to retain the original alternator.the chain is a 520 x ring, and you can buy a kit from norvil to ventilate you rear brake, hope this answers all the question, ps the midrange on this bike is awesome without giving away top end grunt. cheers pete

Very nice. Thank you.

I like that one VERY MUCH!

What they said. Verrrry nice!

Thanks for the extra photos Pete, is that a powerarc ignition you're running? Big cudos to Murray...I'm gonna look for cyclecraft on the web while I'm waiting for my flight out of Afghanistan, maybe I will be able to continue drooling especially if he's offering some of his goodies for sale. Cj

dantriumph said:

Hi.Here´s a shot of my Commando, just before my girlfriend and I left for a 3 weeks holiday to UK and the IOM GP.

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Dan that's really good looking touring mechine you've got there. I have 2 MKIII's and a somewhat dented interstate tank that is going to find it's way onto one of them, and I've been thinking of getting a set of Hydes "M" bars---seeing yours has cinched it for me, now all I need to do is find the money for them. Anyway how tall are you...do find the handle bars to be comfortable over long distances, thanks in advance- and again, really nice set up. Thanks for posting the photo. Cj

cjandme said:

dantriumph said:

Hi.Here´s a shot of my Commando, just before my girlfriend and I left for a 3 weeks holiday to UK and the IOM GP.

Click to expand...

Dan that's really good looking touring mechine you've got there. I have 2 MKIII's and a somewhat dented interstate tank that is going to find it's way onto one of them, and I've been thinking of getting a set of Hydes "M" bars---seeing yours has cinched it for me, now all I need to do is find the money for them. Anyway how tall are you...do find the handle bars to be comfortable over long distances, thanks in advance- and again, really nice set up. Thanks for posting the photo. Cj

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Thanks CJ.
I´m about 180cm tall, whatever that is in ft and inch :?: I finde the M bars comfortable for long distance touring. The stepped seat is probably a bit lower then a standard seat, but not as much as it looks to be. Tried my dad´s 750 for size and it was pretty much the same, his seat is probably 10 years old. I´d like to move the footrest backwards, to the Z plate might be a bit too far though.
Dan

dantriumph said:

I´d like to move the footrest backwards, to the Z plate might be a bit too far though.Dan

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I'm just a little taller at 5'10'' so that's good to know about the "M" bars. I happen to have a set of Hyde rear set foot pegs for the MKIII and I think you will like moving yours back too. Cj

took the first bigger ride with my commando, she behaved well. heres a pic up in the mountains.

My dad bought this brand-new in 1974. He still has the end panel from the shipping crate it arrived in at the local British bike dealer! Unfortunately, he changed-out the bars for these stupid ape-hangers practically from the first day he had it. I rode it a bit in the late Seventies (I was in my late teens), it went to Colorado with my brother-in-law for a few years, back to my dad, my girlfriend and I had our first date on this bike, then he sold it to a family friend during some financial tough times, where the bike sat in a storage unit, along with the other twenty-some bikes and seventy-five British cars! That was eighteen years ago.

I've tried to get my ducks in a row for the last two years to buy it back. Then, just when I'm able, the family friend passes away! During the memorial, I was introduced to his daughter, who proclaimed "Oh, YOU'RE the one! You have first right-of-refusal on the Norton." Needless to say, I did everything in my power to not let the bike get away again.

It looks like it had been put away with a full tank of gas, as the primary drive was all stained from the leaking gas. The carburetors weren't gunked-up, which was a nice change. I wanted to make sure the engine was okay before spending a lot of time and money so I drained the sump, poured some gas in the fuel tank, and she lit on the second kick! Other than lots of elbow grease on the chrome and aluminum, it shouldn't take an awful lot to have her road-worthy. I'm shooting for sometime in May. And the girlfriend? Yep; my wife for over thirty years. She insisted that I get that bike while I still had the chance!

Good story, nice bike.