Pictures of your Norton Commandos

Believe it or not, the whole bike was built behind that curtain and the adjoined garden shed. There's a whole blog I made at nortonproject.blog.ca if you'd care to see. It was a very interesting process.
Thanks for the kind words, I'm rather proud. My first restoration and t turned out better than I could have imagined, and its a NORTON!!!!

This is my old 850, back about 1977, finally found the slide of it. Rebuilt from a wreck.
Mid rebuild, later got stock headlamp brackets and stock peashooter exhausts - that 2-1 had almost no baffles in it.
Pinstriped tinware stayed on the shelf.


Out in a farming district - lights were because another guy out there said he noticed the patch of road ahead seemed
very dark - and met a large black cow at night !! Luckily he just glanced off it, but ended up in the ditch.
When he woke up, there was a bright orange light flashing, and he wondered ??? .
Then he figured out the blinker lens was in has face, flashing away !
I'd seen a few stray cows too, figured it was best to see them before rather than after.
Only a few miles ride at night, or the battery would have gone down - 60w Cibie Halogen and 100w Hella spotlight.
Later refitted the peashooters - that 2-1 didn't have a lot of baffling in it.

Sold it in a moment of weakness in the 1980s - moved away for work, and it was sitting unloved for quite some time.
My brother showed it to someone, and it started first kick ! He said "I'll buy it".


This is my current 850 project.

Sorting out some electrical and shock absorber gremlins - just how much travel does the rear shocks have ?
Red wire looks a little melted, may not be all that healthy ?
And the alternator rotor looks to have never had a nut on it (?!).
Rotor has worn into the shaft a little, may need some repair - but how ?
Hoping a new rotor will sit over the wear mark, without any problems - haven't quite tried this yet...



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Doesn't seem to be a 'what else do you ride' thread anymore ?
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This is where I got involved in Nortons, bought this one a few years before Commando.

An old Norton Model 7 Dominator, 500cc all iron engine, 1951 model, as arrived in the 1970s.
Been 'restored' by PO with a lot of Triumph stuff - since Norton dommie stuff was near unfindable.
Purple paint, flat black frame, suzuki electrics, baffled megaphone triumph exhausts ! Right side sidestand. !
Took a lot to actually get it to run on 2 cylinders, and have any brakes at all.
Did at least 20 hours workshop time for each hour riding ?
I was 17, and loved it....

At some point, went to Norton Villiers warehouse, and enquired about dommie spare parts ?
"Whats that, they said.". NV did Commandos, forget about that other stuff. !!!
Nice row of 850s lined up in the warehouse, various colors.
Hmmmm. A seed was sown...

This is about where Model 7 dommie is at the moment, broken down into its consistituent atoms for a (leisurely) rebuild...


Note that Norton bolts of the early 1950s were SATIN CHROMED, it is rather rare to ever see them restored to this finish. ?
Was lucky to obtain this hoard...

Still a few bits to put on such as the taillight, mirrors, etc. I am having the foot rests and controls, the original headlight brackets and chainguard rechromed over the winter, along with having the wheels refreshed. I guess I'm kind of doing a "rolling restoration". I'm riding and restoring things as I go. But, this is a before and current shot on how she looks right now:

This is my first post on this forum. About two weeks ago I finally purchased a Norton Commando. I have been eyeing them for many years after riding a neighbors when I was a teen. I never forgot what a thrill it was. This one had been sitting in a garrage since 1997. She was pretty dusty but in fair condition overall. Looking forward to learning to shift with my right foot.

Heyho rider929, nice factory example preserved w/o molestation. Very similar to my 2 Combats both running with mild age patina and both in b/g trim. Check brake fluid on leaving and at gas ups for 1000 miles to make sure fluid not blowing out unknown and check primary chain tension which get tighter at temp and can bend shafts if getting too tight. Get in habit not to use engine drag very much to slow d/t strain on drive train and tire wear and helps avoid an up-shift loss of expected drag till innate RH foot work gets imprinted in spinal level. Forks will be filled with rusty fluid and metal mud. After a warming run do check all fasteners for retorque, cradle to head. A PCV valve helps keep oil weeps drawn inside. Combats love to lug chug at low throttle in hi gear but its worse thing for them so keep it spun up more than Harley short shifting style, unless on low throttle, which is the other side of pleasant Commando sensations. Hope you enjoy being center of attention everywhere ya stop.

Welcome Rider 999
You will love riding it and this forum well help you keep it running right.
Articles have been written about how to start a bike for the first time after prolonged storage and I won't know how much mechanical skill you have. Smarter people like Mike Brown have written about this. I generally assume that anything made of rubber will need replacement, including tires and the ones you can't see (inside the isolastics). Anything that held gasoline (gas tank, carbs) will likely need cleaning. Changing oil in forks, gearbox, engine and primary and maybe squirting a little in the spark plug holes and the rockers is a good idea. Read the workshop manual, do everything in the maintenance schedule and grease areas that need grease and put oil in places that need oil (don't be fooled by the zerk on the swingarm). Resist the temptation to "see if it will start" until you've gone through some of these.

i dont want to spam this thread but i just cant seem to get enough photos of my 850

heres one that i shot today with a Monochrome camera.

Marc, it sounds like love. Enjoy it.

marc said:

i dont want to spam this thread but i just cant seem to get enough photos of my 850

heres one that i shot today with a Monochrome camera.

Click to expand...

Asolutely gorgeous !!! Thanks for posting

Hi Rohan, just the black cow night take down. That has almost happened to me a number of times, the closest calls were big black bulls that only look like a dark area in road ahead almost exactly like a dip in the road causes a shadow, till legs or head profile registered then the fear-fun begins to either stop or dodge in time. The cows will move off if ya make a loud noise but the bulls take it as a challenge > lower horns, snort steam, scratch gravel dust back with hooves then tense muscle and Launch a charge, all in about one second to compute and react out the way or SPLAT> I'm not taking my Peel out in public w/o the crash cage fitted, but will remove for track days w/o cattle and deer and distracted drivers. Waking up with blinker in face and dis-oriented in space and time is something we all can expect if we keep at it.

There are some LED pencil beams I"m going to fit on Peel and loud horns to boot but know its only wishful thinking those will help every time.

Here's mine before:



and after:

tocino said:

Here's mine before:

and after:

Click to expand...

Looks a cracker! Well done. How do you find the flatsides? And is that an ammeter just forward of the rear shock?

Tax stamp?

'72 Combat just finished - looks like a Velocette, but my mum thinks it's classy, so it must be :mrgreen:
I do rather like it, but I'll be reverting to 'any colour as long as it's prefixed 'Fireflake'' for the next time.

crusadersports said:

Looks a cracker! Well done. How do you find the flatsides? And is that an ammeter just forward of the rear shock?

Click to expand...

DogT said:

Tax stamp?

Click to expand...

Thanks!

It's a 2 into 1 Mikuni setup - much cheaper to run than flatslides

That's the horn - I skipped the normal mounting location but wanted to use the stock wiring so I mounted it there with a bracket.

The Vellocette looks Fine , Bogus .

marc said:

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

Click to expand...

Are those Avon Roadrunners? I'm about ready to swap mine out (40 years is 'wa-a-a-y too long) and the Roadrunners are typically highly praised. Your thoughts?
Nathan
P.S. Let's get you a new rear hub cover so you can have problems with your speedo gear box like the rest of us do... Actually, I almost like the looks of it better without. :?

Nater_Potater said:

marc said:

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

Click to expand...

Are those Avon Roadrunners? I'm about ready to swap mine out (40 years is 'wa-a-a-y too long) and the Roadrunners are typically highly praised. Your thoughts?
Nathan
P.S. Let's get you a new rear hub cover so you can have problems with your speedo gear box like the rest of us do... Actually, I almost like the looks of it better without. :?

Click to expand...

those were some older Avons from the late 90s. i replaced them with new roadrunners. and you may guess it, i installed a hub cover yesterday, i am not sure if i prefer the look yet

Pic taken yesterday: Aug. 10, 2013