Pictures of your Norton Commandos

There's some truly beautiful pieces of motorcycle art here, I'm almost ashamed...
Sorry about the blue thing in the background. That's my daily hack.

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


Booked in for roadworthy Saturday week, then rego the week after if all goes well! :D 15 years since I bought it in bits.

Surfdog, what is that seat, where did you get it and how much does it cost. That and rearsets is the 'look' I've been looking for.
 
swooshdave said:
gw88 said:
What do you guys prefer??? Black or Red.
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Red/White/Blue or in your case Red. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Always a tricky one!

I like blue...a lot :mrgreen:

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


What I don't like is running out of flakes before the job's done :roll:
As us Brits have 'limited' tastes the flakes are coming in from the States, and as volcanoes seem to be a feature, I'm held up :(

So in the meantime I decided that the recently acquired Interstate bodywork should be done in my 'other favourite', candy apple red.

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


If all goes to plan it should be all finished by the weekend - we've got a bank holiday coming up, and I really hope I don't screw up the pinstripes!

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


My ultimate dream is a fireflake bronze 750 'S'....or maybe Roman Purple.
Decisions, decisions ;)
 
Ok, I'll join in !
Sorry about the first one it was taken back in '81 with clockwork camera, it was my second Commando, I was heading up to my Grandparents house on the west coast of Scotland for 4 weeks on leave taking with me some stuff my grandpa needed from the big city. Bike has a Vetter Windjammer fairing, and BMW Krauser panniers and rack, the rack was modified to fit. Next one is the one I have now, my 4th.
Robert


Pictures of your Norton Commandos


Pictures of your Norton Commandos
 
Ok, I'll take the plunge. I've posted several photos of my Combat in the past year or so, but what many of you haven't seen is what it looked like when it emerged from the garage after a 22-year sleep. I had to lay her down to avoid a head on collision in '86 and soon thereafter came new job (low-paying), wife, kids, etc. So after the long slumber, it came out looking like this:

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


Some close ups:

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


Pictures of your Norton Commandos


Pictures of your Norton Commandos


You can do a search on this forum and read the thread on how the bike got restored. I work hard to keep her looking spiffed up, but trust me, it's no "show bike". It gets ridden hard...typical weekends are 250+ mile Sundays running with my buddy on his Commando and friends on their Ducati's and modern Thruxton's. Today she looks like this:

Pictures of your Norton Commandos
 
difazio said:
Pictures of your Norton Commandos
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There's a photo of what appears to be this actual bike (unless they built more than one?) standing outside the Difazio premises, featured in the newly released book: "Norton Commando - The Essential Buyer's Guide" by Peter Henshaw (Veloce Publishing).

http://www.veloce.co.uk/shop/products/p ... otorcycles & Scooters&
Pictures of your Norton Commandos


(It's a pity the book contains some fairly obvious mistakes and inaccuracies - there's even one on the cover!).
 
My current street Norton. I recently painted the tank and side covers and replaced the seat, but it's getting pretty tired mechanically. I'm hoping to do a complete rebuild/update later this year.

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


And just for comparison, this is my first Commando, bought from Dan Gurney in 1972. I rode it on the street for about a year, and then took up road racing with it. This picture shows my first re-paint of many over the years.

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


And this one is pretty close to it's final form as an AMA BOTT race bike in 1987.

Pictures of your Norton Commandos


I eventually sold it in boxes to a friend, who restored it to original, and it's now in a local collection.

There have been several others over the years, in between these two. Who knows, there might even be one or two more before I'm through.

Ken
 
How did that ourigger bearing work out? And did you get the idea for a Toyota crank from that picture of your wheelie :mrgreen:

Jean
 
The outrigger bearing worked out fine. Stopped breaking mainshafts. Then I just broke gears- regularly. I used a cut down VW diesel crank after blowing that motor all to smitherines at 8200 rpm. And then built a 5 speed transmission after DNFing Daytona twice in a row with blown up transmissions. Jim
 
Very nice looking machine Jim, You came out here to Willow Springs to race? What year was that? That's just a two hour drive from here. Thanks for the photo's. Chuck.
 
Hortons Norton said:
Very nice looking machine Jim, You came out here to Willow Springs to race? What year was that? That's just a two hour drive from here. Thanks for the photo's. Chuck.
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Chuck, I think that picture was about 93. I Raced at willow and Sears Point about every year in the 90's. Riverside a few times in the 80's before the houses moved in. Jim
 
L.A.B. said:
difazio said:
Pictures of your Norton Commandos
Click to expand...


There's a photo of what appears to be this actual bike (unless they built more than one?) standing outside the Difazio premises, featured in the newly released book: "Norton Commando - The Essential Buyer's Guide" by Peter Henshaw (Veloce Publishing).

http://www.veloce.co.uk/shop/products/p ... otorcycles & Scooters&
Pictures of your Norton Commandos


(It's a pity the book contains some fairly obvious mistakes and inaccuracies - there's even one on the cover!).
Click to expand...


There were some others converted by jack Difazio but he changed the wheelbase and altered the frame considerably. This is the only one with a standard wheelbase and I have been told that some bike journalists walked past and missed the front end in the factory one day! I have not seen the book in question but it has been pictured in some others.

A thread on the rebuild and history is on my to do list, if the weather keeps as it is I will be on that soon!!!

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... s%3Disch:1

Some of the work of Jack, pictures by mainly Andy Westlake who did a piece in the Classic Motorcycle in Sept 08 on the Norton
 
difazio said:
There were some others converted by jack Difazio but he changed the wheelbase and altered the frame considerably. This is the only one with a standard wheelbase and I have been told that some bike journalists walked past and missed the front end in the factory one day! I have not seen the book in question but it has been pictured in some others.
Click to expand...

I'd say it's almost certainly your bike in the book picture, as the two bikes are practicaly identical in every way,-even down to the droopy gearchange pedal, red timing cover logo and sticker on the front mudguard , the exceptions being that there's no rear view mirror, the handlebars are lower and the HT lead is red?/orange? in your photo?
 
Well spotted, the gear lever is an alloy one, I left it as was due to the originality. The front brake lever is partially worn away following a spill years ago and is shown in the old photos

The Ht leads were what I had, they are now black.

I changed the bars as they were not very comfortable! and the mirror was added, its a Stadium original

The brake pedal also is slightly different with a stop pin in case the cable fails, I will get a picture next time I move the bike.

Registration is ROU 15 M as shown in the tests and books.

I have added a thread on the rebuild, my first so hope it reads ok to you all
 
difazio said:
The Ht leads were what I had, they are now black.

I changed the bars as they were not very comfortable! and the mirror was added, its a Stadium original
Click to expand...

In that case, I think the book photo was actually taken during your ownership, and after you made those modifications? Presumably you've visited Difazio's since then?



The alloy gear lever is the 850 MkIII type.
 
Yes I have visited the shop in Frome, Andy Westlake took some shots for the story he was writing.

As I went along I was improving things that I felt that would have been logical replacements

O ring chain, solid state igition etc

There are some pictures that I will try to photograph and post as I dont have a scanner
 

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