What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Bonzo said:
Moved the Commando out of the cold, cramped garage (single garage + 3 x bikes + assorted junk = the stuff of nightmares) and back into the nice, cosy, warm & bright spare bedroom while I do a few little jobs.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
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Got your life priorities wrong mate.

Garage should be “nice, cozy, warm and bright”. Spare room should be full of junk !!!
 
I went for a short ride about 60 miles through the Cheshire and Shropshire countryside and loved every second. The weather here has been either chucking it down with rain or freezing cold so I took advantage of a dry day with a mild 10 deg C.

Dave
 
Based on info. gleaned from this thread, I made a narrow "Ham Can" filter setup for my S.U. carb. I've never been really happy with the filter which is bolted to the carb, as they are heavy enough already. I got an old twin carb front plate and adapted it, then got some perforated alloy to make the outer grille. With a very sharp knife I was able to remove the sealing rings on the LX157 filter, and get the total width down to about 45mm. more pics to follow...
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
Very nice Cliffa! I did the same thing last summer when I went to a single Ama. Had a local fabricator change my box for me. Same depth on my box. someone on this thread posted that AN or RGM offers a narrow airbox with skinnier filters. I might investigate that when I get my estart from cNw In case I can find a way to hold on to the same looking airbox.
 

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Starvingphotog said:
Very nice Cliffa! I did the same thing last summer when I went to a single Ama. Had a local fabricator change my box for me. Same depth on my box. someone on this thread posted that AN or RGM offers a narrow airbox with skinnier filters. I might investigate that when I get my estart from cNw In case I can find a way to hold on to the same looking airbox.
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What manifold are you running there Rob?
 
Starvingphotog said:
Very nice Cliffa! I did the same thing last summer when I went to a single Ama. Had a local fabricator change my box for me. Same depth on my box. someone on this thread posted that AN or RGM offers a narrow airbox with skinnier filters. I might investigate that when I get my estart from cNw In case I can find a way to hold on to the same looking airbox.
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Thank you Sir. Yes, RGM sell a narrow air filter, but it will still clash with the CNW starter unfortunately. However, Norvil have just introduced their new starter and they make a shorter "Ham Can" to fit that, so perhaps it would also work with the CNW offering?
 
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It went from 14 degrees on Wednesday to 32 degrees and rain on Friday to 65 and warm sun shine today. That means the the Norton get a romp around my favorite twisty road. This is the first longish ride I have undertaken since the single Mikuni was installed. You may say what you want about the single Mikuni but the thing is flawless. The first surprise came when I realized that it idles. No more blipping the throttle at stops. No more dead engines as I coast to a stop. What a joy! It carburetes cleanly whether pulling away from a stop, changing up or down a gear of pulling a hill in top. It does not fart or pop on the over-run. I am tickled with the way it runs. I had a really pleasant ride.

I talked to a kid at the gas station on one of the new "Sportsters." I asked if he had ever ridden one of the old Evo Sportsters and he said he had not, so he had nothing to compare it to but he loves that bike. He looked like he was 12 years old and he had never seen or heard of a Norton. It took a picture of mine to show his dad.
 
Big_Jim59 said:
It went from 14 degrees on Wednesday to 32 degrees and rain on Friday to 65 and warm sun shine today. That means the the Norton get a romp around my favorite twisty road. This is the first longish ride I have undertaken since the single Mikuni was installed. You may say what you want about the single Mikuni but the thing is flawless. The first surprise came when I realized that it idles. No more blipping the throttle at stops. No more dead engines as I coast to a stop. What a joy! It carburetes cleanly whether pulling away from a stop, changing up or down a gear of pulling a hill in top. It does not fart or pop on the over-run. I am tickled with the way it runs. I had a really pleasant ride.

I talked to a kid at the gas station on one of the new "Sportsters." I asked if he had ever ridden one of the old Evo Sportsters and he said he had not, so he had nothing to compare it to but he loves that bike. He looked like he was 12 years old and he had never seen or heard of a Norton. It took a picture of mine to show his dad.
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Jim,
Some of those new Sportsters are pretty nice.They have come a long way over the old ones.
Mike
 
Took a short ride on two bikes yesterday after grappling with getting stir crazy with all the snow and freezing temperatures though still not so warm in the lower forties. Commando going great, really pleased and the upgrades seem to be working out. The old Matchless, not so much.
Being so bundled up makes it harder to evaluate the new bars but I feel they will be a worthwhile change and prefer the look of them. The front brake and fork work definitely worthwhile and safer.
 
Bonzo said:
What manifold are you running there Rob?
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Hey Bonzo sorry for the late response. A custom manifold for the Amal. Got it from a Norton vendor on the west coast, Cinabar. A few ph for you to get an idea.
 

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cliffa said:
Thank you Sir. Yes, RGM sell a narrow air filter, but it will still clash with the CNW starter unfortunately. However, Norvil have just introduced their new starter and they make a shorter "Ham Can" to fit that, so perhaps it would also work with the CNW offering?
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Yes I heard about that norvil starter. Anyone else have any experience with it? Is it maybe a good alternative to cNw? No idea when mine will come in. Going on almost a year waiting for it.
Actually, never mind. I did some digging and that Norvil electric start looks way too complicated to install. I’ll continue waiting on my cNw.
 
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Starvingphotog said:
Hey Bonzo sorry for the late response. A custom manifold for the Amal. Got it from a Norton vendor on the west coast, Cinabar. A few ph for you to get an idea.
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Cheers for the photo's. The manifold looks very much like the Stewart/RGM 2:1 item.

Nice looking bike mate 👍
 
Started to make some plates to move the pillion pegs forwards to give enough space in front of the Andover Norton rack/pannier arrangement, with the pegs in the standard position my wife can just about get her heel on the peg with the panniers fitted. These will move them 3" forwards. The two sides have been superglued together for machining purposes, just the corner rounding to do then the inner plates are finished apart from powder coating.

Dave
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What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
Starvingphotog said:
Looking really good! Man you guys are a crafty lot!
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I’ll post some pics when it’s finished. I’ve made the outer plates too but I have a better idea that will use the standard small triangular outer plate and a modified boss for the rear foot peg.

Dave
 
Today I fitted a Rex's speed shop Rita revival kit to my commando
I bought it ages ago to try to save a little bit of voltage at idle as apposed to the original Rita
But when I tried it I found it made no difference to power consumption
But I thought I'd give it another go as it's just sitting on the shelf
I made a small stainless box for it and mounted it close to the original one under the seat
I planned to keep the original fitted just incase
I switched it on and attempted to fire it up on the starter but nothing, didn't fire once !
I thought maybe I'd got the pickup wires crossed so I swapped those and went to start it again and the bike has completely died
I thought somehow I may have blown the fuse but that was fine
The battery is fully charged
Nothing on the bike is now working
I'm really puzzled
Swapping the pickup wires can't short anything out as far as I'm aware
The fuse is still fine
I ran out of time with it this evening but I'm guessing the ignition switch has coincidentally stopped working whilst I was swapping the Rita pickup wires
It's really puzzling
 
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