What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

What kind of suspension travel are we looking at?

Lowered?
Lengthened?
Shortened?

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
robs ss said:
Took my Mum (now 91) for a 50 mile jaunt.
She loved it.
View attachment 113732
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Rob,

I’m 60 now and when I was 16 I took my mother for a ride on a tandem bicycle and there is quite a big hill close to our family home with a really nice S bend on it known locally as ‘Joey the Swan’. We went down the hill at a good rate of knots and Mother, who was not too happy, said "I’ll never get on anything with two wheels with you ever again" and 44 years later she has remained true to her word. She’s 90 now, still in good health, still driving a car but she stopped riding motorcycles about 15 years ago (she had a full U.K. licence).

Great photo and cool looking tank.

Dave
 
Dellis said:
Rob,

I’m 60 now and when I was 16 I took my mother for a ride on a tandem bicycle and there is quite a big hill close to our family home with a really nice S bend on it known locally as ‘Joey the Swan’. We went down the hill at a good rate of knots and Mother, who was not too happy, said "I’ll never get on anything with two wheels with you ever again" and 44 years later she has remained true to her word. She’s 90 now, still in good health, still driving a car but she stopped riding motorcycles about 15 years ago (she had a full U.K. licence).

Great photo and cool looking tank.

Dave
Click to expand...
Your double seat helped too!
Thanks Dave 👍
 
Rob you are lucky she is still around and enjoy all the time you both have together, I lost my mum at 14 years old, man I had to grow up real fast, my mum hated motorcycles, me and my brother saved up all our pocket money and brought a mini bike from Erol Stewards back in the day, we didn't even get to ride it she put her foot down and it went straight back, her down fall was she was a chain smoker and a hard worker, but her mum ruled her life, too my dad's displeasure.
Great to see she enjoyed her ride, and your bike looks great.

Ashley
 
robs ss said:
Matt's (cNw) Showa forks - cafe front end.
Less travel than you would desire but works well, even on our bumpy Central Queensland roads.
Good eye!

I presume you saw the Roadholder badges too - just for laughs.
Click to expand...
Yes, I saw all the jewelry. 💎👑💍😎
I'm not familiar with the CNW stuff.
Just shocked at less than one inch until it hits the steering stab. bracket.

Thank you for explaining. Enjoy!
 
Today I sorted out my annoyingly grabby rear brake. I made an arbour to mount the drum on my lathe, measured the run out then machined it round. A very satisfying couple of hours work which has resulted in the rear brake now having even drag when applying the brake and rotating the wheel which was far from the case prior to surgery, It was .0012 out of round.

Dave

IMG_3007.jpeg
 
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It was raining (again- it has been raining on most weekends lately) so I torqued the headbolts, changed out the brake fluid and checked the valves. Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow so I can go for a test ride.
 
Dellis said:
Today I sorted out my annoyingly grabby rear brake. I made an arbour to mount the drum on my lathe, measured the run out then machined it round. A very satisfying couple of hours work which has resulted in the rear brake now having even drag when applying the brake and rotating the wheel which was far from the case prior to surgery, It was .0012 out of round.

Dave

View attachment 113750
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Dave
Did you have the shoes skimmed while mounted on the backing plate?
I believe common wisdom is to insert a piece of hacksaw blade to slightly "open" the shoes.
Can't find anyone to do this for me with my new RM Gold shoes. Might have to make a tool like yours to mount the backing plate.

BTW - I have checked and my drum is true 👍
Cheers
 
robs ss said:
Dave
Did you have the shoes skimmed while mounted on the backing plate?
I believe common wisdom is to insert a piece of hacksaw blade to slightly "open" the shoes.
Can't find anyone to do this for me with my new RM Gold shoes. Might have to make a tool like yours to mount the backing plate.

BTW - I have checked and my drum is true 👍
Cheers
Click to expand...
I have the RGM gold shoes and they had full contact on the drum so the radius was correct and increasing the diameter of the drum by .012" I didn’t expect it to take long to bed in, I’ve done 150 miles today and the brake is more effective than it’s ever been, I’d say it took about 50 miles for the brake to bed in.

Dave
 
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Dellis said:
I have the RGM gold shoes and they had full contact on the drum so the radius was correct and increasing the diameter of the drum by .012" I didn’t expect it to take long to bed in, I’ve done 150 miles today and the brake is more effective than it’s ever been, I’d say it took about 50 miles for the brake to bed in.

Dave
Click to expand...
My RGM gold shoes would not fit into the drum.
Not at all impressed.
However righteous the friction material, the fact that the are unsuitable as a bolt-in replacement part (NO MENTION otherwise) is a great big fail.

JMWO
 
concours said:
My RGM gold shoes would not fit into the drum.
Not at all impressed.
However righteous the friction material, the fact that the are unsuitable as a bolt-in replacement part (NO MENTION otherwise) is a great big fail.

JMWO
Click to expand...
When mine arrived they fit the drum but there wasn’t enough space to stick some sandpaper to the drum to profile the shoes so they were quite sung.

Dave
 
concours said:
My RGM gold shoes would not fit into the drum.
Not at all impressed.
However righteous the friction material, the fact that the are unsuitable as a bolt-in replacement part (NO MENTION otherwise) is a great big fail.

JMWO
Click to expand...
Bob,
What did you do with those shoes?Did you get to rework them so they fit?
Mike
 
YING said:
Bob,
What did you do with those shoes?Did you get to rework them so they fit?
Mike
Click to expand...
A) sold them
B) gave them away
C) they're still in my big box of "new parts not suitable for purpose"

I can't really remember, but I'm 100% sure I didn't set up and machine what should be a bolt-in consumable item.

I'll look in the big box.
 
A nail ruined my sunny Michigan ride the other day....
I was thinking of using Slime in my tube, like I do in my road/mountain bikes and wondered if any of you guys do that. Good thing I wasn't too far from home when this little gem decided to perfectly lodge itself into my new tires and new wheels! Ugh...
 

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