What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Went to the garage cracked open a cold one and gave the bike a polish while listening to Bon Scott, Angus & the boys.

I decided to go to the Carlow Bike Show, it's an institution in Ireland, lots of bike brike-abrake, to be honest I've thrown out better.
If the weather is good the main event is outside, looking at all the bikes everybody arrived on but on this occasion the weather was sh?te!!! rained all the way there & back, about 250km round trip for me.

Bikes inside, under cover, a great selection of old & and not so old. No Nortons in the show :-( Pics below.

The MK3 Commando was running really well, the 880 conversion is well run in now & the plugs are looking good and the bike is carburetted well & handles fine BUT ............

On the way back, in the lashings of rain he started running on one cylinder, I pulled in & did some basic checks a nice 1% pulled in to see if he could help but his Harley chop was running poorly due to running on a 50/50 mix of petrol & water!!!

I keep going for another 10km & found a garage & started my checks, tank off check coils, cables etc, nothing amis, check spark, LHS no spark, swopped plugs still no spark on LHS!, swopped over spark plug leads now I have spark on the LHS

I splayed the contacts a little wider on the cable that plugs into the coil & that did the trick, spark on both sides

Apart from the above the bike ran really strong, 100-120kmh+ no problem, the main reason for driving a bit slower was lack of visibility in the rain!
Overall really enjoyed the spin, my better half came with me, she's a trooper, gave me a hand while trouble shooting and never complained once.

Few more pics, I know you guys like your photo's

Completed a full service, apart from valve clearances, which I did about 1,000 miles ago. Managed to get some HPS Royal Purple 20w50, so it should go faster now! Ready for Spring

Awakened from winter hibernation - oil & filter change , valve lash check , clean and adjust chain , nut & bolt once over , wash , polish wax . Ready to go .

Richard Tool said:

Awakened from winter hibernation - oil & filter change , valve lash check , clean and adjust chain , nut & bolt once over , wash , polish wax . Ready to go .

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Removed a steel plate from the 850 clutch as it wasn't working out to achieve stack height, 1 st day back from Mexico. Snowflakes falling around me.

Mart UK said:

Completed a full service, apart from valve clearances, which I did about 1,000 miles ago. Managed to get some HPS Royal Purple 20w50, so it should go faster now! Ready for Spring

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Had a spare hour, checked the head is still tight, then valve clearances. It was surprisingly easy leaving the tank on. 1,000 miles ago, I think I must have used 9thou upside down on the inlets! Sorted.

The second of the silencers that came with the bike has departed from its weld at the pipe entrance. The bike rides smoothly, but is this due to vibration? Maybe just age, although the exterior was rust free. I may omit the header to silencer clamp, to allow some movement? New left side silencer arrives today. Ready for a run tomorrow. Must remember I've left it in 4th gear

Mart UK said:

The second of the silencers that came with the bike has departed from its weld at the pipe entrance. The bike rides smoothly, but is this due to vibration? Maybe just age, although the exterior was rust free. I may omit the header to silencer clamp, to allow some movement?

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I have had this happen on new pipes after only 1500 miles. Others have lasted 30 years.

I actually pulled my Commando out and rode it for the first time since the beginning of November..... It felt good too.

Got this out of my Norton and off my mind.

Very nice there, Saber man! Now that thing is on my mind because it might be in my Norton!

Saber said:

Got this out of my Norton and off my mind. View attachment 94512

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Are you going to frame it?

Saber said:

Got this out of my Norton and off my mind. View attachment 94512

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Here's a picture of the one that came out of my gearbox back in November.

Great! Now you guys got me all paranoid....I have no idea what bearing is in my gearboxes....

Starvingphotog said:

Great! Now you guys got me all paranoid....I have no idea what bearing is in my gearboxes....

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Better have a look. Outward appearance is no indicator. My bike ('74 MK II) looked near mint. No warnings just locked up. Fortunately I was making a low sped turn at an intersection.

Starvingphotog said:

Great! Now you guys got me all paranoid....I have no idea what bearing is in my gearboxes....

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How many miles has your bike done? If it's more than 15000 it's likely to have been changed
Watch out for the kickstart moving especially when accelerating

Starvingphotog said:

Great! Now you guys got me all paranoid....I have no idea what bearing is in my gearboxes....

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Paranoia is usually associated with unfounded fear…

The worst case scenario possibilities of this bearing failing are not unfounded !

My bike had done a little over 20,000 miles when I stripped the gearbox, and I’m certain I was the first person in there, and it still had ‘that’ bearing.

And the bearing still looked serviceable too! But of course putting it back was never an option.

Yes it’s a lot of work to strip and check.

All depends how lucky you feel…

“You've Got To Ask Yourself One Question: 'Do I Feel Lucky?' Well, Do Ya, Punk”?

baz said:

How many miles has your bike done? If it's more than 15000 it's likely to have been changed
Watch out for the kickstart moving especially when accelerating

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What year did they start using that bearing ?

Dommie Nator said:

Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and back for me.
It was chillier than it looked.

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Used to live just off the Bridgnorth Road... Wish I had had my Norton with me while I was living there... Unfortunately it would not fit in work's specified cargo allowance...

2022 Ride #2 is officially in the books as of last night - good feat too, considering I woke up to 2" of snow on the ground. Sun and wind took care of that in short order. Bike performed flawlessly. My selection of riding gear (cold/wet weather suit) was quite appropriate, as the return trip saw the temperature plummet to 6C. Made it home before the rain started.

Weird year here so far - winter just does not want to let go...

BTW - Ride #1 was on St. Patrick's Day, and consisted of a 111 mile run, with a stop at a lovely mirco-brewery for a resupply on craft beers/ales. Glorious day - hit 20C... Bike had not moved again until yesterday...