What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Renewed my insurance...its not gone down, but, not increased either.

You guys have all of the fun..... I kicked mine off this morning and almost drowned before ambling home.... Caught a downpour upon leaving and another coming back. It made me feel in my 20's again. She and I just rode through it all.

baz said:

Lovin the "rough" what's the engine? Austin 7 ?

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Yes, I believe it is.

Tonight’s offering from Paignton bike night. Many, many bikes tonight nearer 1000 than 500 I’d guess. Far too many HD and Thaiumphs and hardly any classic stuff. Here’s a few.

An interesting exhaust on this new Z900RS

ashman said:

I just finish installing my old Amal carbs so now to tune them in after removal of the PWK carbs, the old Amals I had to pull off again after finding one had a blocked pilot jet even after major pull down before fitting, it can be a bit orchard to get the first middle allen head bolt out but having the allen key cut to the right size makes it easy and once one carb is off the next middle allen head bolt is easy, its common sense to remove one manifold first, I been building and working on my old Norton for over 46 years so know all the easy ways of doing things, I make my life easy not harder lol.
Having the original allen key that is cut to the right size that came in the original Norton took kit helps, I have used one that was cut down and it wasn't as easy as the original tool kit one.

Ashley

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Hi AShley, would you be able to post the correct size ??

Today I changed my front fork oil for some 20wt , there is a stanchion job coming up soon . My forks took a real dive before oil change but I am pretty sure the left damper rod wasn't connected to the top nut so had to make tool to retrieve it , forks feel a lot smoother , damper rod moves around a bit ! Maybe needs the bushing mod , changed the oil and filter also , took it up our little mountain , actually just TeMata peak 1309 ft in the Hawke's Bay NZ Here's a pic looking north .
That hill in the back ground, just above the right mirror is Napier city "cbd " the big smoke , Art Deco capital .

Absolutely gorgeous country. And the bike is quite lovely also. I would love to visit NZ some day.

Lineslinger said:

Renewed my insurance...its has not gone down, but, not increased either.

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Do you spend every waking hour polishing that primary cover , or is it chrome plated.?

Out on a long ride today after adjusting isolastics, think i'm getting it better after slackening front to closer to 20 thou than the spec'd 10. Read a few tips on setting these up, one mag article where it was stated having them a bit too loose doesn't hurt handling particularly, and 20 thou at front certainly doesn't hurt. This has gone a long way to improving heavy vibes from 2200-3800, mirrors now functional 3k and beyond.

While stopped up for lunch, noted rear tail light cowl coming adrift. The fixing screw to mudguard had gone AWOL, leaving whole assembly quite wobbly and starting to loosen the two lamp fixing screws. Snugged them down and wrapped e-tape from my on-board tool kit around the cowl and rear hoop to jury rig for the day. Seems to be holding up at next fuel stop.

While filling, a woman came up to me in some distress asking for help with her truck. Had a look and saw the rear axle drive shaft completely disconnected from axle and laying on ground. She was basiclly freaking out as had to be somewhere with three kids. Careful look showed nothing wasa actually broken, but the securing nut was gone. Found a washer under rear wheel and a then the nut was found a few yards away. But without larger enough tools to put it back together all was hopeless. At least she seemed consoled it was nothing broken or missing. Just needs to get a service truck out to the station or towed to a shop.

Update:
At next fuel up I found the tail lamp bracket separated at the license plate tack welds. So will need to find someone nearby to weld it up or purchase a new bracket.
Always something to deal with on these old things.

Shelby-Right said:

Do you spend every waking hour polishing that primary cover , or is it chrome plated.?

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Neither.

Pride in ownership is important to me. That includes a periodic wipe down.
Hope this clears up your inquiry as to how I spend my waking hours.

Went on a 86 mile ride today with one minor issue. Both head steady side plates fell off! Found them both and proceeded on home with no other problems. Funny that I didn’t feel any discernible handling difference although it was mostly flat land straight roads. Will repair tomorrow.

Larry S said:

Went on a 86 mile ride today with one minor issue. Both head steady side plates fell off! Found them both and proceeded on home with no other problems. Funny that I didn’t feel any discernible handling difference although it was mostly flat land straight roads. Will repair tomorrow.

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Lucky.

With both plates AWOL there really is not much keeping your engine… or rear wheel… in line with the frame vertically…

At the weekend I popped to a mates to see the MK2 850 he had recently bought, just beautiful. Reminded why I bought the 961.

Larry S said:

Went on a 86 mile ride today with one minor issue. Both head steady side plates fell off! Found them both and proceeded on home with no other problems. Funny that I didn’t feel any discernible handling difference although it was mostly flat land straight roads. Will repair tomorrow.

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Yikes! I think that I will take off the tank and loctite the head steady nuts that hold on the side plates...I definitely don't want that happening to me man....

Starvingphotog said:

Yikes! I think that I will take off the tank and loctite the head steady nuts that hold on the side plates..

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Or replace with nylocs (and flat washers).

Yes, good idea Les. I've learned lately that there are some minor bits here and there that I should address. This being one of them, but also the discovery with Greg Marsh that I didn't have insulators on my carb manifolds, on either bike. I've since remedied the 850, but the Combat still needs that bit of work. The previous owners just put a paper gasket in the place of the insulators when they last worked on them...

Lineslinger said:

Neither.

Pride in ownership is important to me. That includes a periodic wipe down.
Hope this clears up your inquiry as to how I spend my waking hours.

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Looks very nice!

Installed the sump reed breather, (Just got to remove the original timing case tube and blank off)



I needed to orientate the banjo hole rearwards, and if you need to know, those bolts take a 9/64" key

Purchased some pretty hose clamps. Mishimoto clamp for the oil filter (not the gold one!) and HPS fuel injection clamps for the oil and breather.