What kind of norton

nortriubuell · May 30, 2019

o0norton0o said:
Pete nailed it, it's a period piece. There was an era where modifying your bike was considered a personalizing it. It certainly is reflective of that era.

The 2MC the guys above are talking about is a capacitor to hold enough charge (supposedly) to cause a spark when used with a dead battery. It's one of those things that theoretically could work to get you home if your battery died. The capacitor holds enough charge to get an initial spark to get the bike started, then the charging system maintains voltage to the ignition to ride the bike. Using your headlight would probably make the bike stall out and die. Stopping at intersections would probably make the bike stall and die due to low amperage output at idle too... I'm sure someone will tell a story of how they rode from florida to new york with a dead battery because they had a capacitor in their wiring. That wouldn't sell me on the effectiveness of running a capacitor only bike without a battery.

I have an ammeter on my bike mounted in the headlight shell. I see the direction of current flow as I ride. If I stop for a light and idle for any length of time, the needle starts to go to the negative meaning that my components are drawing electrical energy from the battery because the bike isn't running fast enough to supply enough electrical output for lighting and ignition. Once I am moving above 2000 rpms, the needle travels back into the positive direction. A commando benefits greatly from a battery to maintain voltage.

Could you run a capacitor only system? A: I doubt it actually, but maybe someone who has done this will chime in... A better system to eliminate using a battery would be a magneto system.

Cool bike btw, It's like something out of a time capsule.

I ride my Commando WITHOUT a battery every now and then ... just to make sure 2MC battery will actually work. As others have mentioned though, I don't turn on the lights or use the horn ... or it will stall.

fiatfan · Jun 1, 2019

Great fun to see, I once back in the late 70:s built a rigid frame chopper of my Commando and used it a couple of years. It worked really well, got rid of the isolastics too, no problems with vibrations. The only problem was my back....it gave up on me so I sold the bike. Bought it back a couple of years ago and is now in full swing at rebuilding it. If you don´t like riding it, my first thought is to put it in a museum, it should not be "restored" back to it´s original shape. My opinion. There´s not many around, it´s a time capsule. Fun to see how the rear frame is constructed, you can do it in many ways.

Jcwilliams · Jun 5, 2019

So I want to get on the wiring on this thing but now sure where to start.
I want to add a battery back into system which I have.
If this is the positive ground system then I need to connect the positive battery cable to ground current?
Can this be changed to regular negative ground?

cjandme · Jun 6, 2019

Hey there Jcw. Yes your bike an be converted to a negative ground system. From the sounds of it there isn't much left of your original wiring harness anyway, so it might very well be easier to go through with converting it. There are quite a few riders here that have posted their solutions. A search should be able to pull them up. Some have used aftermarket moto gadget fuse blocks etc. Seems like the way to go to me. Cj

Matt Spencer · Jun 10, 2019

Thought Id throw a picture of a SANTEE frame on , still available ( more or less ) from $ 1100 to 1600 . Tho thisisa Sportster sucker .
Drag Frames are very similar . Tho a lot back in the 70s wernt realy at all scientific . Can remember walking past a Chopper Shop
in Los Angles , M'Cycle shops , were a few about , maybe we saw three , Christmass 76 catering for the craze .

Belows a Santee Honda 750 one, swing arm type .

Not keen on ones without some bracing in / to the steering head . As its where all the tractive forces cross , fightinging it into a bumpy bend .

Jcwilliams · Jul 24, 2019

Got spark guys!

Going thru trying to clean it up piece by piece.

Got carb kits ordered new petcock misc items going to start re wiring and stuff soon.

Took the exhaust apart and the pipes are shot.

DogT · Jul 24, 2019

I used to run my 70 which has the same ignition/wiring system and it was fine early on when the rotor had good magnetics, but as time went on it got harder and harder to start where I finally had to use a battery. It won't need much of a battery to keep it going if the alternator and zenier is working. Yes, period piece, fix it and run it. An EI (Pazon) will cost you less than $150 and will save a lot of grief over the auto advance unit/points.

A hobot special for those that remember him. Have fun. Don't crash.

74ok · Jul 25, 2019

jbruney said:
It definitely did not come like that. I've seen Triumph & BSA bikes done, but that is the first Norton Commando I've ever seen with a springer & rigid frame.

https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/commando-choppers-please.6376/

https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/is-there-no-god-butchered-commandos.1086/#post-7966

What kind of norton

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