I don't think I have ever told the story about how I came to have the Seeley Commando 850.
Back in about 1973, I was racing my 500cc short stroke Triton fairly regularly in Allpowers C grade races at open meetings. There was a mate of mine who also raced a Triton, but a 650. It was very fast, but I could usually get past him on the tighter parts of the circuit. I had not ridden for about 6 months at one stage, so I was out of practice. My friend borrowed another friend's Seeley Laverda 750 which had SFC cam but a two into one exhaust system which was too restrictive. I was in a race at Winton against him and blew him off down the back straight with the 500cc Triton. As I braked for the corner in front r the drum brake came on too hard. He got around me easily. The Seeley had a single disc on the front, and he grabbed a handful of it in front of me. I locked the drum and went down the road on the top of my head. I dislocated my collar bone - could have easily been my neck. The Seeley Laverda 750 got sold to another guy who pulled it apart to make it go faster.
I followed the bike around for a couple of years, then tried to buy it. But I could not get the motor. I paid about $150 for the rolling chassis which had Ceriani forks. I bought a Norton gearbox for about $300 and an 850cc Mk2A motor for about $1300.
I cut a set of engine plates out of alunimium by hand, drilled a few holes, fitted a few bolts and I had a Seeley Commando 850 racer in 1979.. I did not race it for 20 tears because I never believed in it. But when I got around to it, I found it to be unbelievably excellent - It is the most easy ride ever and very fast. Compare with what was inside my 500cc Triumph motor, what is in the Norton 850 motor is very ugly. The Triton was fast enough, but I did not want to die. It badly needed 6 speeds
