Why bother with a Commando?

The H1 offered a high power to weight ratio for the time, but had generally poor handling and weak drum brakes front and rear. It was the quickest production motorcycle at the time. When motorcycle journalists expressed some disbelief, Kawasaki suggested they take a new H1 to the drag strip. Using a regular production model with only 7 miles on it, Tony Nicosia ran the quarter mile in 12.96 seconds at 100.7 mph for the press to witness. The official figure was 12.4 secs by Mike Wenzel - quite believable on a well run in machine. Tony [/quote

In 1972, the 750cc Kawasaki H2 Mach IV was introduced and was essentially a scaled-up version of the H1 500.[2] A stock H2 was rated at 12.0 secs for the quarter mile. Updated with more power and better front disc brakes, the H2 became the undisputed king of the streets, even beating legendary muscle cars of the era such as the Dodge Hemi Cuda. It was notoriously dangerous, being prone to up-and-over wheelies and speed wobbles. The dangerous handling characteristics arising from its mediocre frame design caused it to be nicknamed the "Widowmaker" by motorcycle enthusiasts of the 1970s.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_triple

A stock well set up 72 Combat did 12.26 for magazine shoot out much to their dismay. I got my P!! from 18 yr old with a new H2, it flat walked away from his wheel lifting H2, by floating its front level 2" off surface with a short front bounce on each kill button WOT shift. My best buddy Wes' has a Combat in NC and said he eat up the 3 smokes to just over 100 mph. I'll take the slightly sluggish Norton twin thank you very much. Been enjoying my factory Combat not needing to shift peddle around it for pleasant get go like my modern 650 Vtwin.

79x100 said:

Carbonfibre said:

H1 and H2 were the fastest accelerating bikes around in the 70s no contest, and while factory prepared Commandos with carefully built motors using special parts may well have had quite impressive performance figures,the fact that production bikes were not able to match these figures, was something that never seemed to figure much in the thinking of a factory that was pretty desperate to sell bikes.

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So...CF...why are you posting on a Commando forum rather than a Kwacker 2-stroke forum ? You don't actually seem to like Nortons or indeed any of the components fitted to them. :?:[/quote

I like all old Brit bikes, but cant see much point in endless BS about them being so much better than the Jap bikes, which effectively spelt the end of the British motorcycle industry.

There is a heritage and art that gives way to a personality. The Stratocaster has it, Corvette has it, blues has it, Pollock had it, Norton has it. Like Louis Armstrong said “If you hafta ask, you’ll never know.”

CF....Nortons and Triumphs rule!!

I had an H1B back when I was a kid in the early '70s. It was frenetic and handled like a snake. I guess it wasn't my time to go so I lived through it. In the late '70s I walked into a dealship looking for a used bike. There was an H2 parked right next to an 850 Commando, both were $1000. It was a tough call but I got the Commando. It's like the guy said, "If I walked out to the parking lot and found my Honda gone, I'd be pissed. If I walked out and found my Norton gone, I'd be heartbroken."

Carbonfibre said:

JimR said:

I'm pretty sure that back in the day nothing was faster than the H1 or H2 and that included the 900 Kawasaki. But straight line acceleration for the Norton was comparable to the Kawasaki (the Norton needed a small rider and proper gearing to get comparable 1/4 mile times). Norton handling was way superior (one of the main reasons we love them). Still you can't deny that there was something about all 3 of those bikes. The 2 strokers were lean and really fast and the Z, when compared to the CB750 was beautiful. Also, there is something about waking up to the smell of 2 cycle oil at 6:00 AM on a beautiful NH day.

I got quite an education in 78 at Loudon watching a Z go through some turns. It was like my old TR4A, the back of the bike looked like it wanted to go first. A great deal of flex in the frame. Of course if I were riding it no one would have noticed the flex as I putted through the turns.

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H1 and H2 were the fastest accelerating bikes around in the 70s no contest, and while factory prepared Commandos with carefully built motors using special parts may well have had quite impressive performance figures,the fact that production bikes were not able to match these figures, was something that never seemed to figure much in the thinking of a factory that was pretty desperate to sell bikes.

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Ah yes, those two-smoke Kawis.


Wasn't the advertising slogan, "Goes like stink. Handling stinks. Braking stinks."

If not, shoulda been....

Actually, the frames and the brakes weren't too bad when you compare them to what was being made at the time. The suspensions on all the bikes then were abysmal compared to today's standards. It's just that those two strokes were so overpowered.

rpatton said:

Actually, the frames and the brakes weren't too bad when you compare them to what was being made at the time. The suspensions on all the bikes then were abysmal compared to today's standards. It's just that those two strokes were so overpowered.

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Thats pretty much spot on.............the Hi and H2 were certainly not machines for novice riders, but great fun in comparison to other bikes around at the time.

Well In looking at page 1 and page 9 of the thread it seems that the discussion got away from the question, here's my spin on it. In 1972 I owned an R5 Yamaha it too had front end lift problems cured by clip-ons and it too went like stink, blue cloud included. But it didn't get me boned by any cheerleaders or other cute girls, shit I couldn't get them to even go for a ride..... the guys with the Norton's and Bonny s did very well in that regard. Except for the weasel who had a 441 Victor which regularly bounced him on his ass when it backfired and he didn't get the compression release right, scared the girls....so here I sit fat, balding, greying thinking hmmmm I'm going to get a bike to tootle around on, when the light bulb went off in my head the R5 was not what popped into my mind it was a commando, I found a 71 sitting in a garage in the capital, I want something that goes like stink, sounds like trouble and looks like a motorcycle......Not that there are many cheerleaders floating around here in Omaruru Namibia, but you never know......

PS. My crate full of rebuild parts landed in Windhoek today, I'm on my way in the morning to go collect them, sometime before the end of august I'll have the prettiest, nastiest, most excellently righteous British twin in the country, I expect I'll tootle for about 30 seconds before I goose the shit out of it......


Cheers,

Chris in Omaruru

Because I couldn't afford a Vincent and when I did get to ride one, a very very nice one I'm glad I had a Commando. OK, here's the one episode that sums it up for me. Early one Sunday morning I was down at the local gas station topping up for day's ride. No else but a Volvo station wagon and me. I walk into to pay and a housewife with the just out of bed trakkie pants, Ugg boots, no make up, arms full of bread, milk and newspapers is heading out to the Volvo. She stops looks at the Commando and says " Jeeezzus, that is one bloody nice looking motorcycle".

Mick

The guy who started this thread must be pissing himself. Isn't this done?

Stephen Hill
Victoria, BC

I just spent the past few days helping a nephew-in-law (is that what you call the guy who married your niece?) work on a '75 Harely Sportster. The next time some Harley fanatic makes fun of my British bike, I have lots of ammo to toss back in their face. The "ironheads" make our Nortons look like works of art and design!

Russ

I was a teenager in the early 70's so by all rights I guess I should have liked the Honda, Yama Kawi bikes like everyone else my age. However I was blessed to have grown up seeing some of the coolest custom Triumphs Iv'e ever seen be built and so I knew of "the other side" The Brit bikes looked like motorcycles should, tough, cool and a bit loud. The Honda's to me were the ugliest things on two wheels, still do. All the rest looked like overgrown plastic kids toys, still do. I appriciate that they were light years ahead tech wise but all that plastic, cheap looking gages, engines that were frankly boring to look at & to me, they had none of the historic charm & soul Brit bikes had. I was luck to have two well known Norton guy's in my area. Getty & George from HPI God bless him. Needless to say my first bike was a Norton, kind of a junker but it worked for me & was nice by the time I sold it to buy another. It's just my personal taste, no bike is really "better" it's just up to what you "like" best but these days I ride with a bunch of guy's that just love the old Honda's, Yama Kawi things. I have never once parked my bike in that group & thought there was any bike there I would trade even a ratty old Norton for.

Hehe, there are few motorcycles that are as good for one's gearhead ego than to be seen/heard with one out and about, no matter the company or show, except at Norton rallys of course, which can be very ego deflating.