I lost interest in Nortons for a short time, after my Combat
head parted company with the barrels at very high speed, going straight through the petrol
tank, knocking my cigarette straight out of my mouth! I was just recovering interest when
Norton brought out the Mk III, ending my love affair completely.
Phil In my haste prepping for a speeding ticket - no driver license case this am I over looked your cosmic level blow up! Crapola, what were your doing to cause that? [last yr got same charges dismissed over 3 appearances and almost jailed 1st] Truth is I never came down, thank goodness. I got impression Norton tried to appeal to American Harley market with the 850's configuration, good as they are compared to about anything else excdept 750's. I didn't know what a Commando was in '99 so configured my pre-Peel with huge Kings/Queen saddle, floppy leather bags and under chin tool kit with tall T140 'ape' bars. The rebuild into Peel was as a hard bagger foot forward, till after 1st 1000 miles got bored and disgusted I didn't buy a real sports bike so I tired to break and crash 'it' >>> till my world turned inside out whispering her new iconic fantasy character name.
What do ya want to know about cycle handling and Commando's in general?
I hold with 'up&dn' that the power unit DS primary mass as well as its 3/16" to 3/8" LH shift is the main reason Cdo's tend to drift L hands off so definitely on my mind configuring next Peel. i also can sense the front disc mass pulling forks by gravity to its side though much less an effect than the whole out of balance power unit. RH rotor tends to turn forks to R which via counter steering moves bike towards center of the road. Personally I think the ONLY thing that steers any inline cycle is the angle of lean and/or line of drive off the rear tire thrust. Forks are just like a rudder to get the rear then both tires working to turn the craft, just like a boat or a plane. We see stunters showing how that works going slow but in some ways its easier going fast. I have been spoiled by past Peel which was amazingly totally neutral barely tending to drift L up crowns hands off and essentially not at all over 70-80, likely d/t the wheel gryos resisting the leaning and fork angling. Last rides on Peel were done to practice hands off body slams at 110 to aim into turns, especially down hill not to bleed speed so much. Peel would hold that lean angle and turn radius till I slammed her up on down. Hands off forks will automatically road follow the rear's lean angle aim by straight steering. Peel would slow to below 20 mph before forks began to oscillate and then not bad to grab till almost stopped. Can't do that on my factory Combat below 35 on new tires and 50 on bad tires. Forks Must Oscillate to stay upright, though few but Peel can sense it at hi speed but has a lot to do with racers saying not to stiff arm the bars.
To me the reason Combats got 4.10 tire in front was to get more advantage of the disc brake. I tired 100 front last yr on factory Trixie and will not wait to wear it out like my 110's to the edges, as its wearing the center out fast. Never had that happen on before, always wore to flat wedges either side of still decent center. So will be rid of it as my ignorant red hot nail job locks it up too easy.
A totally neutral cycle does not trip down automatically with tire spin or loss of traction, it just holds same lean and fork angle while it drifts wider on the tangent till ya let up power then hooks suddenly to bounce back upright or way further than that for fun. This does wild things to the frame - which is a big mystery to rest of the world. This slide drift skip states do require strong stiff arming bars to dampen the fork flutter and snatches but by golly when the slide ends ya better let the fork go an instant to snap to where they want to then regrip to hold new aim.
If ya can keep the pressure on a Cdo suspension and isolatics they can whip around wonderful but soon as enough pressure let off the innate slack in isolastics rubbers and gaps can build up positively. Ride w/o a head steady at own risk but that and half flat tires will train you like nothing else. Main thing about old hard tires ain't so much lack of traction, which is kind of nice to explore rear skip outs even on un-tammed iso's but mostly they are hard in side walls too so bang back into suspension and isolatics till weave/wobble hinging onsets too dam soon and harsh. If ya let air out to compensate only helps up to a point then tires wallow on their patches upseting into hinging bucking bronco. When on Peel if I saw a fork damper i did not bother with them. Peel was best on 120 rear 110 front but on Trixie the 120 felt too much like running in boots.
I remember that weave too.
