X rings and other things .

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Does the MKIII have more clearance to the primary and gearbox than earlier Nortons? I get interference with a standard 530 unless I grind off a bit of the master link pins. Just a smidgen.
 
All the years of owning my Norton since new I have always used the standard chain, my Norton was a everyday rider till 7 years ago and has clocked up a lot of miles, I get over 40k mile out of my standard chains and have only replaced the drive chains 4 times now, first one was replaced at less than 20k miles when it snapped doing a burn out when I was young and silly, in my home town there was a chain and pully supplier who sold heavy duty chains a small roll you get 2 chains out of it and the last chain I replaced from the chain man, but the chain before that was one of the heavy duty chain I had it clocked up over 40k miles but it threw the master link while taking off the lights quickly and thought it be wise to replace the chain but when the new chain arrived I put the old chain beside it and there was no stretch in the old chain, after over 40k miles on it was the same length after breaking the new chain to size.

Why do my chains get long life, well every time I service my Norton the chain comes off and is soaked in kero and given a good clean and inspection any tight spots are cleaned and freed up, once its all done I soak the chain in hot gear oil over night and then left hanging over the oil tin to drip any oil then its put back on the bike, this is done every 6 month or yearly depends on how many miles I clock up as well while on the bike it get lubed when needed, I use gear oil on its with a old tooth brush to apply it, I also get long life out of my sprockets front and rear, I get 2 chains before replacing the sprockets around 80k miles.

If you look after your chains you will get long life out of them even the standard chains, I just put it down to do it every time I do a oil change as part of maintenance, its not hard to do it if you have time on your side, I now run my joining link on the inside of my chain and the clip is safety wired so hopefully will not throw the link again, now my Norton is semi retired and not my everyday rider no longer once a year chain maintenance is all I do now, so far I have just over 20k miles on Andy the chain man chain, got it before he retired and so far its as good as the day I put it on, my Norton has a hot motor but no longer do burn outs or flog the ring out of it, but I still ride it hard.

Ashley
 
maylar said:
Does the MKIII have more clearance to the primary and gearbox than earlier Nortons? I get interference with a standard 530 unless I grind off a bit of the master link pins. Just a smidgen.
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That was the impression I got from Jim.
The older xring chain on my MK3 is a full inch wide at the pins and it runs free on there.

Glen
 
kerinorton said:
You seem to be basing your calculations on the 530 chain instead of the 10B [ 5/8 x 3/8 British Std ] the bike was designed for.

The new IWIS chains are the same dimensions as 10B. Mine has lasted so far, 4 times longer than any other chain I have used and I have adjusted it slightly only twice.

So many people have been reinventing the wheel on these bikes. Some great improvements and others just money and time wasters. I am a retired auto engineer, And was taught to fix problems, rather than just fit parts.
Before I knew much about Commando's, in the mid 70's I worked out a few modifications to mine which have made the bike a lot better.
1/ throwing away the useless side stand on my 71- 750.
2/ Making up and hard chroming a new swing arm "kingpin" and winding it into the g/box frame with a tool designed for mini suspensions. That pin is so tight, it will never come loose.
3/ Work out a gravity feed for the 90 oil, to the swing arm.
4/ Reinvent the centre stand so it could never break. [ its built now like a brick shithouse ].
5/ Reinvent the pivoting system for the centre stand so it cant flog out the g/box frame, and never work loose.


5/ about 5-6 years ago, and before I knew about this forum, I had made up new cushion pads for the isolastic's on both my bikes. They are a white plasticy substance somewhat similar it seems to the stuff Ludwig used on his extra centering devices and the "Ludwig Head Steady "
6/ I made up my own Ludwig head steady.
7/ Fitted an Iwis rear chain.

My observation, is that the simplest modification which is solid and unbreakable is the best solution. Other head steadies on the market are expensive and complicated. The engineers who make them would probably be better of making other specialized parts rather than waste their valuable time making things like that, but that's up to them. They work, and while rich buggers out there with more money than sense buy them, I say good luck to them and good business..

As an aside, I rode the length of the South Island of NZ, without a head steady, and not knowing it wasn't attached. I have mentioned this before, while riding through St Arnaud, I heard a light metallic rattle, but could not ID what it was, and the bike performed normally. I arrived in Dunedin for the National Rally, and did the ride the next day up to Palmerston, on to Middlemarch and then back down to Dunedin via Mosgiel, following John on his 500 SINGLE and Murray on his Mk III. The next day was shite weather, rain rain rain. We then attempted to leave Dunedin on the Monday Morning after a very rainy night, and found that a lot of bikes would not start easily, including mine. Mine turned out to be a faulty ignition switch, but in the process of looking, found the bolts to my head steady had disappeared. After getting the bike operating, I found the Bill Veitch had some BSF bolts so went to see him in Mosgiel. He got longer bolts and cut them short enough to just about bottom in the head when they were tightened. They have never come loose. A big thanks to Bill, and when I offered to pay for them etc. He would not hear of it.

I can only suggest that because I had those white plasticy cushions set to 5 though gap, in my isolastic's, the bike still handled normally. I don't normally ride fast but the ride from Middlemarch did prove how well the old 500 could go pretty fast, and i kept up with them without any effort;. Steep winding sweepers all the way up and down.

I experience a broken head steady on my 750 way back in 1974 . The bike was like riding a rubber band. Bloody awful, so I know what I should have felt on the 850 ]
After the Dunedin ride, I stripped and cleaned the 42 year old ignition switch. It was caked with grey graphitey looking dry crud. After cleaning, the contacts looked like they were brand new. Its back on and still working perfectly.

Happy New Year.

Dereck
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Any chance of a pic of the modified centre stand .
Looking for ideas for mine .
 
Not able to put pictures on this site, but all I did was get a piece of 1/2" high tensile steel rod and bend it to fit inside the bottom section of the legs and crossbar. i then welded it to the stand in 6 places on the front and 6 places on the back. Each weld was about an inch long and at the ends of each straight section. Hope that helps. For the pivots, I made hat bushes that fit firmly in the holes in the g/box frame. The spigots that fit inside the g.box frame were shorter that the thickness of the frame so when bolted through, they were held rigid in the frame. The larger spigots of the hat bushes were made longer than the thickness of the centre stand flanges so that when the whole lot was tightened, the stand was able to rotate on those larger spigots. Large thick washers were fitted under the heads of the bolts to compress the hat bushes hard into the g/box frame.
 
Hello again .
I have now received and mounted my VX530 chain for my MK3.
It looks good, but there is not much clearance to the gearbox.
I measure as a minimum clearance of 1.6 mm.
Hope that is enough. ?
Vidar
 
The DID narrow section 530 has been about for a few years now. I had one as sample, fits MK3 no problem, but will run very close on pre MK3. Weighs a lot more though. Based on cost, miles owners do and fitting decided not to take it on.

Motorcycle spec chain, be very careful. Manufacturers of motorcycle chain claim 530, or 5/8 x 3/8 chain is motorcycle spec, all I have seen is not advertised correctly. It is DIN spec chain, not motorcycle spec chain. The DIN spec tensile tests surpass the Motorcycle spec, no surprise as most here have noticed the chain is slightly different in design to the chain Renold made in 70's. Thicker side plates is where the added strength comes from and gives the game away it is actually DIN spec. The DIN size chains should be advertised as '' exceeds motorcycle spec tensile strength''
I could easily get motorcycle spec chain made, but would need over a Km of it at least. It would then to be tested to the Motorcycle spec, but I doubt it would pass DIN spec, if it did I would laughing as it would be lighter and cheaper to make as it would contain less steel. I suspect the chaimakers had already tried this and realised to achieve DIN spec then the side plates needed beefing up.
 
the idea of x ring chain is not to increase service life compared to o ring chain but actually reduce friction due to less seal contact with side plates so less HP loss
very minimal but this is what the marketing guys use to justify the price point
DID warranty is normally 1 year from date of invoice or 20k whichever comes first not many owners are covering 20k in twelve months these days ?
the sprocket material used on Norton`s is not cutting edge high carbon chromoly steel so actual chain life will be reduced by the sprocket material it mates with

All the Moto GP teams use non sealed low friction chain which is considerably lighter weight than sealed chain , less friction is faster and also reduces un sprung weight on rear suspension
improving turn in etc
 
A couple of years ago, a friend went to Laguna Seca to watch the GP races there. This was a birthday gift and included a pit pass.
He came back with photos of himself standing and grinning with Danny Pedrosa and some other racers. Gosh they are tiny, he's about six feet and they all look about half sized.
He was given the spent chain from the Pedrosa bike.
The chains are changed after each race.
It is a 520 x ring. Some of the side plates are blue from heat.
All of the GP bikes there had x ring chain.

Re the query above for the very narrow RK530, I haven't found it in North America to date.
 
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