- Joined
- Mar 3, 2023
- Messages
- 4
I'm in the middle of a long overdue complete rebuild of my "1973" 750 Commando.
I'm the second owner, purchased the bike way back in 1980, knowing not much about Nortons as my friends had Triumph Bonnevilles. The bike has a Combat engine ("C" stamped high compression head, larger valves, black painted cylinders, etc.). It is a matching numbers bike, s/n 212xxx. No less an authority than Brian Slark assures me that Combat engines were only produced for the 1972 models, and that Combat engines ended after 211110.
Furthermore, I had the engine rebuilt back in 1990 by British Marketing in So. Cal. and they confirmed that the engine had been rebuilt before I bought it. It had Superblend main bearings (the standard Combat fix), but also had the "standard" cam instead of the Combat cam. This work would have been done in Maryland where I purchased the bike and I'm assuming it was purchased somewhere in the state.
Color me confused; Do I own a 1972 bike that somehow got registered as a 1973? The head badge says the date of manufacture is Oct. 1972. That seems like a late manufacture date for a 1972 model.
I'm the second owner, purchased the bike way back in 1980, knowing not much about Nortons as my friends had Triumph Bonnevilles. The bike has a Combat engine ("C" stamped high compression head, larger valves, black painted cylinders, etc.). It is a matching numbers bike, s/n 212xxx. No less an authority than Brian Slark assures me that Combat engines were only produced for the 1972 models, and that Combat engines ended after 211110.
Furthermore, I had the engine rebuilt back in 1990 by British Marketing in So. Cal. and they confirmed that the engine had been rebuilt before I bought it. It had Superblend main bearings (the standard Combat fix), but also had the "standard" cam instead of the Combat cam. This work would have been done in Maryland where I purchased the bike and I'm assuming it was purchased somewhere in the state.
Color me confused; Do I own a 1972 bike that somehow got registered as a 1973? The head badge says the date of manufacture is Oct. 1972. That seems like a late manufacture date for a 1972 model.