new guy

Hello from the beautiful central valley of northern california. I recently ( september) bought a 72 roadster off craigslist S.F. and am in love with it. I've been lurking on here for several months
and have learned a great deal about commandos and mine in particular. Turns out its a combat!
At first I was a bit afraid cause of their tendency to blow up, but I don't rev higher than 6000ish
so as long as can keep it together ill keep riding it. I don't have any real questions, I just figured
it was time I broke down and registered/posted and got it over with.

Im 39. Ive been into cars and hit rods since i was a kid and recently started riding. Owned a 72 bonnie chopper (t120v twin mikuni's) that was fun and looked cool, but
I wanted something more road worthy. I've been looking for a few months at commands and decided I had to have one , so here I am. Haven't stopped riding since. Luckily out here in grape
country we have good weather year round, so unless its dumping buckets or fogged up, im out there.

Anywho... thought id say hi and get the first of many out of the way.
Now... how to post pics on this thing...!!?? Cause I know ya'll want to see the bike!

Hello from sunny SoCal! To post pictures on the site, upload your photos to Photobucket, Flickr, etc. and then include a link to the photos here. There is more information here:

technical-information-section-how-post-photos-t2357.html

Welcome! Cannot wait to see your Combat!

Welcome aboard,
Take a look in the oil tank while reving your bike...my guess is you get decent return to 4500 or so. Most of us don't hold above that for extended periods any way. If you do you might consider a bigger sprocket off the gear box. My Combat still has the 19T, which fits most of my riding locally just fine. If Iived where you do I would probably go bigger. In other words, don't sweat the oil issue until you need to get inside for something else and then do the modification. Check Old Britts tech articles for oil pressure loss on 750s if you are wanting to do some research on it.

Russ

Combats are Nortons cream of the crop. If still fairly new to I I'd highly suggest you keep and eye on front brake fluid level as hidden leaks can take a while to show up - one perfect good pull down to very next instant NOTHING AT ALL!
On brake note, if ya ever get the master cylinder apart take red hot nail at least 1/16" dia and remove the tiny pin hole restriction valve at end of the big rubber stopper and get noticed better brake effect and feel.

Don't worry about wet sumping a Combat, which has oil drain at front but G's force and crank spin push oil to the rear, but Norton wisdom provided a much more effective sump pump action that the whimpy oil pump, via the low down breather that forces oil back to tank so engine don't starve, just gets covered in excess oil out every seam in elastic engine antics at hi rpm. Main dangers is if crank flexes enough the old style flat roller bearings can crack or crank can, plus the cast iron flywheel is known brittle bomb lurking. Open oil cap someday after its sat up a while, then watch what shows up on a start and slow idle, resist temptation to blip if much at first or may have to clean everthing around as pencil thick stream becomes a hi pressure jet emptying sump in seconds.

There is a oil pick up mod plus PVC valve to tame oil blow out.

Combats with early factory hand augered big ports don't really come on 2S cam till about 6800 and can feel like another piston kicking in, so no torque fall off to warn to upshif or BOMB - as Combat nick named back then.

Always jealous of Californians and their great weather. Welcome and enjoy from 20 degree Illinois, Tim.

Welcome, Chris. There are a lot of Combats out here and many are Norton Commandos. Can't wait to see it.

Have made a few trips to Healdsburg to bring a wee bit o the grape home. Nice country there. Russian River and the like. Why am I sitting here with two feet plus of snow in the backyard? Welcome.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome! Like isaid, I've been lurkingfor a few months and am pleased
that I found a forum that is a good source of info and populated with genuinely nice folks ( not much one upsmanship showoff attitude ). I don't know any history of the bike ( Ive named her gertrude) but judging by the condition, id say that a previous owner did a nice resto on her. Hoping (fingers toes eyes crossed) that included all the necessary upgrades nods needed to keep her from coming apart.

Yes, we are spoiled here as car as weather goes. Lowest temp this year was about 23f. Didn't keep me from riding though! Im in the Lodi area south of sacramento. Flat 1 mile grids on the valley floor, but about 20 min from foothills or delta where the roads actually have turns. Good area too ride, but dominated by the HD crowd.

Im sure ill be asking lots of Q's and am confident ill get help here.
Thanks again.

Oh yah... VIVA HOBOT! I don't care what some of.these guys say. Keep up the good work and attitude. Tm sure alot of guys told Mr. Burt that an old indian would NEVER go 200!_

caddy chris said:

. Good area too ride, but dominated by the HD crowd.

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Don't worry about those people, when you pull up to them at the stop light,they will give you the nod. Commando's rule and they know it!

As far as encouraging Hobot, be careful or you'll end up with a 4 page essay.

2" of hard pack down my road.

Ride On!
It's unbelievably just above freezing today, here in the Ohio tundra. :shock:
I'd consider riding if not for the solid white coating of road salt everywhere. :cry:

I would take "just above freezing".

It's a heatwave in Wisconsin, saw 40 on the thermometer!!!

There oughta be a law....

Not to rub it in, but its sunny and 50 in the hills, so... gonna go out and try to wear the edges of the tires a bit. Maybe dodge a turkey or two. Them things are everywhere up there!

Still trying to get the pix up. Im not very computer savvy, and im doing all this from my phone.
Ill take some photos of my ride today and try to post them tonight.

I'd take my Xs650 out but... I got a hairbrained idea and dissasembled my only running bike. New shocks arrive tomorrow and the entire frontend is off for a dual disk upgrade. Still waiting on my aluminum pieces to fabricate caliper adapters.

bwolfie said:

I'd take my Xs650 out but... I got a hairbrained idea and dissasembled my only running bike.

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Why would you do that :?:

britbike220 said:

bwolfie said:

I'd take my Xs650 out but... I got a hairbrained idea and dissasembled my only running bike.

Click to expand...

Why would you do that :?:

Click to expand...

You'd be amazed of what seems like a good idea after a couple of beers

Welcome, Chris.

Take care of that thing till you need to get inside, then do the sump mods & Superblends.

Webby03 said:

britbike220 said:

bwolfie said:

I'd take my Xs650 out but... I got a hairbrained idea and dissasembled my only running bike.

Click to expand...

Why would you do that :?:

Click to expand...

You'd be amazed of what seems like a good idea after a couple of beers

Click to expand...

Sad thing is I don't drink. I just let my mind wander and bad stuff happens. If I don't do it It keeps me up at night.

Well, no turkeys! Beautiful ride both ways round comanche reservoir. Bout 40 miles. Ran great. Saw a guy with a sportbike parked on an overlook and thought id see if he was ok. Poor guy is going through tough time and needed to get out. Its amazing the psychological benifits a bike has. Just get on and ride and forget for a while. Well, I talked with him for a bit and gave him some things to think about as I went through similar things not too long ago. Hope it helps. Overall a great ride. Now im off to clean her up and check the bolts! Cheers!