1 year after the rebuild

Hi All

Well its been nearly 1 years since my 850 Commando/Featherbed Norton has been back on the road since the rebuild, just throught I share a few ups and downs of the last 1 year, the first ride after the rego, less than 2 miles from home, lay the bike down because car pulling out in front of me (long story) min damage to the Norton (more to my pride) after the fix up and taking it easy for the first few hundred miles to bed ever thing in right, with the Joe Hunt maggie very happy how it starts first kick (and if it didn't start first kick would be the 3rd kick, funny how that happens) after a few weeks not to happy with the orginal front brakes (keeps pulling to the right on hard braking) thinking the front disc could be warped as I found out the hard way, end of February another car decides it don't like me and when I hit the brakes hard at slow speed the Norton throwes me over the handle bars (front brake locks up and pulled to the right again) outcome, fractured left arm and broken left thump, put me out of action for 6 weeks but gave me time to order and fit brand new Grimca 12" floating disc to the front with Grimca master cylinder and S/S brake line as well Progressive springs in the front end, one of the best mods I have done, great brakes and no more sag in the front end.

After 6 months on the road and riding it 6 days out of 7 (this is a every day ride mostly, work and play) the carbies start to play up, taking 3 to 4 kicks to start, so decide to rebuild with new jets, needles and every thing else that they needed, but the slides are still good (these are the secon set of Amals since I have owned the Norton since new 1976), after the carbies rebuild and the Norton is still starting first kick most of the time (very rerely takes more than 1 kick to start) and it was about this time I had my first part failure, rear brake drum circlip mount broke causing the dummy axcle and bearing to move which made the drum rub tightly on the backing plate (lucky I was able to get home was about 3 miles from home) it was a easy fix, I was able to put the sprocket drum on a lathe and machine the groove deeper and put a oversize circlip in (a $3 42mm circlip) have had no more problems with this and so far have had no other problems with my Norton.

Well after 1 year and over 5,000 miles clocked up, the Joe Hunt is performing great, the belt drive hasn't given me no problems, the front brakes are working very well with 1 finger operation most of the time, so what am I going to give the Norton for its first year back on the road, well I just order Jim Schmide's Flatslide carbies, should be here in the next few days with luck and should work very well with the mods that I have done to this 850 engine.

Ashley





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Kudos to you for overcoming what sounds like a turbulent year of riding.

Nice bike, too. I'll probably draw from it somewhat for inspiration if/when I decide to throw together my 750/featherbed special. I'm planning on using the iso cradle and commando swingarm on mine, though. We'll see if I ever even get around to doing the project...

-Jordan

That is quite a story, you are dedicated to keep going after the two incidents. Are you fully recovered?

How do you like the featherbed frame compared to the Commando unit? It is hard to imagine the Commando unit could be improved on but I see folks making this modification and can only speculate it must be better.

What are the muffler/silencers that you have fitted? How do they sound?

Vintage Paul

With cars pulling out in front of you and all this "hard brakiing" you're having to do I think better forward observation and planning is called for while you're still in one piece

Dave.

Almost like my first timid try outs, sPALT on front brake on loose stuff. I can't imagine a wrapped rotor causing bike to pull to one side, I'd first suspect you fixed something else on the new brake install. But regardless glad to know you bounce back good and got more brake than tire grip again.

Hi All

Jordon don't give up on building a featherbed project bike as it will surprise you how well they handle, my 850 has been in this Featherbed frame since 1980, I don't know about the Iso set up for a Featherbed frame but if you get the crank balanced for the Featherbed frame (mine is at 72% balance factor) I don't have much trouble with virbrations.

Vintage Paul the mufflers are upswept Cocktail Shakers, they put out a good sound and have open baffles so the gases gets out real fast and when my cam kicks in it sounds even better, I got them from Lowbrow Customs from Ohio for $139 for the pair and very happy with the performace they give.

As for my first incerdent, it was the first ride and less than 2 miles from leaving home, the young lady that was in front of me had her left indicator on, I was only in 2nd gear and slowing to go around her right when she turned right and because the tyres were new and I was turning to avoid her as I was braking the front end just went out from me, she told me she had her indicator on but when I showed her it was her left one still fashing, say no more.

The front brake disc rotor was given to me from my local bike shop as my orginal rotor was unuseable, so I didn't know the condition of it, but as the first few weeks past I knew something wasn't right with the front brake, so decided to buy a new rotor as I found the rotor wasn't running true, but thats when I had the 2nd incerdent, I was leaving a friends place 2 houses from a T section so I was only in first gear had to stop sudden as a car was coming down the road pretty fast, next thing I know I'm laying on the road with a busted left arm, so i had 6 weeks to recover and decided to stop mucking around and upgrade the whole front brakes, the arm is good now but like any fractures they can take over 1 year to fully heal, I still can't fully straighten it yet.

I set up the old rotor on the lathe at work and was surprised at how much the rotor was warpped on one section of the rotor, I should have replaced it long before the 2nd incerdent even happened.

Ashley

I'm impressed. Best of luck out there. An episode like that can have long-lasting effects, and I hope you continue to ride.

Hi
I will keep riding till I can't kick the Norton over from old age HeHe, when I was recovering for the 6 weeks (3 weeks in plaster and the other 3 weeks to get the arm moving again) all I wanted to do is get back on the road, this was the first broken bone that I have ever had and have been riding bikes since I was 14, I am coming up to 53 soon so I think I have done well, so remember you can get hurt as much from slow speed crashes as well as hi speed, you don't even have to brake hard to come off, when I was 18 years old i was riding the 850 down a nice mountain range road, nice tight corners and some long straigths (Mt. Mee west of Brisbane) the last corner I was doing 70 MPH as I was coming into the corner when all I seen was loose gravel all over the road, the front end just slipped straigth out from under me, the out come of this was right side foot peg bent, bent handle bars to the Norton, gravel gash to my right leg and gravel gash to my chin (open face helment), still rode home and never slowed me down ever on that great road, its been a while since I have been up this range so mite have to go there for a ride this Sunday as the weather has been so perfect this last few weeks.

Ashley

Hey Ash,
I know this is an old post, but do you have a picture of your bike with the upswept cocktail shaker mufflers? I think they might be the missing link, as far as cosmetics go for my bike. I've been running 1 3/4" fishtails with a 4" baffle, they look great, sound good and perform well, but I like them shakers from Low Brow. Thanks

After 6 years after all the small problems i am still running then CTS mufflers they perform so well but mind you i did take the baffle system out and just left the last few inches of the end cones to give me the back pressure they need for them to perform great, i have been using similar mufflers for over 37 years and the best part they are upswept pipes which I like, so yes buy them and do what I did they do perform better than any other mufflers that I have used, not many people on this site understand they want to keep every thing close to orginal but expect high performance without thinking about other cheaper mufflers that will out perform anything else for their Norton.
My Norton is a hot rod and needs to breath and with these mufflers and what I have done to them it gets the exhaust out very quickly and the best part is they sound great when you give it stick.

Ashley