Anti-Janky-fying my 1974 Norton Commando

Put a big order in with Andover. Sherb has been a real help and will be sending me some new shear pins. He suggested Andover - I would happily give Classicbike my money.

Anyway, here's the current state:


Here's a fun bit of attention to detail from the seller of the bike. No fork seal caps or gaiters. I didn't initially notice until my friend came back from a test ride with the seals 4" up the tubes! Sherb guilted me into ordering a full rebuild kit.

Not shown: the fender rattles around because every bolt (they're supposed to be studs as I'm sure everyone knows) is either cross-threaded or the wrong thread pitch and are not clamping the bracket.



The solid rear brake linkage shown earlier is never going to work. Even if I correct for the binding, it hits hard parts before the brake actually engages even with the pedal 1" up from horizontal (not really usable). I have a proper cable on order.

Noticed the fork leg is missing the pinch bolt for the front axle, which was barely hand tight (!).

https://nycnorton.com/product/fork-bushing-kit/ You get a set of seal retainer nuts that use a pin wrench to tighten them, since you need that part anyway, plus some better quality low friction bushings..

mfennell said:

As previously introduced, I won a '74 Commando (I see I typed 72 for some reason) on Iconic Auctions back in January for some damn reason. I don't have enough to do, apparently.

The seller was Mike Seate, publisher of Cafe Racer Magazine, where the bike was a project bike. It has some nice stuff on it, best bit being an Alton electric start, which I have managed to screw up while it's been in my possession. I spoke with Mike over the phone while arranging transportation and he assured me that I would be "really happy with the bike". I think he intended to say I would be "really happy with the bike if you like fixing a lot of janky sh*t". Maybe we had a bad phone connection.

So, life has been hectic but I finally cleared my lift and put the Norton on it. And this is what it looks like (strategic picture angle to make garage look as uncluttered as possible).

View attachment 130436

Off to pick out tile for my daughter's bathroom. Living the dream folks.

Click to expand...

You are lucky that the owner/publisher of the rag was not wrighting a repair manual. Carry on.

o0norton0o said:

https://nycnorton.com/product/fork-bushing-kit/ You get a set of seal retainer nuts that use a pin wrench to tighten them, since you need that part anyway, plus some better quality low friction bushings..

Click to expand...

Oh man, I already have the Andover kit. Sigh... gets out credit card. again

Well,.....In general, the most important thing for handling performance is first choosing the correct spring. After the spring choice, comes installing high tech damping which is really just a better spring energy modifier. Then the high tech teflon coated bushings are next important as friction modifiers for your moving parts. Then high quality fork fluid so the response doesn't change much due to heat....

So, don't beat yourself up that you didn't get the teflon bushings kit right out of the gate because the stock commando spring is too soft to give much of a high performance handling feel anyway. The stock damper is pretty rudimentary as well... The stock parts work to give a commando a soft ride with ponderous but predictable quality to the steering. It can be much improved, but you need to upgrade all the elements for the dramatic effect.

As far as the front end goes, I like to make the comparison to doing engine modifications for more HP, which people seem to better understand. Any single upgrade to the engine doesn't do much to improve horsepower, you need to do the whole package of upgrades to really change the character of the performance. It's the same with suspension performance...

Continuing to document the nonsense I'm finding. I doubt anyone cares but it really annoys me. Pulled the front wheel to get ready to rebuild the forks. Crap work at every corner.

Fender bolts. Seriously?



There's a nice CNC machined caliper mount but it doesn't put the caliper in the right spot. A couple washers didn't actually do it. Note that the right side pistons are more pushed in AND the pad on that side is also more worn. Nicely done!



This is particularly awesome The backside of the caliper mount. Note that the lower bolt is way too short, only engaging about half the threads. No worries, it's only my FRONT BRAKE CALIPER (which is extra important since the rear brake doesn't actually work).



Last one. These Brembo calipers have a knocked in pin to keep the pads from flying out. A clip backstops the pin from moving too far. Except on this bike. Couldn't even be bothered with a bit of safety wire. Thanks!

I made an offset block for the stock caliper on my commando because I changed to cast wheels and the disk was a larger diameter. I did micro adjust the caliper position using a pair of thin copper washers between the boss on the fork leg and the offset bracket just to center the caliper on the disk. In retrospect, I should have used a lighter weight caliper for less unsprung weight on the front wheel, but I was trying to use what parts I had at the time. Also of note in the picture is the fiberglass front fender which I clamp to the sliders with a pair of hose clamps. It doesn't use the threaded bosses like the one's that are "buggered" in your picture and it's pretty cheap to buy from "Glass from the past". I use this one on my commando even though it's for a dunstall Triumph. dunstall-triumph-front-fender-dunfdrb

Left fork leg: no oil. Dry. Unbelievable.

Both fork legs dry. Probably to save weight. Certainly not from incompetence/indifference.

Not to bum you out but the shocks don't look like any I've ever seen on a Commando... Ikon makes good shocks for commandos. I've had a pair on my bike since the 80's when the company was called Koni. Better than the stock girlings... Most non norton specific shocks hit the chain guard into the chain. You might check into that too...

Clearly being the "dude" from Cafe Racer magazine gives you some cred at parties and walking around in the pit area of race tracks, just don't let him work on your bike.... Hopefully he didn't touch the engine...or the gearbox.

I have a 70 commando and during the early years they didn't require them to have directional lights... If you are riding the public roads, then you are sharing the roads with drivers who are too young to know that hand signals are a "thing", so I put the wiring, lights, and controls in for directional lights so I don't get killed...

Also, when you are forced to do repairs because of poor workmanship or missing parts, there's a surprising number of upgrades you can do to make a commando work better. You can probably ask "Aye Eye" for each job you feel you have to do and it might save a lot of forum searches... to find out if the next job has upgraded parts options.