Our mentality in road racing has changed. Now the guys complain about patches in the bitumen surface, the track has to be super smooth, and not a speck of oil. In the days when the norton twins were racing, the circuits weren't too flash in Australia. The other thing is that very few Norton twins ever raced in Australia in the old days (70s). The Seeley frame I now own was imported by an A grader who had the intention of using the commando engine. It was never built. The guy bought a nice new H2R Kawasaki, and was competitive that way against the best. I believe that Peter Williams was only ever successful against the two strokes in the UK, when it was raining ? I only built my bike simply because it was a good thing to do. I've never been under any delusion about it. It sat around for twenty years doing nothing, but when I actually raced it, it totally surprised me. I had never imagined that such an horrific motor could be so effective. It is without doubt, the best handling bike I've ever ridden, and with the close box - it responds instantly.
The simple fact is that a commando based bike will always be blitzed by even a 70s 350cc two stroke, or decent 750cc four cylinder machine. In our historic races these three main types of machine are always represented, so commandos and air cooled ducatis always finish down the back in all races. The mix of machines is a silly way to run races. We would have been much better off running each main type of machine separately in capacity classes, regardless of date of manufacture.
