British made - Marchant & Durward Rearsets

Johnnymac · Jul 9, 2012

Guys,

I was at my local cycle shop and they happened to have an old set of Norton Commando rearsets made by an old British company called Marchant & Durward (I bought them). They are made for Commandos and are the MD108 model. Any idea what these could be worth? They were on the shelf at the shop for the past 32 years. I know this because they are wrapped in British newspaper which has the date on it.

gtsun · Jul 9, 2012

I'de very much like to see a few pictures of them. Are they designed to mount to the orig "Z" plates or some other way? Depending on the quality you could expect to sell them for what a good set of Dunstalls are selling for, check Fleabay. Frankly I think they are way overpriced for the quality so if yours are nice you might get more. Pictures please.

Johnnymac · Jul 9, 2012

I will snap a couple pics this evening when I get home from work. They look pretty nice from what I can tell. I haven't seen any other sets in person so I don't really have anything to compare them to.

Johnnymac · Jul 9, 2012

Here are a couple pics from my recent find....

British made - Marchant & Durward Rearsets

They were wrapped in paper. The Daily Mail 1980.

cjandme · Jul 9, 2012

Nice Find!! I graduated High School in 1980---they don't type out instructions like that anymore! LOL

Hobot · Jul 9, 2012

That looks exactly like my John Tinkle labled resets and work a treat if ya keep ahead of the folding peg rotation fixing and the brake peddle stop clamping. There is a way to set the brake mount plate so cable has straight shot to the drum but it ain't the way it was designed.

Keith1069 · Jul 10, 2012

Same design as mine from Mick Hemmings. The small tapped holes are for the brake light switch but not sure why there are two sets. I see what Hobot says but mount them with the brake cable stop at 1 o'clock and you have a nicely curved run up and down behind the Z plate.

Johnnymac · Jul 10, 2012

Keith1069 said:
Same design as mine from Mick Hemmings. The small tapped holes are for the brake light switch but not sure why there are two sets. I see what Hobot says but mount them with the brake cable stop at 1 o'clock and you have a nicely curved run up and down behind the Z plate.

Do you have any pics of your installed? Given the high detailed instructions, some pics would be nice.

Hobot · Jul 10, 2012

Chris · Jul 10, 2012

Hi

Same as the tickle set up. Company down Devon way made them for everyone, including Dunstall. Marchant & Durward made a lovely twin leading shoe brake. Also an alloy featherbed race tank. Never found the brochure my mate said he gave me.

Chris

gtsun · Jul 10, 2012

I like the way you rotated the brake side plate so the cable goes straight to the hub Hobot. That's not how it was designed to be Johnny but I bet it gives better braking, I have a set that look very similar to yours that must have been made for a Atlas or other model. The shifter is to short to go on a Commando no matter how you arange the Kickstart arm witch if you try mounting yours you will find it takes pulling the arm off and fine tuning it to make it all work. I love rearsets on Commando's. Can't stand ridding them any other way.

Johnnymac · Jul 10, 2012

hobot said:

Great pics! Question, if the plate the brake is mounted to isn't correct, what is the correct way?

Hobot · Jul 10, 2012

OH CRAPOLA yoose guys just pointed out something I'd not understood tiil just now, oh my. I was about heat and bug swarmed delirious the night i tried to figure out rear sets on Peel yet determined to use what was on hand and ride next day. I was recently stumped why I couldn't get a straight cable run on Trixe, UGH. I'd put the brake plate peg under the swing arm instead of in Peels slot. But by gosh it did give me lock up control on rear, which I use other than just slowing up in a straight line. Cool now I can do Trixie this way to get better brake action and cable life. On Peel I first just reversed the shift lever but found that annoying and on leans knocked toe off so put on the over head linkage like ole yellar Trixie shows. Sensible cable solution might be a shorter cable with plate peg in the slot.

Normal foot pegs for my 6'2" length legs trunk gives injurious posture but have ridden 500 miles days and didn't want it to stop as home approached. With a bit taller bars than sporting factory set I go into trace states w/o body awareness to become one with a turbo fan flight machine.

Keith1069 · Jul 11, 2012

Do you have any pics of your installed? Given the high detailed instructions, some pics would be nice.

These any good? Could take more closeups if you need. I had to bend the gear shift bar to fit around the kickstart lever which is a Mk3 on mine. As you can see its tight and no amount of adjustment of the rod would let it clear when changing gear and operating the k/s. I also changed the clevis for rod ends, only cheap ones but it reduces the play.

Johnnymac · Jul 11, 2012

Keith1069 said:
Do you have any pics of your installed? Given the high detailed instructions, some pics would be nice.

Click to expand...

These any good? Could take more closeups if you need. I had to bend the gear shift bar to fit around the kickstart lever which is a Mk3 on mine. As you can see its tight and no amount of adjustment of the rod would let it clear when changing gear and operating the k/s. I also changed the clevis for rod ends, only cheap ones but it reduces the play.

Hi Keith, your pics didn't show up.

gtsun · Jul 11, 2012

Johnnymac I haven't figured out if I can post pictures using my IPhone but if you PM (private message) me your EMail address I'll send you good pictures of mine so you can see how the plate mounts, I also ditched the cheesy rod/clevis thing & used a nice one with rod ends. The normal way the plate mounts has the brake cable coming up around 1:00 & curving down going behind the "Z" plate & exhaust brackets, then the little flat piece on the brake peddle can acctuate the brake lite switch. It's made to use the typical cheap plastic ones & the two sets of holes are there so you can move it to where you need to depending on how you want the peddle adjusted. Tell the truth with the cable mounted "correctly" it's not as powerful as it is straight the "Hobot" way.

Keith1069 · Jul 11, 2012

Apologies I deleted the linked files not the duplicates I had, an age thing I'm afraid! Try these.......

grandpaul · Jul 11, 2012

Those are also identical to the Clubman rearsets, except for the cast mounting plate.

"Imitation is the highest form of flattery"

Johnnymac · Jul 11, 2012

Thanks for all the responses guys! I really appreciate it. I guess I did well scoring these NOS, genuine rearsets for $150.

I can't wait to get them on my Combat and try them out!

grandpaul · Jul 11, 2012

$150 is a very good price indeed.

British made - Marchant & Durward Rearsets

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