CNW oil tank mod

A friend had two Commandos running in the La Carrera Panamericana, one of them suffered an oil tank failure where the bottom mount fractured and dumped all the oil. Fortunately, there was no other damage and they trucked the bike back to San Miguel and "traded" it for another (non-Norton) in the garage. The other Norton was a CNW bike which had the tank mod :http://www.coloradonortonworks.com/catalog/mods.asp and made the run with no problems.

I'm just posting this as a "service" to suggest that this mod -either by CNW or DIY - would seem to be very valuable. I plan to ride in the La Carrera next year and I will have this done to my bike. It also struck me that the ss oil feed lines would be a good thing. I had never seen a real reason to do it (I road my original '71 till it had 40+k miles on it with no "upgrades" of any kind and no problems) but it now seems obvious to me that extended high speed riding on sometimes pretty rough roads with many "speed bumps" ("Topes" here in Mexico) is pretty tough on suspension and any other parts that prone to vibration failure. As my friend pointed out - "If there is a weak point on a bike, it will show up at the La Carrera."

Yes best to support bottom of oil tank with nice stiff rubber padding. Tank brackets also tend to fracture on rough riding I found. I placed rubber washers in them too for extra dulling of tank mass slapping around. Thin shock mount plates can get wallowed out and fracture too. I've re-enforced that area on my off road Combat.

Coil mounts are another fracture prone part to be aware of in rough path use.

Personally I think rough riding is best reasojn NOTl to use SS hoses as the vibes and bouncing turns them into hack saws against what ever they touch and a booger to route so they don't. Only place SS hose is good idea on Cdo is for better brake action.

One very impressive mod to me for wild and loaded off road runs is Greg's Fauth's Roadholder kit >> Norton Bsa <norbsa@hotmail.com>
Gives 6" fork travel with silent soft top and bottom outs. I like em better than the modern MX forks I've tested in same raw conditions. Cheap and easy. Mush easier on pilot wrists and seat flying at speed over most the lessor lumps/bumps. Try automotive power steering fluid too just short of hydro lock up level.
RGM fork brace solves the twist up on fast and furious recovery actions.

A 'skid plate' splash shield as a factory item is good to protect front of engine and iso mount from tire spray. I made a cope from Al sheet to save some mass.

If ya really want to impress yourself and other by wild levels of secure handling I can reccomend enough Bob Patton's rear linkage. The other front and top links are nice but don't really tame the hingle handling onset, just move it up a bit for extra fast onset terror.

http://www.panamrace.com/overview.html

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... cana.&aq=f

hobot - peeing in pants to ever take Ms Peel down there to tear it up.