Commando Racer

Thanks for that. I had found the page and just cut and pasted the address. It should have worked, but obviously did not.
There is a video somewhere on Youtube which shows Ago riding on the Nurburgring. If you listen to his motor as he enters and leaves corners he uses engine trailing and braking as he enters the corners, as a soon as he is about one-third of the way into the corners, he is straight back onto the gas. Doing that is not intuitive, and the first time a normal rider does it, it feels wrong - but it works. I have read Tony Foale's book on handling and it seems there are two extremes associated with trail - both end up with self-steering. Too little trail and the bike probably self-steers the wrong way and runs wide in corners.

Nigel has been talking about using a featherbed frame for his 920 motor. I think he could do a lot better than that. And it is not just because I happen to own a Seeley. Before I bought it, The Seeley had a 750cc Laverda motor in it. I was riding my Triton 500, my mate was riding the Seeley. Normally with his own Triton, he could never out-corner me. I over-braked in front of him and he rode around me in the corner, popped in front of me and grabbed a handful of discs. I crashed. That is the reason I tracked the Seeley down and bought it. No featherbed ever handles as good as that. And that was with the wrong fork yokes.
I paid for the complete bike, but I could not get the Laverda motor - so it became a Commando 850.
 
acotrel said:
Thanks for that. I had found the page and just cut and pasted the address. It should have worked, but obviously did not.
There is a video somewhere on Youtube which shows Ago riding on the Nurburgring. If you listen to his motor as he enters and leaves corners he uses engine trailing and braking as he enters the corners, as a soon as he is about one-third of the way into the corners, he is straight back onto the gas. Doing that is not intuitive, and the first time a normal rider does it, it feels wrong - but it works. I have read Tony Foale's book on handling and it seems there are two extremes associated with trail - both end up with self-steering. Too little trail and the bike probably self-steers the wrong way and runs wide in corners.

Nigel has been talking about using a featherbed frame for his 920 motor. I think he could do a lot better than that. And it is not just because I happen to own a Seeley. Before I bought it, The Seeley had a 750cc Laverda motor in it. I was riding my Triton 500, my mate was riding the Seeley. Normally with his own Triton, he could never out-corner me. I over-braked in front of him and he rode around me in the corner, popped in front of me and grabbed a handful of discs. I crashed. That is the reason I tracked the Seeley down and bought it. No featherbed ever handles as good as that. And that was with the wrong fork yokes.
I paid for the complete bike, but I could not get the Laverda motor - so it became a Commando 850.
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I talk about a lot of daft ideas Al and fortunately most of ‘em end there!

So fear not, I’m not putting the 920 motor into a featherbed.
 
The problem with doing something like that is you don't know how it will work until you try it. I had a love hate relationship with my 500cc Triton. My old mate had built and raced it in the mid 50s. But he never told me what it did to him. When I first raced it, it was absolutely impossible, but it got better as I changed it. I sold it back to him for the price of one of the 7R brake hubs, after it had destroyed me. It was actually a very goodc race bike, but it desperately need a 6 speed gearbox, and I was always too lousy to buy one. My Seeley 850 is streets ahead, but the Triton taught me how to race.
Your motor sounds as though it is excellent. If it is stable and powerful, that is all you need, when you have something good to steer it with.
 
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