Dunstall Commando's

My curiosity is getting the best of me. How many of us have either an original or a reproduction Dunstall?
Just an unofficial survey. Please provide a brief description and a picture. How many are out there?
I will start this off. I have a reproduction. It's an 1973/1974 850 drivetrain in a 1975 frame with a NOS seat and tank, 2-1-2 exhaist with short mufflers,
Fairing and front fender. I will be making a Dunstall centerstand.

Dunstall's Norton Tuning Notes online, I had to buy hard copy in my day : (
http://www.squidoo.com/paul-dunstall-tuning

I have a 1971 project bike that I am building with Dunstall livery. There is a photo of it against the wall in the photos in my 'Most Improved' article on the opening page of this site, sorry I don't know how to bring it over to this thread. The tank, fairing and clip-ons are from an original Dunstall equipped 1970 machine that I bought in the 1980s, I have subsequently located a repro double seat and Dunstall rear set plates. I will probably keep the exhaust either standard Commando or perhaps fit some swept back down pipes and as stated in an earlier post I am currently unsure whether to build it as a disc or drum braked model. I will fit a 4s cam and a Combat head that I have in stock and probably a close ration 4-speed cluster from RGM.

sounds like you don't plan to ride this thing as a street bike. the close ratio gear set has to high of a first gear and the 4S came will hurt low end torque. it will be a monster to get off from a dead stop with a LOT of clutch slipping.

dave M said:

I will fit a 4s cam and a Combat head that I have in stock and probably a close ration 4-speed cluster from RGM.

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Just out of curiousity, what actually makes a 'Dunstall' ?
They came in many varieties.
And as individually available bits.
You see all sorts of things advertised as 'Dunstall' for sale...

There is a real one (red) with 900 miles on it on the floor at British USA in South Houston, Texas.

Vince

I've had my reproduction for about 38 years. I started with a combat and added tank, seat and fairing with rear sets and clip ons. Also 2 - 1 - 2 exhaust with dunstall debicells. Has upgraded main bearings, 1.5 lbs off the crank with stock combat barrels and pistons. Mildly polished and ported head with lightened/shimmed rockers. I had a twin disc on it back then and akront rims. This photo was taken in the early 80's I think, I switched back to stock disc brake. I also reproduced the rearset mounting plates after breaking the originals in a spill. I took the frame, cradle, swingarm, triple clamps, mounts, bat tray and rear brake plate in for nickel plating but the idiot harley gang that worked at the platers couldn't get their heads around the concept of just having a cheap durable dull finish on a bike so when I went to get it they had triple chrome plated everything and highly buffed it. They didn't understand why I wasn't delighted and I only had to pay the original quote of $350.00 for it all. I hadn't heard of chrome contributing to frame cracking problems back then so I was quite happy. It is free of cracks now although it's been stored since the mid 80's

I really love this bike but the tank took some bumps when I dropped it and it will need some attention if I'm going to keep it in service.

Ok, I'll weigh in...I've had my 72 Combat since 1978. Previous owner bought the the bike in 1974 and installed the Dunstall fairing, tank & seat kit in 1976. I can't tell you how much I lusted over this bike and rode pillion several times while I still lived in Pennsylvania...Jesus Christ allmighty sheer terror!! Unfortunately for him (fortunatelly for me ) he ran afoul of the IRS and knocked on my door one morning crying the blues...needed $1400 immediately...quickly exchanged 14 Ben Franklins for the title....sweet deal, indeed!

Present day set-up includes Mikuni TM34 flat slide carb (trust me, you'll never go back to Anals), Pazon EI, Tomaselli clipons, rear sets, AM26's, Excell rims and CRG bar end mirrors. I feed her a very strict diet of Shell 93 octane and Valvoline Racing 50W. She's been a screaming, reliable 100% first-kick ride ever since Windy (aka "bill" on the Forum) put the finishing touches on her in 2008...trust me, the guy knows Nortons...8500 trouble free miles since then.

A couple of pics:

Photo from this past summer when the bike won "Best Cafe Racer" award at Dime City Cycle's opening event...the opening will be featured on Discovery HD's "Cafe Racer" show this month:



Decked out in " highway travel mode" at the Daytona speedway for the 2010 AHRMA Vintage Races. Rode in with 5 other Nortons from Mike Carter's garage in Altoona, FL:




Last one just for fun:

Don't use your front brake much ??

That pipe is awfully low, setting fire to the grass doesn't cause problems ?

Hymph, my two cents woth .

Early Dunstall's were semi race . H.D. bearings , cams , pistons etc .Dic Brake update , etc, etc,

' Dunstall 810 ' was Aftermaket Barrel , pre dateing factory 828 ( 850 ) 810 was sold as complete ' Dunstall Commando '.

the ' Dustal Decibal ' silencors were a performace muffler , much renowned .
The Dunstall Exhaust System was a perfomance exhaust system , but (fairly) Quite .

Later 850 ' dustall ' were largely bolt on , as the Dunstall was looking at other pastures ( Japanese )
and the Commando itself had evoled from its original specification . High Output add ons being largey unnesesary by then .

Bill, I put the 4s cam in most of my rebuilds, it is perfectly suitable for tooling around gently and I can pull away in 2nd gear quite easily. Supposedly this cam has the same power as a 2S (Combat) but with added mid-range. In a seat of the pants comparison between my Roadster with 4S and 32mm carbs and my S-Type with standard cam and 30 mm carbs, the Roadster runs away from the S at all engine speeds. The torquey Norton characteristics don't disappear with a few simple engine modifications, but it really comes on the pipe at about 4,500 RPM. The benefit of the 4 speed close ratio box is to tighten up those rather large gaps, particularly in the lower gears. I will retain the kickstart which requires a slightly lower 1st gear than the cluster without this facility.

Just wait until all the whiners come in to this thread talking about how uncomfortable clip ons are. Oh, don't worry, they'll be here.

Rohan said:

Just out of curiosity, what actually makes a 'Dunstall' ?
They came in many varieties.
And as individually available bits.
You see all sorts of things advertised as 'Dunstall' for sale...

Click to expand...

Through his early successes racing Nortons in the 60's and on, Paul Dunstall gained a special relationship with Norton and could by bare bones bikes from the factory and build them to his own specs and sell them to the public. Gus Kuhn also gained this notoriety. Eventually the Dunstall machines were issued with a certificate of authentication. I'm not real up on all the details but here is some more info on the Dunstall machines:

http://www.dunstall.com/

Gus Kuhn:

http://www.guskuhn.net/GKMLtd/GKCommandos.htm

I'm not sure how one would go about verifying that a bike is one that came out of P. Dunstall's shop. I do have a friend who has what I thought at first could be one, it has all of the body work, real Dunstall rearsets and mounting plates, exhaust etc etc and the guy he got it from " said " it had been from Dunstall's shop. BUT,, it's a early 850 & nothing looks special like lightened valve gear. I thought I read somewhere Dunstall didn't keep good records of the serial #'s of bikes that went to his shop. Is that true, and how would someone go about verifying if it was???

I am not quite done with mine. A few loose ends to tie up. It's ready to fire, but I might wait until spring so I can keep it in the basment until then. I have it in my 12 x !2 workroom, with it's own heat vent. I just put the vent in this spring and havent had the heat on till this week. I went in there today and it was nice and dry and toasty. If I put oil and gas in it now it will have to spend the winter in the garage, not happening this year.

As for the clipons, whiners can suck an egg. If you don't like them, don't use them.

I've had the "pleasure" of riding an all original Dunstall 810...most uncomfortable machine I've ever been on bar none...but by far the fastest Commando based machine I've ever been on. Scary fast.

Looking at an original 810 compared to a std Commando with Dunstall parts hanging on it, the difference is immediately obvious...just by looking at ALL of the different parts that are bolted on.

builder said:

I've had the "pleasure" of riding an all original Dunstall 810...most uncomfortable machine I've ever been on bar none...but by far the fastest Commando based machine I've ever been on. Scary fast.

Looking at an original 810 compared to a std Commando with Dunstall parts hanging on it, the difference is immediately obvious...just by looking at ALL of the different parts that are bolted on.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'm following this correctly. If you ordered a certified Dunstall 810 from Paul Dunstall it should be identical "looking" to a stock commando that you purchased all the parts for and bolted them on yourself. His export bikes had the same parts that he sold separately according to his catalogs. The only difference should be the motor work inside that you could get if you ordered the whole bike from him. Or are you talking about one of Paul Dunstall's personal 810 race bikes that he himself raced and fashioned the export bikes and parts from?

RennieK said:

builder said:

I've had the "pleasure" of riding an all original Dunstall 810...most uncomfortable machine I've ever been on bar none...but by far the fastest Commando based machine I've ever been on. Scary fast.

Looking at an original 810 compared to a std Commando with Dunstall parts hanging on it, the difference is immediately obvious...just by looking at ALL of the different parts that are bolted on.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'm following this correctly. If you ordered a certified Dunstall 810 from Paul Dunstall it should be identical "looking" to a stock commando that you purchased all the parts for and bolted them on yourself. His export bikes had the same parts that he sold separately according to his catalogs. The only difference should be the motor work inside that you could get if you ordered the whole bike from him. Or are you talking about one of Paul Dunstall's personal 810 race bikes that he himself raced and fashioned the export bikes and parts from?

Click to expand...

It's one thing if I buy some parts and slap them on a bike and it someone who knows what they are doing takes the same parts and puts them together.

You had me fooled swoosh, your bike looks pretty good... or is that someone else's bike in your avatar? Looking at a Dunstall equipped bike now after all these years, after we've been modernized by all these 21st century designs, they do look kinda different then how they were perceived with all the fiberglass body parts and in your face fasteners. Can't call it Art Deco and I definitely wouldn't call it Art Nouveau... maybe just call it Art Dunstall (too bad his name was Paul). However once you hop on they take you back in time and before you know it you're 20 again.

bwolfie said:

My curiosity is getting the best of me. How many of us have either an original or a reproduction Dunstall?

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Sorry for bumping this back to the top but c'mon, Guys, I was interested in seeing what Bwolfie was originally looking for.....without all this extra Jaberwoki. Sheesh, this Forum has a hard time staying on topic. :roll: