Early Commando pre 75 hub

Hi, will an early Commando hub fit in a 1968 Atlas?

I think it will fit. As far as I remember, the only difference is the thread for the speedo drive ring is a different pitch.

Martyn.

The EARLY Commando hub is a bolt-up (no cush rubbers) rear brake, just like the pre-Commandos including the Atlas. There MIGHT be a difference in the thickness of the axle(s) which correspond to the swingarm slots.

grandpaul said:

The EARLY Commando hub is a bolt-up (no cush rubbers) rear brake, just like the pre-Commandos including the Atlas. There MIGHT be a difference in the thickness of the axle(s) which correspond to the swingarm slots.

Click to expand...

I think grandpaul meant to write "length" of axles...... the Commando axle is about 0.1 inch longer than an Atlas.

Otherwise, I believe the Cdo hub will bolt up with an Atlas axle, and MAY bolt up with a Cdo axle.

Slick

texasSlick said:

grandpaul said:

The EARLY Commando hub is a bolt-up (no cush rubbers) rear brake, just like the pre-Commandos including the Atlas. There MIGHT be a difference in the thickness of the axle(s) which correspond to the swingarm slots.

Click to expand...

I think grandpaul meant to write "length" of axles...... the Commando axle is about 0.1 inch longer than an Atlas.

Otherwise, I believe the Cdo hub will bolt up with an Atlas axle, and MAY bolt up with a Cdo axle.

Slick

Click to expand...

No, I meant diameter (thickness). Unless I'm mistaken, which is entirely possible.

I have been running a 850 rear wheel on my 57 Wideline for over 35 years using the 850 axles without any mods except spacers and the part on the drum that slide in the mount on the swing arm as far as I know the Wideline and Slimline swing arm are the same as I do have both, I broke a wheel ajuster in my Wideline swing arm and broke a drill trying to get it out so have a Slimeline swing arm on my Wideline at the moment, I am still running the stock Commando axles, so yes it should fit but got to mod the spacer etc.

Ashley

@grandpaul

I am not at a place where I can check specs, but I am very certain both Atlas and Cdo hubs use same bearings .... thus diameter would be same, at least the part that passes thru both bearings. Perhaps the part that fits the slots is different, but I never noticed such a difference when I had a Cdo wheel and axle in my parts inventory.

@supraclinoid

The fully assembled width of a Standard Atlas wheel (right spacer - speedo drive - hub - brake drum - left spacer) should be 7.89 - 7.92 inches. Perhaps that dimension will help you sort it out. The width of a Cdo wheel assembly runs a tad over 8 inches. I am not sure where that extra length comes into play, possibly to align drive chain, and MAY be only a difference in one of the spacers.

Slick

I bought the hub off madass140 through EBay. It's the one with the updated cush drive rubbers, sprocket and ally brake plate. I made an error in buying it as I'm a bit green when it comes to Nortons. Anyway he refuses to take it back even though it was an honest mistake-some sad story about bent Filipino officialdom charging return fees excetera. Anyway he's enjoying my 700 hard earnt dollars, so if anyone wants to buy this door stop from me they can have it cheap to get it outta here. Can't be dealing with spacers. Or madasses for that matter. How about $200??

I would almost bet $200 that you will have absolutely NO problems bolting up that hub using an Atlas axle.

Give it a try ... there are plenty of people here to help you.

Slick

PS. Measure the width of the swing arm between the slots. It should be at least 7.875 inches for the wheel assembly to go in without spreading the arms excessively.

Supraclinoid said:

I bought the hub off madass140 through EBay. It's the one with the updated cush drive rubbers, sprocket and ally brake plate. I made an error in buying it as I'm a bit green when it comes to Nortons. Anyway he refuses to take it back even though it was an honest mistake-some sad story about bent Filipino officialdom charging return fees excetera. Anyway he's enjoying my 700 hard earnt dollars, so if anyone wants to buy this door stop from me they can have it cheap to get it outta here. Can't be dealing with spacers. Or madasses for that matter. How about $200??

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You should have no trouble selling your hub for that money. If I wasn't in the process of modifying cast aluminum wheels for my commando, I would take that hub off your hands,...

You are asking if this hub will work on an atlas, but you are acting like you know it won't work... Do you already know that it won't work? IF so, tell us why... I just spent 3 days disassembling my bike's wheels to fit my donor wheels, so I could take measurements for the modifications I needed to make, and find out if the place where I am going from stock norton parts to my donor wheels' parts would work out... I learned some stuff by making a mock up of both wheels and changed my intended plans by mocking up the new wheels. Both places where I was going to make the change to the donor wheels changed....

Why don't you do the same? pull the current back wheel and see how far you can go assembly wise until you reach a problem. If your only problem is needing smaller spacers for your axle to use the new hub then leave the spacers out for now, assemble the wheel with out them and make a measurement for the new spacers that you'll need... I just did that for my wheel's application then I bought new spacers here: http://www.axlespacers.com/products

Another problem I had was that my donor wheel's axle diameter didn't work with my norton forks, so I pulled the donor wheel bearings and replaced them with bearings having the correct ID so the donor wheels would fit my norton axle... Then I bought 3 spacers to make up the new axle sandwich between the forks in the norton axle's diameter ... It was a simple adjustment, that took some patience.

Lastly, where do you live?... maybe someone can actually help you sort things out, if your problem is easily overcome..

Thanks for your encouragement.
However I was thinking how light the hub felt when I compared it to an Atlas hub and I thought do I want this on the back of my bike? A hub cast in some back street foundry in the Philippines with no quality control, employing children? The thing felt like it was full of air bubbles. I'm not going to risk my life with it collapsing on the freeway. Wish I had thought it through before I bought it off madass140. It's going in the blue bin.

Yes my hub weighs 150 grams lighter than an Atlas hub, must be that A356 Hi tensile alloy they are cast in. Not sure what material Norton used,

By shortening the right side axle spacer on one of my Commando hubs by 4mm instantly turns it into an Atlas hub.

Supraclinoid said:

Thanks for your encouragement.
However I was thinking how light the hub felt when I compared it to an Atlas hub and I thought do I want this on the back of my bike? A hub cast in some back street foundry in the Philippines with no quality control, employing children? The thing felt like it was full of air bubbles. I'm not going to risk my life with it collapsing on the freeway. Wish I had thought it through before I bought it off madass140. It's going in the blue bin.

Click to expand...

Madass has been really polite in responding to your accusations. Why don't you work with him directly off line from this public forum. I have had a good experience with his front brake master cylinder and showed it to several Norton owners at the INOA rally two weeks ago.

It sounds a bit unfair to blame Madass product when your not even going to try it, I have never brought anything from him myself but he has made a lot of good improvements for our Nortons with a lot of happy customers world wide, just because its lighter doesn't mean its no good, if his stuff was not any good he be out of business quick smart, anyway send it to me and I will test it for you on my Featherbed project bike, the lighter you can make any Featherbed frame the better they handle, I have cut back so much weight off my 850 Featherbed over the 35 years since building and riding it and I think his hub would make a big Improvement than the heavy hud Norton used, so don't bin it let me use it for you :wink:
Its like anything we put on to better our old bikes you nomaly got to make a few little mods to make them fit and to cut some spacers down to fit right isn't really a hard job even just using a few hand tools, but a small lathe will do it quickly, if you have problems with someones product that you haven't even tryed to fit then you should talk to him direct, but you seem to have made your mind up, so give it to someone that will put it to use :lol:

Ashley