Factory 1972 NON Combat spec?

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L.A.B. said:
The new UK registration plate 'year' actually started on the 1st. of August at that time.
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Don't know if it applied during the Commando era,
but the Norton factory in earlier times had always closed for the 'August hols' (holidays) in August,
for the changeover to the jigs, dies and tooling for producing the next years models.

This meant all the regular employees were away for August = no production for that month.
So while the new models may have been from August, no Nortons anyway were actually produced until September

??
 
Rohan said:
This meant all the regular employees were away for August = no production for that month.
So while the new models may have been from August, no Nortons anyway were actually produced until September
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A MONTH! :shock: Factory shut downs generally lasted for two weeks ('the holiday fortnight').

The Birmingham shut down appears to have occurred during the last week of July - first week of August although different towns/cities took two different weeks off.
Presumably the AMC factory at Plumstead would also have had an annual shut down, I've no idea about Andover, but then Andover was nothing more than an assembly plant so not much in the way of jigs and tools to change as what little manufacturing that Norton actually did for themselves during the 'Andover' period would have been done at Plumstead or Wolverhampton.
 
Well my VIN plate is definitely stamped AUG 72.
Hobot, I agree with you on the barrels and painted mine silver.
Also, just to confuse the purists my bike has a 74 pattern seat because I got it on sale and the 73 and up larger tail light because I happen to have one and it was missing its original. Also due to miscommunication with my powdercoater the triple tree is black, which I came to like better anyway. Other nonstandard bits are stainless brake and oil lines, K+N airfilter, no front fender stay, assorted ss bolts and nuts, pazon ignition and podtronics, 3 phase alternator and turn signals.
Factory 1972 NON Combat spec?
 
Didn't know about the factory production break between model years, but essentially all countries dealer begins next years model sales in the late fall of prior year. Ms Peel is stamped 03/72 while Trixie 10/72 so brackets non Combat months and close to expected '73 designated model year. Going by the article I would of thought that Norton used the model switching lay off interval to upgrade all the returned Combats. Going by the article and what happened to Trixie, Norton's Combat upgrades were just a time delayed bomb. Going by above its reasonable on other years to just try to start and run a long stored Commando but better pop the heads of '72's to make sure its real Combat spec. Now I should check if Trixie has 2S cam or not, but when I asked how 2S felt a couple+ decades ago I was told its apparent after upper 6000's and sure is on Trixie but I know better now than use it as 'intended' much.
 
Re: Factory 1972 NON Combat speBSAc?

hobot said:
Didn't know about the factory production break between model years,
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I'm not entirely sure there was one?
I don't know where Rohan got his information from, but I think we need to allow a reasonable amount of latitude as far as production of new year models starting after any summer shut down at Norton-certainly during Commando production because from what we know about the model numbers and date codes, if there was a new Norton model 'year' then it probably began in October, therefore rather late for it to have been immediately after any summer shut down.
 
I'm being set straighter on this pivotal Commando bomb era. Trixie '72 has thin head/barrel gap and really wakes up to lift front some in lower gear redline and can out run my SV650 after 90 mph, which is my threshold of going fast sense on Trixie and my SuVee. Peel threshold was 120 mph to give idea of how much different Peel was to me and surprised strangers that either became excited new friends or pissed off beaten enemy attitude. Past Peel was more along the lines of lowered CR detuned Combat with standard head/2S cam. If I ever recover Peel's past engine I'll use same head + 2S cam but leave base plate and head gasket out for hi CR and run 91 octane or above on points ignition and steel flywheel. It will not power another silly motorcycle though while I own it.
 
BSA and Triumph used the summer shutdown to change the tooling over from one model year to another but when these modified parts made it to the end of the production line could be several weeks later depending on WIP, Just in Time was not invented yet and to cover machine breakdowns there was a lot of wip held between the machines which took a long time to move. Part of the shutdown would have been used to make enough of any the old model year to match stocks of others to reduce obsolescence. Any left over unmatched parts were offered to the spares dept.
 
March Peel is 206xxx, October Trixie is 210xxx so chart shows both of them before the detuned interval but Trixie has the bad upgrades Al gaskets and slotted pistons NOC article says were done to detuned non Combats. So begs question of how many non Combats were made to save Norton in its hey day.

I never use the Mark numbers as they are so confusing and out of sequence order. Who'd know what i meant if I said Peel and Trixie were Mk IV's?
 
I must be psycho as knew before opening you'd claim to know. Ok what about the Mk III that chart shows as a pre-Combat 750 model not the headache prone list cluttering 850.
 
hobot said:
Ok what about the Mk III that chart shows as a pre-Combat 750 model not the headache prone list cluttering 850.
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Yes, well, :? what about the 750 MkIII?
 
As I mentioned my AUG 72 build date has a 211xxx VIN and is a "detuned" Combat. This would agree with the chart.
 
hobot said:
Naw nothing so sinister, just getting a sense of ratio of Bad Bombs vs Good Ones before asking my darker question > how non Combats came to be sold, ie: were non Combats sought out to get a Commando by avoiding the Bad One or just no more Combats available in their area? Was a price difference much a factor? May never know w/o some original buyers or their thoughts being relayed. Otherwise I got satisfied being filled in by the first few posters.
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I have a 1972 Combat I bought it in New York for about $1,500 in the spring of '72
 
Ugh LAB, so a Mk III could mean either an early '71 750 or a few year later very different '75 MK III 850. What was Norton thinking?
 
hobot said:
Ugh LAB, so a Mk III could mean either an early '71 750 or a few year later very different '75 MK III 850. What was Norton thinking?
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I expect they were thinking one type was 750 MkIII while the other was 850 MkIII, there's a clue in the numbers that ought to prevent any confusion about which particular 'MkIII' it is, although I know when 'MkIII' is mentioned here most will assume it means '850' MkIII after all, they are the most popular Commando. :)
 
Ugh, I suspect Norton tried to fool folks into thinking they were getting a popular Mk III with past quirks worked out by numbering backwards after the fact.
 
I expect they were thinking one type was 750 MkIII while the other was 850 MkIII, there's a clue in the numbers that ought to prevent any confusion about which particular 'MkIII' it is, although I know when 'MkIII' is mentioned here most will assume it means '850' MkIII after all, they are the most popular Commando. :)[/quote]

Only recently are 850s more popular than 750. In the 80s club life the 750 was more popular and more of them. I suspect there are still more 750s than 850s, just lurking in barns, sheds and garages non op or not used.

On the subject, I've never seen a non combat 1972 roadster or interstate, maybe only a fastback. The MkIV 750 should have the rear breather and small sump drain plug, right....engine numbers from 200xxx. What I have not seen is an engine with this crankcase, std cam, silver barrels, non combat head and 30mm carbs from the '72 production. The non combat I see have the camshaft breather crankcase from the MkIII, so I always assumed these were '71 production machines sold in '72 and titled as '72.
 
L.A.B. said:
I know when 'MkIII' is mentioned here most will assume it means '850' MkIII after all, they are the most popular Commando. :)
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Ugh!
I am sure you mean popular as in the number of posts here regarding issues. I totally agree!
 
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