Featherbed/Commando

I am going to build a bike with a solid mounted forward leaning Commando engine in a wideline featherbed frame. I have the Andover Norton wideline featherbed frame and their matching swingarm. I also have motor mount plates for a forward leaning Commando engine from Norvil.
So now I have a few questions for those of you who may have built something similar or anyone else for that matter.

Regarding front forks, I would like to use Roadholders but I am unsure of what yoke offset and stanchion length would be recommended/required for the wideline frame.

Regarding rear shocks, what length is recommended/required?

What rim sizes, front and rear are recommended for this setup? (I intend to use a Madass TLS front brake).

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have and I'm sure I'll have many more questions in future.

Ed

Not an answer to your question I'm sorry to say.

But you might want to familiarise yourself with this site:

http://www.manx.co.uk/pricelists/pricelists.htm

Particularly the price lists for: MPL Manx parts lists and MPL Norton Triton and Triton Performance parts

Being a UK based company means its a good time to buy from outside UK !

Good info and pictures here

commando-motors-featherbed-frames-other-frames-t18209.html

Like you, I think the featherbed/Commando combo is a great one for a road bike. I'm planning to convert my race bike back to the street for that reason.

You can see the pictures of my wideline featherbed with Commando motor on the first page of the thread above. I used 18" tires front and rear, with WM3 in front and WM4 in back, with Avon tires. I used slightly longer than stock rear shocks, and front forks and yokes from a Laverda 750 SFC. The Laverda yokes do have less offset than stock Norton yokes (for the featherbeds), but the longer rear shocks and the fact that the steering had had been pushed back from the stock 26° to almost 24° meant that the additional trail from less offset was welcome. The bike handled extremely well, and won a lot of races in that configuration.

I had originally raced the bike with Rickman front forks and yokes, which had a bit more offset in the yokes. I loved the way it handled with them, but AHRMA changed the rules and made them illegal in my class, so I switched to the Laverdas.

I don't know if any of that info will help you on your choices, but I would suggest that if you haven't already checked your frame for rake, you should do so. I've been told that it's pretty common to find the front slightly bent.

Ken

I converted my 850 Commando to a orginal 57 Wideline Featherbed over 35 years ago, I used most of my Commando gear, frontend, rear and front wheels all the S/S gaurds, a innerstate seat etc etc, I made all my own engine mounts still running it with 19" wheels (Akront alloy wheels) exhaust pipes were made using a mandual bender, everything is tucked in, the foot pegs sit high, the bike was built so nothing would scrape at all, I am still riding this bike after 35 years, it has a hot motor its been balanced for the hard mounts, I run koni shocks on the back in Commando length and my Complete Commando frontend.

If you have any questions at all or want to know anything you are welcome to PM me anytime, when I first built this combo I had a very low budget so I had to do most of the work myself but it turn out great as it was a everyday ride till 3 years ago I brought a New Thruxton but I still love taking the Norton out its such a fun bike to ride, nice and light, handles like you wouldn't believe, like riding on rails, its such a well balanced bike to ride and pushing it through tight corners sometimes I got to look back to see if I did go through that corner, I was lucky that I did everything right first up but its gone through a few changes over that 35 years mosty performance changes and making the bike even lighter.

Ashley

Eddie, Ken and Ashley,
All fantastic info. Ken, I hope you don't mind if I PM you occasionally. Ashley, thank you for the kind invitation to PM you. I'm sure I will be doing so as your build is unique in many ways and inspires my imagination for my build.

Thanks again all,

Ed

APRRSV said:

Eddie, Ken and Ashley,
All fantastic info. Ken, I hope you don't mind if I PM you occasionally. Ashley, thank you for the kind invitation to PM you. I'm sure I will be doing so as your build is unique in many ways and inspires my imagination for my build.

Thanks again all,

Ed

Click to expand...

Hi Ed

All good mate, always willing to help anytime, anyone who has a liking for Featherbed framed Norton's and needs help as I don't like them to run into any problems, I was lucky as my mate at the time who got me into Nortons, he had a Wideline 750 Commando motor with lighten and polish crank and heaps of other goodies done to it, I was 17 years old when he let me take it out for the day while he rode my Honda 250 trials bike, 2 weeks later I brought my new 850 Commando and a few years later I brought a 57 Wideline frame off my mate, he gave me advice but I went my own way as his motor was in a same position as a Domie motor straight up, I kept mine inclinded as it looks faster that way, my mate Don is still into Featherbed frames but he went down the Triton way, he make his own heavy duty Triumph cases as well as one piece Norton cranks that he runs in his hot Triumphs, but I lept true to Nortons.
What is your plans for the Commando motor as one thing you need to get right first up is the balance factor of the motor, if you throw a stock Commando motor in a Featherbed frame it will vibrate you off the bike, this was the first thing I learned off Don, I went down the road of balancing my crank to 72% and has got it right on and is pretty smooth to ride, of course there are other options these days if you have the money, when I built mine I wasn't working at the time and money was tight but I think I did pretty good and got it right first up, if I didn't I wouldn't have owned it for 40 years 35 years in the Featherbed frame.

Ashley

Another very important thing with the Featherbed frames and that is you have to use a very strong head stay from the top of the frame to the head, I have pics from my last rebuild but they are on my old computer and it has died but hopefully will be able to retrive them soon.

Ashley

ashman said:

Another very important thing with the Featherbed frames and that is you have to use a very strong head stay from the top of the frame to the head, I have pics from my last rebuild but they are on my old computer and it has died but hopefully will be able to retrive them soon.

Ashley

Click to expand...

With an upright engine, the head stay from the headstock to the head is very important. F'bed frames are weak in the headstock area, Leaning the engine forward, makes the angle from headstock to head poor for good headstock support. It would be interesting to see how Ashman did it.

Slick

Thanks Ashley and Slick. I am very interested in seeing your arrangement.

Ed

Slick and Ed I have my tank off my bike at the moment so if I work this Ipad out I take a few pics tomorrow for you, but what I did is use 3mm plate steel for the head stay and used the orginal plate from the bottom of the Commando head mount that bolts to the head and welded the plate steel cut to the shape I needed, the 3 bolts 2 up top and one just below the top ones on the frame mount, the plate is cut to fit the head mount plate, I have been running this for the whole 35 years and have had no problems at all, I am building a 1960 Manxman and my head stay is a lot stronger than the head stay on the Dommie and a lot neater, I have made all my engine mounts and my motor sits as low as it can in the frame.

Ashley