head steady

Status
Not open for further replies.
I too have not tried a commando with the Dave Taylor type head steady
I have a norvil type one
I can only imagine the slight arc the motor must move in must be very small so as not to be noticed?
Lots of people have the DT type one and rate them highly
Thanks baz, small movement is the only explanation I can imagine …
 
While I have no knowledge of the Norvil head steady .... re: smoothness the Norton has been transformed , can drain fuel tank with no numb hand or butt , want to ride it more now than ever , have not noticed any price paid in handling either .... hope this is some help
Craig
That's just the kind of straightforward answer I was hoping for, Craig, thank you! I have a 'Norvil' head steady and have ridden my Commando for long distances, for example from Brighton to Cornwall in a single trip (about 280 miles; then back again, obv!), and never felt my hands to be numb – my butt is another matter, but let's not go there! ;) Anyway I've always been curious about the DT head steady, now I feel clearer. For numb hands, I have memories especially of a BSA A65 as the kind of thing to avoid – I sold it because the vibes were just too awful. With hindsight I could probably have worked at that, but I was young …! Cheers.
 
Last edited:
To be fair , I did have a physical issue with both my wrists , driving , sleeping , riding etc. , even holding a fork .... in this past 10 months have had both hands surgically repaired , no big deal and a huge relief , ( managed to post photo in the modern section for Nigel of first go round ) so that has obviously helped .... but the Norton is now just the lovely smooth , quick machine I had in mind when I found it ....
Craig
 
I do sympathise – I have trouble with other joints, and I know someone who had problems with their wrists when still quite young, which limited their enjoyment of cycling, for which they were hugely enthusiastic. I'd like to try adding a MK3-style spring affair to my MK2A some day, I think that'd probably help.
 
I have the CNW Comstock head steady with spring on a MK3 feels perfect highly recommended, bigger rose joints very strong! My other MK3 had an Old Brits adjustable shim type that too felt good.....
 
Yes ,as in all things , more than one way to skin a cat , eh ....
 
( managed to post photo in the modern section for Nigel of first go round )

You did Craig and thanks for trying to help...

But I’m still recovering just from looking at that picture...!
 
An ignoramous asks: as someone who's never ridden a Commando with a DT-type head steady, and isn't in a position to experiment by just buying/making one and trying … I'd be grateful for an explanation of how it is 'better' than the 'Norvil' style. I remember following Mike Taglieri's experiments donkey's years ago, so maybe I've just forgotten this detail, but … Trouble is, I understand the purpose of the Isolastics to be to stop any appreciable 'sideways' movement by the engine, limiting movement to a vertical plane in line with the length of the bike. And, when I look at the DT head steady, it seems to encourage sideways movement, since the rose joints form a bar that pivots around its attachments at each end: to my understanding, this means that the engine-end of that bar must 'swing' around the head-steady end, since that end is fixed in relation to the frame. So, laterally, the bar 'becomes' shorter and longer as the engine bobs up, down, backwards and forwards. Is that right, and is it simply that the effect is negligible, or what? TIA

I don't have a DT head steady in front of me but I fitted one to my 1974 850 Roadster about a month ago. CNW were out of stock with their version.

From memory of the dimensions I just did a quick calculation to determine how far the arc described by the bar bobbing up and down could be. I got less than 2 thou up or down from the neutral position. Or 4 thou in total. So this would be less than the standard setting for the front and rear isolastic shimming. So the effect is negligible.

So far as my experience of the DT head steady is concerned -

I was replacing a rather beaten up original setup so there was lots of potential for improvement.

After the first pass at fitting here was a very good improvement on tracking in corners and I was very pleased with the improvement in handling.

However I had wound the spring up too tightly to begin with and had considerable vibration through the foot pegs above 3000 rpm. I then rechecked both front and rear iso clearances finding as usual considerable variation around the diameter and decided to set the minimum to about 8 thou. This left me with 12 thou in other places!! (Some improvement seems possible if I ever pull the bike apart) I also slacken the spring considerably - so it only just picked up the weight of the engine. Evidently it was design to control the up and down shaking of the engine at idle and low rpm. I also rechecked the movement of the rose joints while seated and on the main stand as described in the instructions.

One or all of these changes made a marked improvement and the bike now has very little vibration and still tracks very well. So I'm happy. I would have gone with the CNW version if it had been available but the DT steady has given me a very satisfactory result.

Obviously I cannot say anything about its long term reliability or wear performance yet
 
I made the Keith1069 headsteady from aluminum, rose joints and some bolts. It was easy enough and I liked the fact that it bolted to the original headsteady locations rather than clamping on the tube. Worked fine for me but with my old farts riding style I really didn't notice any difference. If I did it again I'd use 3/8 joints instead of the 5/16 and if you can find sealed units, that's even a plus. Somewhere I've got the Word document for the whole thing, but I can't find it at the moment. Pretty sure I had a thread about it quite a while ago.
 
Yup , like JohnM , I had the spring under too much tension as well , took a couple whiles to find the correct tension , then all good ..... more is not always the right path .... Nigel at this moment sitting in wait room for Plastic Surgeon to have a look at his work on my left paw .... so far all good , no more issues with either hand ... something to consider much easier than 10 minutes in Dentist chair
Craig
 
https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/the-keith1069-headsteady.5489/#post-59263
head steady


https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/the-keith1069-headsteady.5489/#post-59267
head steady


https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/the-keith1069-headsteady.5489/#post-59273
head steady


https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/the-keith1069-headsteady.5489/#post-59276
 
Anyone with the home brew headsteady come up with a slick way to fit the MKIII spring thingie?
 
When I was a kid I had a mk2a commando I didn't really know what isolastics were
One night I was hacking down a dual carriageway into a tight lefthander and the bike just bucked and shuddered it seemed to leap off the road any way I needed both lanes to get round that bend
The next day I was looking at the bike and noticed how much the engine moved when I pulled the back wheel about!
I removed the tank and found both the triangular plates that hold the rubber bobbins were bent outwards
Both the bobbin threads were stripped out of the frame,it looked like they may have been ataldited in!!
I re made the plates out of 1/4" thick steel, this was with an interstate steel tank,I had no clearance problems
Post is informative, but I am clueless on many terms. What does "ataldited in" mean?
 
I have had a Dave Taylor head steady on my 750 and it is really effective at reducing vibration. Over 3000 revs it was really smooth. However it does not fit under the Hi Rider tank which I want to fit. The cut out in the tank is designed for the stock item. The question is will the CNW/Comstock device fit? It look as though it should, I just wondered if anyone had tried this.
Thank you
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top