Reading the comments by John Robert Bould and of Kiwi I wonder why they bother with the total sh*t that Commando motorcycles in their esteemed opinion obviously were when new, and that all Norton spares apparently still are. May I suggest they buy themselves some modern, mass-produced motorcycle that may (if it is lucky!) satisfy their exquisite tastes and high expectations of engineering excellence.
John Robert, I will let you in on a well-kept secret: the days of the soft (
Genuine Norton Factory Parts)camshaft are long gone. The soft cams were leftovers from 850Mk3 production days and have been off the market for at least twenty years!
And, Kiwi, if you find that
N.O.S is the only source of genuine factory parts
you stand a fair chance to, through that, find a soft camshaft, or other period parts with known faults- alternator rotors that fell apart, soft clutch centres etc. In that case you can
not go back to the vendor and complain, or get your money back!
I have been in the Norton (and Triumph) spares business since the 1970s, and I can still remember the times when one would go to the bin and grab a handful of parts to find
one that fitted the corresponding part on the bike. That is what British production engineering was like at the time.
Today, I expect each and any part in the bin to fit each and any corresponding part in the other bin, or on the bike. We do indeed now have quality control procedures, and often improved tooling.
In some cases we have changed the method to manufacture a part to give us consistent quality. Made possible through machinery and processes that were either not available or financially not viable with the production methods being what they were forty years ago.
Joe/Andover Norton
