Jim Lee Commando

Al I will blueprint it, however I posted the photo of the pistons that were in it. They are new! But the dreaded slotted ones & I've not used them ever in my road bikes.

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Posted this in the post about the cylinder head & realised I hadn't updated on my build!
It looks like a piece of crankcase over the cam on the timing side or the barrel stud pulled out. The whole piece has been welded, not a bad job but when you heat the case on the inside, it bubbles from under the weld. Cleaned it up & you can see a crack in the case. It also has a weld repair to the bottom of the case. Might be alright on the road but then again.
Just got the rear hub back (Triumph conical) from the welder. He's built up the sprocket mounts. It looks awful lol. Off to dress them back & try & get the sprocket mounting faces level.
Frames being coated this weekend. Telsport is making a new stem for the bottom yoke.
A fair bit of rob Peter to pay Paul is about to occur!
Namely my Mk3 Seeley it is also having a paint job frame tank & seat this summer, so I'm nicking the Commando Landsdowne forks from it. They are going to be replaced with Dommie length ones. Also I'm nicking the good race engine from the Rickman & hopefully this engine eventually will end up in it.
New wheel bearings (thanks Lab) £10 each delivered for the double row in the front hub. Nylon nuts ordered for the Norvil disc. Rear Triumph conical also stripped & the bearings change. Rev counter drive bearing retaining sleeve was nearly a quarter of an inch slack. All locked up solid, plenty of heat. Cleaned & greased & went back together lovely. Dressed the welding up a bit, redrilled the sprocket holes & polished. They are covered by my Donald Pender Manx look a likely ring.

Also polished up the oil tank didnt cut it right back just buffed. Chain adjusters stripped & polished. Stamped up, no idea what it means lol

Well 4 trips so far frame went off to be blasted & painted some time ago. They dont do vapour blasting, so popped the head & cases of to a little old boy I was recommended to. Unfortunately he wont do the cast iron barrels. So back to the first company. They did say they were busy & as of today its not been painted but the frame looks beautiful in its nakedness! I then went back to collect the vapour blasting which took a whole day, because he worries about stuff hanging around! Only £70 but he couldnt get all the " carbon " off. Lol its baked on Wellseal! I have been cleaning the crank & the balance holes have wellseal in them. Its really slowed me down because nothing much is moving it after 35 years.

Guess youve seen these : https://www.accessnorton.com/Norton...ee-mick-grant-commando-based-race-bike.34288/ .

Far Out .

those ' MEGAS ' are WASSELL .

They have a fully perforated baffle ,
That , jetted rich ( 4270 in a Bonneville )
Augment the cycles as they go into ' afterburner ' phase ,
enhace the temperatures & pressures improving the pulse phases .
And the acoustics .

this'll get you another 1.000 rpm's

they were the LONG version of THESE .


Were still listed a few years back . The UNREVISED version . The RIVETS holding the baffle ( 3 ) come loose , fall out , then - so does the baffle . A Fast run on the highway to grab it before a truck flattens it .
P. K. screws are better .

Were in 1 1/2 , 1 5/8 , or 1 3/4 header fit - Fwd. . Thicker metal than your average job , so the resonance is superior . You cant do without em .

Hi Matt thank you I have some megga like this on the shelf. I also have bare rolled megga, just empty tubes but will see how they look once I get it together.

Chris said:

Hung the engine from the top frame mount & mounted the old engine plates which had been cut. Together with template of the rear of the engine. so that I can make a pattern. Poor photo sorry.

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Please show us how the bike looked when new. Is this a Seeley Mk4 look-a-like? I take it the engine is solidly mounted.

Edit: Silentbloc ..... that's almost a rigid mount

- Knut

mdt-son said:

Please show us how the bike looked when new. Is this a Seeley Mk4 look-a-like? I take it the engine is solidly mounted.

- Knut

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See pic in post 24. Looks like the engine is mounted in rubber bushes…

mdt-son said:

Please show us how the bike looked when new. Is this a Seeley Mk4 look-a-like? I take it the engine is solidly mounted.

Edit: Silentbloc ..... that's almost a rigid mount

- Knut

Click to expand...

Pictures here:


Ken

Hi Knut

lcrken said:

Pictures here:

Ken

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Thanks Ken. It's certainly an interesting frame, I do see room for some improvements however. Frame details at the rear reminds me of a P11 frame (which used R531 tubing) - tubes at the headstock are evidently welded, not brazed.
Seeley frames incl. the Mk3 & Mk 4 were all constructed using Reynolds R531 tubing. An appointed R531 stockist, Colin Seeley applied this tubing material and their skilled brazing in m/c frames as late as 1979 and probably in racing car space frame chassis he built for Brabham.

- Knut

The whole frame is brazed Knut.

Those thick brazing seams at the headstock fooled me!

Strange looking joint at the lower powerplant mounting - a serious stress riser - an overlap joint is needed but seems hard to realize, given the geometry at the location.
I suggest you redesign that area.

- Knut

Thanks Knut I bow to your superior knowledge. I will ask Terry when I take my featherbed sidecar project to him!

Chris said:

Thanks Knut I bow to your superior knowledge. I will ask Terry when I take my featherbed sidecar project to him!

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I vote you leave it alone (if I get a vote).

Adding heat to "improve" a frame that has successfully navigated the racing hours might/will do more harm than good. And, who knows, there may already be a sleeve in there. I reckon they knew what they were doing and didn't just butt the two tubes up. That would not only be harder to build and fixture, but also to keep aligned while brazing.

t ingermanson said:

Adding heat to "improve" a frame that has successfully navigated the racing hours might/will do more harm than good. And, who knows, there may already be a sleeve in there. I reckon they knew what they were doing and didn't just butt the two tubes up. That would not only be harder to build and fixture, but also to keep aligned while brazing.

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Lots of assumptions and unsubstantiated claims. Any shape can be constructed with the proper tooling. What do you know about constructing a brazed frame, Sir?

A sleeve across an angular joint is not possible, the only option of reinforcement is a solid/solid butt joint which requires pinning across the tubes. However, I see no evidence of pinning here.
Without reinforcement, those joints are potentially lethal in my eye. Tubing in that area looks different to the original design - a later modification for a different engine?

If you intend to use the frame on the street or at the track, consulting an expert frame builder is advisable.

- Knut

mdt-son said:

Lots of assumptions and unsubstantiated claims. Any shape can be constructed with the proper tooling. What do you know about constructing a brazed frame, Sir?

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I have designed and built them professionally for 20 years.

mdt-son said:

I see no evidence of pinning here.

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Just like you saw the brazed head stock joints as "evidently welded"?

Talk about unsubstantiated claims...