- Joined
- Aug 18, 2008
- Messages
- 198
After about three years of fun, puzzlement and overspending, I am in the final stages of tinkering with the rebuild of the 1970 Roadster. Some of the less experienced potential rebuilders in cyberspace might appreciate a bit of a commentary on the process - I have seen some threads here with potential buyers wondering if an old British bike is for them. So here goes with my project; stop reading as soon as you get bored...
The bike currently looks like this (he said with some pride
I bought this a few years ago as a project – I have for years wanted to restore an old bike; and after looking at various makes I decided that a Commando was what I wanted.
When I bought it it was running but pretty worn out,– although it died on the trip home, and broke the kickstart spring when we were trying to revive it.
I was a complete novice to mechanical stuff; my previous experience has been pretty much limited to cleaning out float bowls on the carburettor of the lawn mower, and helping my grandfather change the clutch on his Hillman Imp in the early 1970s. So I was excited to buy this bike as a renovation project, and set myself up to do it by buying tools, and reading all that I could find that might assist me with the project.
I have discovered that the bike has had a few changes from stock by previous owners: a two into one exhaust - I think it is a Viking but it has no identifying marks on it; the factory recommended adjustment to the swing arm to firm up the spindle by welding on two nuts and drilling through them so you can add two extra bolts through the swing arm to press in the spindle (later versions have cotter pins); chain guard and air box removed, centre stand removed to make room for the two in one exhaust; and camshaft replaced; original seat – which would have been the “S” style seat – replaced with the one in the photos which has a label “Mark1A” stuck underneath it; Boyer ignition, and vernier isolastics. The side stand has been replaced with a Triumph one. An external oil filter has been added, like the later models have. Choke lever removed.
After the compulsory two year stand down period following acquisition, I stripped down the bike.
Because I don’t have a mechanical background I thought that it might not be a good idea to learn on this motor and gearbox. I decided to have the engine and gearbox reconditioned by a professional. After a false start I sent them to Bob Nesbitt of Classic Cycles in Wellington, who specialises in servicing and restoring Nortons and Harley Davidsons. Bob runs a racing team “Team Norton” in the NZ Classic Racing Register racing Commandos.
Bob has pretty much entirely rebuilt everything that you can touch in the motor - new superblend bearings; balanced the crankshaft; new big end shells; rebore; to +20; new pistons, valve springs and guides, black diamond valves, new cam chain, pushrods, new Amal carburettors; oil lines; studs, nuts and bolts –many of which are now stainless.
The gearbox has had the kickstart shaft replaced; and a general overhaul, some new sprockets and of course a new kickstart spring.
Bob cryogenically treated the pistons, valves and conrods. Apparently this treatment strengthens them. Bob found that the camshaft was not standard. It is stamped “PD05’ and I think “H 958 WFC” – although the latter may be tech talk on his notes that I don’t understand. I assume that PD05 stands for Paul Dunstall – does anyone know about this type of camshaft? Any information about it, and its characteristics would be gratefully received.
I had the wheels rebuilt with alloy rims and stainless spokes by Tom Morriss of Wheel and Spoke Services in Auckland. After talking to Tom and Bob, and noting an article on what Mick Hemmings was running on his production racer I changed the rear rim to 18 inches WM3 from the stock 19 inches, but retained a 19 inch wm2 rim on the front. That change of rear rim seems to be relatively common in racing circles here (not that I am going to race – or even ride hard), and on road bikes. The reason most often given for changing the rim is to give a greater choice of tyres. If I’m honest my motivation is that I have thought that the standard wheels and tyres on the Commando look too spindly, and I wanted to fit a slightly wider tyre – particularly on the back. When I went to the tyre shop to buy Avons they were out of stock and the guy talked me into getting Bridgestone Battlax BT45s; apparently they are standard on the new Bonnevilles; I have seen pictures of a number of other Nortons with these; hopefully they will be ok – and they were cheaper; a real consideration for me at the time.
Other additions, new things, and essential purchases for the project have included new brake shoes and a brake stiffener for the front drum, new wheel bearings (single only; original double bearings left in), all new cables apart from the tachometer cable which was still ok; new front springs – I haven’t gone to progressive springs – and new bushes and seals for the forks; diamond eternity ring, taper roller bearings for the bearing head, new wiring harness, diamond cluster ring, new Hagon rear springs; and new stainless steel fasteners when I could get them; new chain guard and air box and filter to replace those that had been taken off the bike in past years; stainless rocker feed pipe; Norvil headsteady, new choke lever, horn, horn/dipswitch, mirror, new inspection caps for the primary cover; solid state rectifier, ignition switch, steering lock (after paying a locksmith too much to get the original out I destroyed it trying to get it back in after powdercoating the yokes); rear hub cover; hoses; external oil filter; handgrips; footrubbers; chain adjusters and incidentals.
I had the frame powder coated black, and the engine mounts powdercoated silver I didn’t discover and read the Old Britts website and the perils of powdercoating the engine mounts until after the bike was totally reassembled; but on looking at the mounts it is clear that the coaters have kept cover very thin at the points where they are attached to the isolastics; and engine mount points; I am keeping my fingers crossed that the studs don’t snap.
I have pretty much rechromed everything in sight except the headlamp cover and the fittings below the fuel tank that hold the reflectors.
The original bracket that holds the coils had been replaced with a smaller L shaped metal piece (I have recently seen an identical piece on another bike of similar vintage, so wonder whether this is either a factory item or a common changeover); I found a second hand original bracket on the internet and bought it and repainted it myself. I also repainted bits and pieces that had not been powdercoated; in particular I was a bit wary of having the oil tank blasted, so chose to clean it out myself – it took quite some cleaning – and repaint it.
I did all of the disassembly; polishing (apart from wheel hubs and engine covers – both of which were done by respective rebuilders), and reassembly myself. I bought a grinder, stand, and polishing mops, and spent many weekends polishing away and getting covered in black muck.
The reassembly was the fun part; and I found that I had taken far too few notes and photos when I was taking it apart. As well as using a Haynes manual and factory manual to help me reassemble, I found the Andover Norton website very useful, its exploded diagrams.. Unfortunately it was not perfect for me as the diagrams start at 1971; my 1970 is quite different in a number of respects. Classic Bike magazine ran a pictorial of Mick Hemmings assembling a Commando over two issues which was very useful – he did it over a weekend; it has taken me about 2 – 3 years on and off.
Generally I have found that I have had to do pretty much everything twice or sometimes more; my joy at getting the engine back into the frame disappeared when I realised that I couldn’t get the gearbox in, and I had to take it out again and put the gearbox in first; I put in the isolastics and realised that the new gaiters I had bought for them had been left off; so had to lift everything up and scratch the frame to get them on.
I must have taken the rear wheel on and off about three times before I got everything in right; part of that issue was because I decided to buy and fit a new chain guard relatively late in the piece; and you can’t do that with the wheel in place.
The hand controls that are fitted to this bike are the older chromed steel ones (not alloy) and the front brake cable that I ordered and the clutch cable that the engine rebuilder ordered did not fit. I eventually successfully cut down and resoldered the brake cable, but basically wrecked the clutch cable trying to resolder it – it reads like the process is really easy – and eventually I gave up and bought another that fitted properly.
When I refitted the front wheel I discovered that as the new tyre was wider than the original the mudguard struts were too narrow; I have had to cut them, and have recently had them rewelded together with an extension, and bent them back into shape – they are currently being rechromed.
I spent hours and hours and hours figuring out how to reconnect the wiring harness, and how to read a wiring diagram; at one point I asked a mechanic to help; he insisted that I buy a new wiring harness, and then would not let me look over him so I could learn, so I decided to keep on at it myself, and ultimately conquered it. Some of you might have seen a question from me on this site about wiring; I couldn’t understand why I had wired the rear light permanently on – it transpired that it was the brake light, and I hadn’t adjusted the foot brake lever tension properly to turn it off.
I don’t know how many hours it has taken me – but I am pretty certain that it is a lot more than someone with more experience would have taken. Often I found myself without the right (or near enough) replacement fastener or tool and having to leave it to go and buy something. I did it all in our two car garage – with the usual family junk in it; in order to find room for the bike lift I had to cut my workbench in half. The first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes of any weekend working day or part day was spent setting up and putting away; that combined with trying to figure out what order things went in meant a fairly slow assembly project. I also struggled to deal with what nut or bolt needed a whitworth spanner; an ordinary imperial, or a metric.
My budget was completely blown – several fold. The real damage was done in the cost of the professional motor and gearbox rebuild – I could have bought a brand new crate V8 for less than it cost me to recondition the motor and gearbox, and for what I have spent on this bike altogether I could have purchased a very decent brand new bike; much more than just a Bonneville. However, for the most part I am extremely happy with what I have achieved, and don’t begrudge the money; I could have blown it on anything, and hopefully I will have an appreciating asset after a few years; I suspect that I have substantially overcapitalised it for the moment. Actually I paid for the rebuild (not the initial purchase) out of an inheritance from my late father; he was part of the reason I never had one in my youth, and during the two year stand down period he offered to run it over every time he visited. I felt it only fitting that he paid for the rebuild.
When I finally completed it and got it running I had one test ride on it, and then decided that what the hell, despite the cost I really needed to have the tank and side covers repainted to do the project justice. I had them redone in Fireflake Sapphire Blue, with the lettering in black and gold. Although all of the elements that I have used are authentic, I am not sure that the combination that I have used is. For instance, this early model Roadster did co9me in fireflake sapphire blue (the original of this particular bike was fireflake purple; it was painted over with a dark blue and white pinstriping after repairs to the tank); early models have a black and gold tank logo; and the word “Roadster” on the side covers, but I am not sure the style of “750 Commando” on the side covers – which is the newer style (I think they changed in 1970 the year that this bike was built) came in black and gold, rather than just black, and if it did, was it gold outlined in black rather than black outlined in gold?
Practicality governed; my painter did not have a stencil for the old version of “Commando”; he had already painted the tank logo black and gold; and we agreed that we would do the side covers to match. I’m really pleased with the result, and I think that the juxtaposition of black and gold surrounded by metalflake makes an interesting statement about the period of its manufacture.
Before I took off the tank for repainting I had real trouble getting the bike to idle. One issue was that the throttle cable was too tight (I have posted another thread on this) – the stock outer cable was too long for the inner cable, with the result that the throttle valve could not close, and when I turned the handle bars the bike accelerated and decelerated – between 3000 and 4000 rpm. With help from this forum I diagnosed the issue, and cut back the outer cable with a mini dremel tool, which allowed the throttle valve to hit the bottom of the carburettor body.
After that I couldn’t get it to idle at less than about 2500 rpm. I have tried and tried to adjust the Pilot Air Adjusting Screw, and it just does not like to idle – it likes to stall instead. I have temporarily attempted to fix it by adjusting the throttle cable back so the throttle is always slightly open (but less than it was when the cable was wrong), and decided that I would look at it again when the repainted tank was back on – I still have to adjust the timing, so that might influence things; the motor builder static timed it, but I now have to set it with the new timing light I have just bought.
That was a job for last weekend, but typically my inexperience has led me astray. I have recently got the tank and side covers back from the painters, and last week got the fuel tank cap back from the chrome platers. I refitted the tank and side covers. I screwed in the fuel taps to the tank; and put locktite on the thread of the fuel taps to lubricate them and to create an additional seal in addition to the o rings that I put on the fuel taps. When I put petrol in the tank I felt around the fuel taps; wet red locktite was present. I wasn’t sure whether that was just extra locktite; or petrol and locktite, so I decided to screw the fuel tap a bit tighter to make sure that no petrol could leak past. Mistake. The fuel tap snapped in half and petrol poured everywhere. At least I didn’t strip the thread on the fibreglass tank. So I’ve had to order a replacement, and the proper washer that should have been there in the first place; and the final tuning has to wait for at least another weekend.
In the meantime I have a pretty and almost complete sculpture.
Has it been worth it? Financially probably not. From almost every other perspective, absolutely. It has challenged me, it has allowed me to be creative (if fixing someone else’s invention can be seen as creative) in a way that I have not been before; it has taught me new skills, and I have something that I have great pride in every time I walk past it; and will certainly have pride in when I ride it – hopefully next weekend….
Would I do it again? I am told that I will not until (a) the kids have left home or (b) I am divorced, and that if I breach (a) the consequence will be (b).
I would love to fix up a trail bike for the kids; and as a teenager I had a poster of Peter Fonda as Captain America on my wall. A chopper would be great...
I am also captivated by some of the great café racers that I have seen on this site, and that sort of project would allow me to build directly on the knowledge that I have gained on this bike. I would also love to tear down a motor and rebuild it; I am pretty sure that like the rest of the bike, a motor is really just a 3D jigsaw puzzle for grown ups.
For this summer I just want to get it on the road, vinned and registered, and ride it. The bike has not reached its full potential; there is still room for say a belt drive; and some of the front suspension mods that have been reviewed on this site look really interesting. I’m also not happy with the seat; it looks too bulky; the photos that I have seen of the original “S” style seat look a lot better. I got a photo of the replacement that is available from the English suppliers; that doesn’t look any better than mine. Does anyone have some good close up photos of an original S seat, and the dimensions? Maybe I can modify mine.
The bike currently looks like this (he said with some pride
I bought this a few years ago as a project – I have for years wanted to restore an old bike; and after looking at various makes I decided that a Commando was what I wanted.
When I bought it it was running but pretty worn out,– although it died on the trip home, and broke the kickstart spring when we were trying to revive it.
I was a complete novice to mechanical stuff; my previous experience has been pretty much limited to cleaning out float bowls on the carburettor of the lawn mower, and helping my grandfather change the clutch on his Hillman Imp in the early 1970s. So I was excited to buy this bike as a renovation project, and set myself up to do it by buying tools, and reading all that I could find that might assist me with the project.
I have discovered that the bike has had a few changes from stock by previous owners: a two into one exhaust - I think it is a Viking but it has no identifying marks on it; the factory recommended adjustment to the swing arm to firm up the spindle by welding on two nuts and drilling through them so you can add two extra bolts through the swing arm to press in the spindle (later versions have cotter pins); chain guard and air box removed, centre stand removed to make room for the two in one exhaust; and camshaft replaced; original seat – which would have been the “S” style seat – replaced with the one in the photos which has a label “Mark1A” stuck underneath it; Boyer ignition, and vernier isolastics. The side stand has been replaced with a Triumph one. An external oil filter has been added, like the later models have. Choke lever removed.
After the compulsory two year stand down period following acquisition, I stripped down the bike.
Because I don’t have a mechanical background I thought that it might not be a good idea to learn on this motor and gearbox. I decided to have the engine and gearbox reconditioned by a professional. After a false start I sent them to Bob Nesbitt of Classic Cycles in Wellington, who specialises in servicing and restoring Nortons and Harley Davidsons. Bob runs a racing team “Team Norton” in the NZ Classic Racing Register racing Commandos.
Bob has pretty much entirely rebuilt everything that you can touch in the motor - new superblend bearings; balanced the crankshaft; new big end shells; rebore; to +20; new pistons, valve springs and guides, black diamond valves, new cam chain, pushrods, new Amal carburettors; oil lines; studs, nuts and bolts –many of which are now stainless.
The gearbox has had the kickstart shaft replaced; and a general overhaul, some new sprockets and of course a new kickstart spring.
Bob cryogenically treated the pistons, valves and conrods. Apparently this treatment strengthens them. Bob found that the camshaft was not standard. It is stamped “PD05’ and I think “H 958 WFC” – although the latter may be tech talk on his notes that I don’t understand. I assume that PD05 stands for Paul Dunstall – does anyone know about this type of camshaft? Any information about it, and its characteristics would be gratefully received.
I had the wheels rebuilt with alloy rims and stainless spokes by Tom Morriss of Wheel and Spoke Services in Auckland. After talking to Tom and Bob, and noting an article on what Mick Hemmings was running on his production racer I changed the rear rim to 18 inches WM3 from the stock 19 inches, but retained a 19 inch wm2 rim on the front. That change of rear rim seems to be relatively common in racing circles here (not that I am going to race – or even ride hard), and on road bikes. The reason most often given for changing the rim is to give a greater choice of tyres. If I’m honest my motivation is that I have thought that the standard wheels and tyres on the Commando look too spindly, and I wanted to fit a slightly wider tyre – particularly on the back. When I went to the tyre shop to buy Avons they were out of stock and the guy talked me into getting Bridgestone Battlax BT45s; apparently they are standard on the new Bonnevilles; I have seen pictures of a number of other Nortons with these; hopefully they will be ok – and they were cheaper; a real consideration for me at the time.
Other additions, new things, and essential purchases for the project have included new brake shoes and a brake stiffener for the front drum, new wheel bearings (single only; original double bearings left in), all new cables apart from the tachometer cable which was still ok; new front springs – I haven’t gone to progressive springs – and new bushes and seals for the forks; diamond eternity ring, taper roller bearings for the bearing head, new wiring harness, diamond cluster ring, new Hagon rear springs; and new stainless steel fasteners when I could get them; new chain guard and air box and filter to replace those that had been taken off the bike in past years; stainless rocker feed pipe; Norvil headsteady, new choke lever, horn, horn/dipswitch, mirror, new inspection caps for the primary cover; solid state rectifier, ignition switch, steering lock (after paying a locksmith too much to get the original out I destroyed it trying to get it back in after powdercoating the yokes); rear hub cover; hoses; external oil filter; handgrips; footrubbers; chain adjusters and incidentals.
I had the frame powder coated black, and the engine mounts powdercoated silver I didn’t discover and read the Old Britts website and the perils of powdercoating the engine mounts until after the bike was totally reassembled; but on looking at the mounts it is clear that the coaters have kept cover very thin at the points where they are attached to the isolastics; and engine mount points; I am keeping my fingers crossed that the studs don’t snap.
I have pretty much rechromed everything in sight except the headlamp cover and the fittings below the fuel tank that hold the reflectors.
The original bracket that holds the coils had been replaced with a smaller L shaped metal piece (I have recently seen an identical piece on another bike of similar vintage, so wonder whether this is either a factory item or a common changeover); I found a second hand original bracket on the internet and bought it and repainted it myself. I also repainted bits and pieces that had not been powdercoated; in particular I was a bit wary of having the oil tank blasted, so chose to clean it out myself – it took quite some cleaning – and repaint it.
I did all of the disassembly; polishing (apart from wheel hubs and engine covers – both of which were done by respective rebuilders), and reassembly myself. I bought a grinder, stand, and polishing mops, and spent many weekends polishing away and getting covered in black muck.
The reassembly was the fun part; and I found that I had taken far too few notes and photos when I was taking it apart. As well as using a Haynes manual and factory manual to help me reassemble, I found the Andover Norton website very useful, its exploded diagrams.. Unfortunately it was not perfect for me as the diagrams start at 1971; my 1970 is quite different in a number of respects. Classic Bike magazine ran a pictorial of Mick Hemmings assembling a Commando over two issues which was very useful – he did it over a weekend; it has taken me about 2 – 3 years on and off.
Generally I have found that I have had to do pretty much everything twice or sometimes more; my joy at getting the engine back into the frame disappeared when I realised that I couldn’t get the gearbox in, and I had to take it out again and put the gearbox in first; I put in the isolastics and realised that the new gaiters I had bought for them had been left off; so had to lift everything up and scratch the frame to get them on.
I must have taken the rear wheel on and off about three times before I got everything in right; part of that issue was because I decided to buy and fit a new chain guard relatively late in the piece; and you can’t do that with the wheel in place.
The hand controls that are fitted to this bike are the older chromed steel ones (not alloy) and the front brake cable that I ordered and the clutch cable that the engine rebuilder ordered did not fit. I eventually successfully cut down and resoldered the brake cable, but basically wrecked the clutch cable trying to resolder it – it reads like the process is really easy – and eventually I gave up and bought another that fitted properly.
When I refitted the front wheel I discovered that as the new tyre was wider than the original the mudguard struts were too narrow; I have had to cut them, and have recently had them rewelded together with an extension, and bent them back into shape – they are currently being rechromed.
I spent hours and hours and hours figuring out how to reconnect the wiring harness, and how to read a wiring diagram; at one point I asked a mechanic to help; he insisted that I buy a new wiring harness, and then would not let me look over him so I could learn, so I decided to keep on at it myself, and ultimately conquered it. Some of you might have seen a question from me on this site about wiring; I couldn’t understand why I had wired the rear light permanently on – it transpired that it was the brake light, and I hadn’t adjusted the foot brake lever tension properly to turn it off.
I don’t know how many hours it has taken me – but I am pretty certain that it is a lot more than someone with more experience would have taken. Often I found myself without the right (or near enough) replacement fastener or tool and having to leave it to go and buy something. I did it all in our two car garage – with the usual family junk in it; in order to find room for the bike lift I had to cut my workbench in half. The first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes of any weekend working day or part day was spent setting up and putting away; that combined with trying to figure out what order things went in meant a fairly slow assembly project. I also struggled to deal with what nut or bolt needed a whitworth spanner; an ordinary imperial, or a metric.
My budget was completely blown – several fold. The real damage was done in the cost of the professional motor and gearbox rebuild – I could have bought a brand new crate V8 for less than it cost me to recondition the motor and gearbox, and for what I have spent on this bike altogether I could have purchased a very decent brand new bike; much more than just a Bonneville. However, for the most part I am extremely happy with what I have achieved, and don’t begrudge the money; I could have blown it on anything, and hopefully I will have an appreciating asset after a few years; I suspect that I have substantially overcapitalised it for the moment. Actually I paid for the rebuild (not the initial purchase) out of an inheritance from my late father; he was part of the reason I never had one in my youth, and during the two year stand down period he offered to run it over every time he visited. I felt it only fitting that he paid for the rebuild.
When I finally completed it and got it running I had one test ride on it, and then decided that what the hell, despite the cost I really needed to have the tank and side covers repainted to do the project justice. I had them redone in Fireflake Sapphire Blue, with the lettering in black and gold. Although all of the elements that I have used are authentic, I am not sure that the combination that I have used is. For instance, this early model Roadster did co9me in fireflake sapphire blue (the original of this particular bike was fireflake purple; it was painted over with a dark blue and white pinstriping after repairs to the tank); early models have a black and gold tank logo; and the word “Roadster” on the side covers, but I am not sure the style of “750 Commando” on the side covers – which is the newer style (I think they changed in 1970 the year that this bike was built) came in black and gold, rather than just black, and if it did, was it gold outlined in black rather than black outlined in gold?
Practicality governed; my painter did not have a stencil for the old version of “Commando”; he had already painted the tank logo black and gold; and we agreed that we would do the side covers to match. I’m really pleased with the result, and I think that the juxtaposition of black and gold surrounded by metalflake makes an interesting statement about the period of its manufacture.
Before I took off the tank for repainting I had real trouble getting the bike to idle. One issue was that the throttle cable was too tight (I have posted another thread on this) – the stock outer cable was too long for the inner cable, with the result that the throttle valve could not close, and when I turned the handle bars the bike accelerated and decelerated – between 3000 and 4000 rpm. With help from this forum I diagnosed the issue, and cut back the outer cable with a mini dremel tool, which allowed the throttle valve to hit the bottom of the carburettor body.
After that I couldn’t get it to idle at less than about 2500 rpm. I have tried and tried to adjust the Pilot Air Adjusting Screw, and it just does not like to idle – it likes to stall instead. I have temporarily attempted to fix it by adjusting the throttle cable back so the throttle is always slightly open (but less than it was when the cable was wrong), and decided that I would look at it again when the repainted tank was back on – I still have to adjust the timing, so that might influence things; the motor builder static timed it, but I now have to set it with the new timing light I have just bought.
That was a job for last weekend, but typically my inexperience has led me astray. I have recently got the tank and side covers back from the painters, and last week got the fuel tank cap back from the chrome platers. I refitted the tank and side covers. I screwed in the fuel taps to the tank; and put locktite on the thread of the fuel taps to lubricate them and to create an additional seal in addition to the o rings that I put on the fuel taps. When I put petrol in the tank I felt around the fuel taps; wet red locktite was present. I wasn’t sure whether that was just extra locktite; or petrol and locktite, so I decided to screw the fuel tap a bit tighter to make sure that no petrol could leak past. Mistake. The fuel tap snapped in half and petrol poured everywhere. At least I didn’t strip the thread on the fibreglass tank. So I’ve had to order a replacement, and the proper washer that should have been there in the first place; and the final tuning has to wait for at least another weekend.
In the meantime I have a pretty and almost complete sculpture.
Has it been worth it? Financially probably not. From almost every other perspective, absolutely. It has challenged me, it has allowed me to be creative (if fixing someone else’s invention can be seen as creative) in a way that I have not been before; it has taught me new skills, and I have something that I have great pride in every time I walk past it; and will certainly have pride in when I ride it – hopefully next weekend….
Would I do it again? I am told that I will not until (a) the kids have left home or (b) I am divorced, and that if I breach (a) the consequence will be (b).
I would love to fix up a trail bike for the kids; and as a teenager I had a poster of Peter Fonda as Captain America on my wall. A chopper would be great...
I am also captivated by some of the great café racers that I have seen on this site, and that sort of project would allow me to build directly on the knowledge that I have gained on this bike. I would also love to tear down a motor and rebuild it; I am pretty sure that like the rest of the bike, a motor is really just a 3D jigsaw puzzle for grown ups.
For this summer I just want to get it on the road, vinned and registered, and ride it. The bike has not reached its full potential; there is still room for say a belt drive; and some of the front suspension mods that have been reviewed on this site look really interesting. I’m also not happy with the seat; it looks too bulky; the photos that I have seen of the original “S” style seat look a lot better. I got a photo of the replacement that is available from the English suppliers; that doesn’t look any better than mine. Does anyone have some good close up photos of an original S seat, and the dimensions? Maybe I can modify mine.
