New member, New Norton!

Greetings to everyone,
Brand new member here. I have been trawling these forums for the past few weeks. Finding some interesting stories and technical information. I now believe its about time for me to introduce myself.

I am a young Australian resident, who has always had a great interest in bikes - new and old.
After riding my fathers '65 Triumph Scrambler and '60 AJS around for the past few years I thought it about time that I purchase my first bike. Out of all the modern machines going around I stood firm on finding myself a nice classic. Originally I purchased a "1971 Bonnie Cafe racer" after much toiling. Little did I know after all the money changed hands and the bike was shipped my way. What I had in fact received was not at all a Bonnie or for that matter even in any resemblance of the condition the bike was advertised as. The bike was in fact a '72 Triumph Trophy with a Bonnie head and twin carbs. I wasnt going to have any of this, so I promptly went into discussions about returning the bike.

A few weeks later I had my large sum of money back in hand and was still on the prowl. After checking out the local Classic motorcycle club rally, I was promptly pushed in the direction of a 1972 Norton Commando Combat.
Two days later and short 8k (Aus Dollars), I had myself a Combat sitting the shed - running, registered and ready to be ridden.

So I am now stuck with a lovely machine which I will nurture for many years to come. Already planning on stripping it down this winter and building myself a nice little cafe racer.

Its red..... and a bit blurry (some nicer shots will be up soon!)


-Rykie

Welcome to the forum, and well done on your purchase, looks good.
You will find all you need to know on here , it's just a matter of looking through the threads, or asking!
Go on, ask for opinions about Tri-spark......... :lol:

We are glad you didn't end up with a Triumph, but I have to ask, why take that lovely bike and strip it down for a cafe racer? It's your bike so of course do what you like, but I would vote for riding that one, while you search for the perfect donor bike to build the cafe racer!

I'm all for the Cafe racer, check out my avatar picture, but not with that beautiful example of a combat. I started out with a pile of parts. I't is your bike, but you will find most people in the know will agree.

Welcome - that bike looks really great!

It looks very familiar, but in much better condition than my '72 red combat roadster when I bought it in '97. My original plan was to turn mine into a yellow production racer, but after polishing up the red tank and side covers, it looked too good to change.

That's a really nice bike. I would leave it as-is..no sense tearing it apart when it already looks so nice, but hey, it's your bike--do what YOU want!

-Jordan

Beautiful bike.
Personally the only thing i would do, is switch out those bars for the lower european bars. I like to have a slightly forward lean when riding my bikes. easier on the back and it keeps more weight toward the front of the bike.

heres a shot of mine, no seat in this pic, was still waiting for it


But as said by other posters...its your bike.

No matter, you will get looks and thumbs up where ever you go on that Norton. People LOVE Nortons..even people who never rode a motorcycle in there life. Thats what Ive have found out in the past 6 months that I have been riding Nortons.

Fab bike, without a doubt. I too would suggest a set of euro bars and ride for a while and see if you like it that way before going "Cafe". The bike will turn heads in any form!

I am all for the standard look. But i have had my mind set on a cafe for a while now. To start with i will be putting some lower rise bars on it. Next will be some new tyres - i am thinking sOme sticky Avon's, any recommendations? Money isnt an issue.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Looking forward to my time on these forums.

- Rykie

rykie.hw said:

I am all for the standard look. But i have had my mind set on a cafe for a while now. To start with i will be putting some lower rise bars on it. Next will be some new tyres - i am thinking sOme sticky Avon's, any recommendations? Money isnt an issue.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Looking forward to my time on these forums.

- Rykie

Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I *love* the cafe look....

I brought home a sad, sad Commando which had been made into a hardtail. I think I'm going to try to rescue that frame and give it more of a "cafe racer" sort of look. I feel less guilty about chopping away at an already chopped up frame. The way I see it, I'm undoing--at least somewhat--the wrongs that have been done to the poor bastard to begin with.

That being said, I'd rather use a featherbed frame, but... I can't put myself to spend the kind of money those go for.

I guess my entire point in this post is that I like the 'stock' look if the bike is already close to being stock. If it's already been altered/ruined/whatever, then it's fair game. But that's just *my* opinion.

-Jordan

Really clean looking ride, welcome, Cj

Everybody here has an opinion. Show us a photo of your girl and we will tell you how to court her too!

But to answer the question on tires, put AM26s on there!

Russ

PS-just don't do anything to that bike that can't be reversed and save your stock parts. Someday you will be glad you did.

My initial plan is to keep all stock components. I wont be changing the frame in anyway. Engine may need some work down the track. I will just be looking into a manx or norvil tank and some flavour of a little cowl cafe seat and a fw other bits and pieces.

Sorry about the spelling. Currently posting from my phone.

motoalchemist said:

Beautiful bike.
Personally the only thing i would do, is switch out those bars for the lower european bars. I like to have a slightly forward lean when riding my bikes. easier on the back and it keeps more weight toward the front of the bike.

heres a shot of mine, no seat in this pic, was still waiting for it

But as said by other posters...its your bike.

No matter, you will get looks and thumbs up where ever you go on that Norton. People LOVE Nortons..even people who never rode a motorcycle in there life. Thats what Ive have found out in the past 6 months that I have been riding Nortons.

Click to expand...

Not hijacking the thread but, motoalchemist, do you have a picture of your bike with the seat on ?, I mentioned before I wasn't all that keen on the fastback tail but that looks really good with the Interstate tank. A while ago I was going to go down the Roadster route but the cost of the tank etc. was ridiculous. I have an RGM seat on it just now.
Thanks
Robert

So I have been looking into getting these forks fixed, due to terrible progression through the travel and many other jarring effects. The forks tend to stick quite solidly on occasions, usually after they have bottomed out. I actually have the wrench stanchions back out of the lowers. I have been told this issue could be due to a few reasons, apparently there have been some so called "Norton" seals going around my part of Aus which are in fact Triumph seals. From my knowledge they are so very similar but just a bit tighter than the Norton. Could this be causing the forks to "stick"?

At the moment I have been eyeing off the Lansdowne kit. Is it worth purchasing a new rebuild kit as well as the Lansdowne? ie, new bush, seals and what not, and if so where is the best place to look?

Sorry, if I am asking questions which have already been answered on these forums.

"Edit; For some reason my image is broken. No idea why... anyway, as I said I will be posting up some nicer shots when I get around to it"
-Rykie

It isn't a huge job to tear down your forks for a look. I don't know about the seals. I would wonder if there is a damaged spot in your tube that is jamming in the bushing. If you pull the forks down for inspection you can run the bushing up the tube to see if it hits a spot where the tube has been flattened a bit. It doesn't take much out of round for it to stick solidly. If you are going to do the Landsdown kit you might as well sort out the bushings, seals and tubes first.

I have my forks torn down right now. I just got my new seal kits and will be putting them back together as soon as I can get some shop time. Let me know if you need any photos or information on the process. The manual is pretty straight forward, and there are no big surprises that I found.

Russ

Mayby a Fork recon kit from myself would restore the sliders?
PS There is a kit on Ebay UK to be going on with..Regards John Lansdowne Eng

I will need to pull the forks down and have a look at the condition. But I will still be after a new set of those dampers and probably a recondition kit.
I shall be placing an order for the dampers soon. What do you think the wait time will be on them John? As I stated earlier. I am in Australia.
Thanks for all the info, time to go down to the shed and pull these forks apart...

Hi rykie.hw

I am in Oz & have no problem getting parts from the UK & USA in 7 to 10 days..

Sweenz