Norton Commando head steady by Old Britts

Has anyone out there had experience with the head steady sourced by Old Brits and/or the one that can be purchased from Colorado Norton Works?

A mate of mine has one on his 750, he thinks its fine. I've ridden it, bike handles well and is smoooth. Certainly well made.

Mick

Although I've never tried one, I have spent many thousands of dollars with Old Britts and have yet to be disapponted with the littlest issue from ANYTHING they've sold me.

They don't sell stuff that isn't very good or better.

grandpaul said:

Although I've never tried one, I have spent many thousands of dollars with Old Britts and have yet to be disapponted with the littlest issue from ANYTHING they've sold me.

They don't sell stuff that isn't very good or better.

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+1

I have to say I've uased one of Norman White's Head Steadies from teh UK for several years - developed from the JPS works racers in the early days. It transformed the handling on my Commando.

http://www.normanwhite.co.uk/prod03.htm

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Kind regards

Luke Albanese

lukeya said:

I have to say I've uased one of Norman White's Head Steadies from teh UK for several years - developed from the JPS works racers in the early days. It transformed the handling on my Commando.

http://www.normanwhite.co.uk/prod03.htm

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Kind regards

Luke Albanese

Click to expand...

That's the head steady design that I purchased tooling and spares for. Someday soon the box will arrive and I can start selling them in the states.

They're brilliant. Norman is a great guy and I trust his views implicitly, but with him having been through the whole thing since the early days with the Norton Factory team, and being a highly trained mechanical engineer, not everyone likes his opinions. The UK Norton 'World' is for some reason very, very opinionated.

He's a racer and a good buddy of Peter Williams however - and that's good enough for me.

Best piece of advice for my Commando handling: throw away the steering damper, fit an NW head steady, and fit 18" Bridgestone BT45 tyres, tighten isos all the way up so no lateral movement and only slight axial movement. Handling now perfect even over 100 mph. That steering damper was dangerous.

The headsteadies are now available from Andover Norton, part# 06-7263, see http://www.andover-norton.co.uk/News.htm. Made partly in the UK, the main structures in Germany. My son Tim, the re-designer, has one on his Commando and it is very good- I rode the bike last weekend. I have used several other offerings from various British protagonists over the years on my Commandos, but whilst they were all beneficial to the handling- as they are- the workmanship on all of them left a lot to be desired. One especially looked as if a blind man had welded it in his chickenshed- it was so warped we had to put a second base to it. I won't name names, but that last one was the reason why we decided to start making them ourselves.
I admit I have never tried one from Old Britts, but knowing Fred and Ella I am sure theirs is better than the sorry examples I purchased in England over the years.
Joe Seifert

I have found the quality of manufacture of Norman White's headsteady to be first class frankly. I cannot comment on other UK manufactureres.

Used nearly every available headsteady over the years most of them are just fine but 1 year ago I mounted a CNW headsteady. Best so far: Very solid, easy fitting, no tinkering with shims or brackets, no maintenance because of self lubricating joints. Downside: rather expensive.