Ride my bike... I ride yours..

o0norton0o · May 13, 2015

Some of you have more than one bike, so you can compare their ride qualities of each. I live in the seattle area. I'd love to ride someone elses commando, and also have them ride mine... I have a tiny weave above 80mph. I would love to compare my bike's feel to someone elses. I would also like to hear someone's impression of my bike's handling, especially if their bike handles much better than mine....

I've done the keegler swingarm modifiction and have my isolastics pretty tight. I'd rather have a little buzzy footpegs than a sloppy handling bike... I've trued my wheels up and they run pretty true. The only thing I haven't done is replaced the wheel bearings... My bike has under 20,000 miles on it, and probably less than 10,000 since the engine was rebuilt.

Anyone live near the east side of seattle??

gortnipper · May 13, 2015

I would have swapped you, but I moved from Woodinville to Auckland 10 years ago! Time flies...

o0norton0o · May 13, 2015

When I first moved here I met a guy from woodenvile was a brittish cycle guy. He also had a "woodmizer" bandsaw mill. Was that you by any chance??

worntorn · May 13, 2015

Bob, what part of Seattle are you in? I might take a trip down to Snohomish/Monroe area sometime in the near future, could go Commando.

Glen

gortnipper · May 13, 2015

Nope, not me.

gortnipper · May 13, 2015

Maybe you could try rickinseattle, the VME or NWNOC?

o0norton0o · May 13, 2015

My engine runs really strong,.... I have no complaints about how well my bike it runs. I'm having a hard time accepting that I have a tiny bit of weave above 80mph. Having burried the speedo at 140mph on my old honda on the hiway, and having regularly run it up to 100mph in bursts without even a hint of a weave, I have to believe that my norton can't be handling as good as it is capable of.

Any ideas or questions are welcome, as well as someone knowledgable locally who might want to give my bike a run and render their opinion... thanks all....

MikeM · May 13, 2015

My riding partner and I swap bikes from time to time. The "other brand". Its interesting to compare. His bike is a chopper. I wish there was someone around here to compare Nortons with.
I dont have a problem trading out with another experienced rider.

Nortiboy · May 14, 2015

o0norton0o said:
I have a tiny weave above 80mph. I would love to compare my bike's feel to someone elses. I would also like to hear someone's impression of my bike's handling

Can't swap bikes but I had a weave that was 100% cured by a Rose Joint head steady. What head steady do you have ?

Cheers

o0norton0o · May 14, 2015

Thanks for your input. I have the headsteady pictured below. I am guessing it's an MK111 head steady.

Old Scratcher · May 14, 2015

Have you checked your headstock bearings are tight & running true?
& I'm sure you've checked this, but weaves are often caused by under inflated tyres, especially the rear

Nortiboy · May 14, 2015

o0norton0o said:
Thanks for your input. I have the headsteady pictured below. I am guessing it's an MK111 head steady.

Yep, stock MK3 headsteady. A good rose (heim) joint headsteady should eliminate your weave, based on what you have done so far. Search headsteady on this forum.

Cheers

cjandme · May 14, 2015

Nortiboy said:
o0norton0o said:

I have a tiny weave above 80mph. I would love to compare my bike's feel to someone elses. I would also like to hear someone's impression of my bike's handling

Click to expand...

Can't swap bikes but I had a weave that was 100% cured by a Rose Joint head steady. What head steady do you have ?

Cheers

I have the same one pictured above on my mk3, I recently bought a "rose joint" head steady from comnoz here on this forum , he makes very good quality stuff and since I had the cash, I jumped on it. You could check out his website (www.nortonmachineshop) or just pm him about one for your bike

Anonymous · May 14, 2015

o0norton0o said:
Thanks for your input. I have the headsteady pictured below. I am guessing it's an MK111 head steady.

Hi o0norton0o.
If you stay with the M3 headsteady pictured, you may consider replacing the rubber buffers.
They can be knackered after 40+ years of service and new ones can be had with greater shore hardness.
Ta.

o0norton0o · May 14, 2015

Thanks for all the comments. They sparked me to do the research on head steadies and handling. The information was all there and easy to find. I haven't decided which headsteady I will end up buying. I am pretty broke at the moment and have some pressing expenses that are unavoidable. I look forward to taking my bike's handling to the next level with this improvement.

thanks again.... to everyone who commented and all the people who's comments made up the data base of information that I was able to ACCESS...

DogT · May 14, 2015

The simplest headsteady may be by ludwig. It would have to be made up though, it's a version of the production racer headsteady which I think Old Brits sells a very expensive version of and Norvil one as well. The Dave Taylor is probably the most reasonable heim joint one to buy which is similar to the CNW one although not as elegant, I think Clubman Racing has them, they used to be around $150 as I remember. I may be dating myself.

o0norton0o · Jun 13, 2015

Mad Props to Jim Comstock.... I mounted his headsteady and my bike has Laser beam handling now.... It's nice to finally have a bike that's not trying to do the "shimmy shuffle" at 85mph.... Thanks Jim!

My factory box style headsteady had one ripped rubber mount when I disassembled it to switch it out... What a piece of crap NOS- New Old $hit....

cjandme · Jun 15, 2015

DogT said:
The simplest headsteady may be by ludwig. It would have to be made up though, it's a version of the production racer headsteady which I think Old Brits sells

I think your right about it being the simplest most straight forward headsteady DogT, but I believe ludwigs design is his own. I remember the thread and searched for it, but was unable to find it just now. I got one of comnoz headsteady's too, o0nortono0, ( I have no garage at the moment and my work bench is the kids picnic table out front, so no real easy way for me to make up one of ludwigs type of headsteady). Cj

Nater_Potater · Jun 15, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dave-Taylor-Hea ... 87&vxp=mtr for the "Dave Taylor" style.

Mine would start The Hinge action at anything over 75mph. I tried punching through it one day; bad call! Added swing arm clamps, checked for good wheel and head bearings, new front Avon (90/90-19), then cured it by replacing the antiquated 400-18 Dunlop Sport Elite on the rear with a new Avon. Not one touch of wobble since, even powering-out of my favorite set of twisites at somewhere in the Go Directly To Jail speeds. That's with the original head steady rubbers.

You could try a new set of rubbers for fairly cheap to see if that helps. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NORTON-COMMANDO ... 1f&vxp=mtr

Ride my bike... I ride yours..

o0norton0o

gortnipper

o0norton0o

worntorn

gortnipper

gortnipper

o0norton0o

MikeM

Nortiboy

o0norton0o

Old Scratcher

Nortiboy

cjandme

Anonymous

Guest

o0norton0o

DogT

o0norton0o

cjandme

Nater_Potater

Similar threads