Roadster vs Interstate

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Looking thru the TomTom Rider 550 GPS manual, it has a partial cure for bikes lacking a trip odometer. The 550 has a built in "Trip Statistics" file with a trip odometer.
With a touch to the screen one can reset the trip odometer in there on each fillup.
Useful, but still not as good as a trip odometer because it will require pulling over and stopping to access " Trip Statistics"

Glen
 
Always considered it a big flaw from Norton,
No trip odometer.
 
I saw someone post a pic of a knitting needle counter on a cable once. He used it to set the mileage for fuel fills. Clever I thought.
 
Before any long trips are planned you should already know how much mileage you get out of a tank of fuel before hitting reserve whether you have a trip meter or not, its also wise to stop every 2 hours on a long trip for a bit of a stretch so if you are traveling on a Roadster tank then 2 hours is about right for a top up, a Interstate tank you be able to double that distant and time, but depends how comfortable you are on the bike while riding long distant, I have done many 15 hour straight runs while traveling, but its very important to stop for that short break for fuel, stretch, feed and of course that toilet break, fatiuge is any travelers worst enemy whether on a bike, car or truck.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
Before any long trips are planned you should already know how much mileage you get out of a tank of fuel before hitting reserve whether you have a trip meter or not, its also wise to stop every 2 hours on a long trip for a bit of a stretch so if you are traveling on a Roadster tank then 2 hours is about right for a top up, a Interstate tank you be able to double that distant and time, but depends how comfortable you are on the bike while riding long distant, I have done many 15 hour straight runs while traveling, but its very important to stop for that short break for fuel, stretch, feed and of course that toilet break, fatiuge is any travelers worst enemy whether on a bike, car or truck.

Ashley
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As good as this is, it's not infallible when going into a strong headwind or climbing up hills, in which case, it goes right out of the window.
I have found the reserve tap sometimes cannot be relied upon, and found myself walking to the gas station. . . . .
 
worntorn said:
When did the Commando get a trip odometer?
MK3 has it, my 650SS does not. A 10 BSA and Vincents have the trip odometer on Chronometrics.
It's a small but very important item, especially if the bike is to be used for long distance travel.
Click to expand...
Mine is a 74 Mk2 no trippie, serial 312xxx, I've changed my other three old bikes to trips and I usually only
do a hundred and fifty tops. Filling stations are not as easy to find these days.
 
worntorn said:
Looking thru the TomTom Rider 550 GPS manual, it has a partial cure for bikes lacking a trip odometer. The 550 has a built in "Trip Statistics" file with a trip odometer.
Click to expand...
My Garmin Zumo has both a trip meter and a fuel milage meter. It warns me when I'm 30 miles from the programed fuel range.
 
My MK2A has Veglia clocks as it was an Interstate, the Veglia clocks have the Trip meter under the clock, not in the side like the BSA/Triumph Smiths Clocks. Must have been too much extra from Smiths.
 
Bernhard said:
As good as this is, it's not infallible when going into a strong headwind or climbing up hills, in which case, it goes right out of the window.
I have found the reserve tap sometimes cannot be relied upon, and found myself walking to the gas station. . . . .
Click to expand...
If you know your own bike then head wind or climbing hills you should take that into account, but really my Norton has always taken the same amount of fuel with near same mileage each tank full before reserve, going up hills and with head winds, tight twisty roads to high speeds when traveling, I have never had a reserve tap fail me in 45 years of owning my Norton except for one time in my younger days when I turned both fuel taps on for a high speed run with my mate on his 72 750 Ducati , we were racing each other on one of our favorite mountain range, after the high speed run forgot to turn the reserve tap off and ran out of fuel, wasn't the reserve fuel tap fault except my own, it was the only time I have ever run out of fuel in over 47 years of riding, that was over 42 years ago when that happened and still riding the same bike.

Ashley
 
Smith's magnetics apparently are pretty much the same under the dial. So it may well be possible to get a head with a tripodometer and then simply modify the Commando dial face, ie, slice in a rectangular window for it.
...and if necessary change the gearbox to suit the head.
 
Onder said:
Smith's magnetics apparently are pretty much the same under the dial. So it may well be possible to get a head with a tripodometer and then simply modify the Commando dial face, ie, slice in a rectangular window for it.
...and if necessary change the gearbox to suit the head.
Click to expand...
Just have a word with one of the restorers, A E Pople took a 1969 B25 1600 revs/mile speedo and converted it to look like a gray face 1965 T120R for me, that was 1600 revs/mile too. So taking a T160 speedo of the same era as a Commando speedo and modifying the face and adding an access hole in the clock holder is possible as both were 1000 revs per mile.
 
My first Mk III Roadster had Veglia instruments. The speedometer had a trip odometer, with the reset shaft coming out the bottom. My current Mk III Roadster project has Smiths instruments. It also has a trip odometer, with the reset shaft on the bottom.
 
maylar said:
My Garmin Zumo has both a trip meter and a fuel milage meter. It warns me when I'm 30 miles from the programed fuel range.
Click to expand...
Yes, the 550 does that too, I had forgotten that.
You can set the fuel station - distance to- at any number.
So I have it set at 125 when using it on the Vincent.
On the right top corner of the unit a fuel pump icon appears when a station is 125 miles away.
A "Distance to fuel" number is shown at the bottom.
The number counts down and the icon moves down as you get closer to the pump.
If other, further off stations come into that 125 mile range as you ride, pump icons for those appear at the top and start moving down. If you decide to pass the first station, the mileage countdown moves to the next one along your path.

Come to think of it, this is an excellent feature, especially if your bike lacks an odometer.

Glen
 
Bernhard said:
As good as this is, it's not infallible when going into a strong headwind or climbing up hills, in which case, it goes right out of the window.
I have found the reserve tap sometimes cannot be relied upon, and found myself walking to the gas station. . . . .
Click to expand...
Or coasting into the gas station like I did , luckily it was my destination as the fishin' hole was behind the station !
 
Re the original question...I know a lot of folks thought the interstate was ugly.

They are right! A roadster or a Fastback!
 
I think they did a good styling job with the tank (though I've never tried to get my knees either side of one), but I think they could have offered more than the one seating option though, IMHO. It's that big bench mounted so far back that spoils the whole line for me......
 
MexicoMike said:
Re the original question...I know a lot of folks thought the interstate was ugly.

They are right! A roadster or a Fastback!
Click to expand...

My bike looked great originally as a roadster. I loved the chrome shock covers, chrome chain guard, and both my engine sidecovers were chromed. The fenders, tank, sidecovers, and frame were black. So my bike was black and chrome... it looked super and the proportions of the tank, seat, and the rest were strictly "sportbike" looking before that genre even really existed...

During the years of changing over to an interstate, primarily to have extended cruising range with the larger tank, I had every poor looking combination of tanks, seats and sidecovers. I always saw what didn't look good, but being financially challenged, I kept slowly changing parts over to reach the specifications I wanted... Those specs are far off the Stock commando path, but the bike still looks mostly "commando-esque" as an interstate now.

Others can like it or hate it, but I think it's pretty good looking now as an interstate... In fact, it looks much nicer than any roadster with those ugly lollypop directional lights front and back... Just look at the CNW bikes. Matt ditched those "walmart" looking directional lights on his beautiful bikes. He knew how bad they looked too...
 
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