Shakedown, no breakdown... yet

Riding simply invites dying and never forget it. You needed to find out how good and brave you are practicing panic braking and is a good way to see how competent you are a particular day. Develop the habit to look a bit crazy and aggressive, jerky lane zags and animated postures in seat, keeping/letting space ahead increase, then suck it up w/o getting too close to traffic ahead and brake or down shift for noise and effect, just short of police noticing too much. Wiggle bars to wiggle light beam when seeing entering or on coming traffic. Do not just ride sedate and steady to dissapear or appear to be mature rider that shows up in paper we read about. Realize brakes are least effective control and last resort, quick manevours and throttle often the most scary but effective salvation. NEVER EVER BRAKE WHILE LEANED DO IT ALL STRAIGHT UP TILL CAN FLING A DODGE AT LAST INSTANT.

Do not follow close and be up to speed to pass before you pull out of lane and be ready to pull back in then brake like a manic. Ride a few hundred yards with half aired tires and get that control state impressed in your bones. May not understand now but your spinal cord reflexes sure may some day. Your brain is not fast enough to control a panic state on a cycle, only suggests what path is the best way to go...

I guess while we're on it, the rate of rear end collisions has exploded. This is my current loom on doom. Cell phone texting is killing motorcyclist at an alarming rate. Spacial awareness is KEY. 360 degrees. It's a challenge to keep your eyes on the road in front and behind.
Dave, I can't help thinking that some of your exhaustion is understandably mental. If you're not a little nervous out in traffic, then you have one foot in the grave already.

No better time to talk of safety than while all these bikes are being shookdown. ( A valid topic highjack.)

Order from chaos! It isn't even 8:00 A.M. here yet, but when I read this thread I decided to have a drink! I mean in your honor, not the usual one. All I want to know is how did you get my helmet! Axis yellow, Shoei RF-1100...I am checking my shop now to make sure mine isn't missing!

congrats,

Russ

NICE Dave,Now go and injoy. Thanks for all the pics. My sons going to show me how to post again this time im going to write it all down. Im about to give him my 74 he has alot to learn.

Phil

rvich said:

Order from chaos! It isn't even 8:00 A.M. here yet, but when I read this thread I decided to have a drink! I mean in your honor, not the usual one. All I want to know is how did you get my helmet! Axis yellow, Shoei RF-1100...I am checking my shop now to make sure mine isn't missing!

congrats,

Russ

Click to expand...

Same helmet but mine matches my bike. :mrgreen: Friend of mine is a racer and got me his discounted price on the helmet.

Went to the Norton club meeting this morning.








The two BSAs just happened by in the neighborhood. They were fucking GORGEOUS. Now I just have to talk my brother out of the BSA we have in pieces... :mrgreen:

Afterward we went for a ride. I was a little apprehensive, but I went anyways. About 6 Nortons and a couple chaperones. When the headed for the freeway I was thinking, this thing hasn't been at those speeds yet, let's see how she does... it was fine. We rode out to one of the guy's house in the countryside. Probably 30+ miles out there. Damn bike still isn't missing a beat. One little thing is that when it gets warm the clutch slips when you hit the throttle hard at about 4k rpm. I suspect two things: Oil in the fiber plates is leaching out when it gets warm or the gearbox oil is seeping in. I greased the pushrod really good in hope that would stop the oil from migrating. When you're just riding it's not a problem. Also a bit of vibration about 3500rpm, might let the isos settle before resetting them.

There was a very trick XS650 there. VERY. Ironically the owner could do nothing but talk about the Norton basketcase he has and wants to complete. :mrgreen:

Still have the trip to the inlaw tomorrow. More freeway.

awesome, u r lucky to live in an area with other nortons around

pelican said:

awesome, u r lucky to live in an area with other nortons around

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There are Nortons in NC, heck my old Interstate is there. :mrgreen:

Put 4 gallons in on Friday. Hit reserve today. Haven't bother looking at the odometer to see how many miles I've gone. Probably off by a little anyways.

Picture is next to the Columbia River by the Portland Airport on the way home. Some drops appeared on my visor, I thought it might be the semi in front of me using his wipers. Then I thought it might be a fuel leak. It wasn't until I was home a few minutes later that I realized it was... rain. Ok, sprinkles. After 3 straight days of beautiful weather it was a surprise, well, as much as rain could surprise someone in Oregon. :mrgreen:

We only work half-days on Fridays during the summer, and the forecast is sunny. Sounds like an afternoon ride coming...

Still not even a drop of oil under the bike.

Good show w/o a shower. Have you been though all the re-nip ups?

Dave - Last week was the first time I really rode in traffic on the Norton. What little riding I did was on a permit, but two weeks ago I took the MSF Course and got my license, which honestly made me feel much more comfortable. I do agree that taking it out for the first couple times is mind boggling. Like you said, you're trying to pay attention to the bike and whats happening and how it feels and did I turn on the gas and is the headlight on? blah blah blah. And then all of the sudden you realize there is a stop sign coming up, etc, etc.

I've had it out for short runs around town 3 or 4 times, still need to get it inspected, hopefully this week. The next big step for me will be getting on the highway to go to work. The only other way is through town with 100 traffic signals, so I figure the highway is probably safer.

So far I've gone over everything, checking and tightening, everytime I've ridden it, mostly for peace of mind during the next ride. So far so good.

I love the last picture. It sure looks great, have fun.

Ben

Congrats Dave! Good on ya!

Bike looks awesome Dave! Take it easy till ya get to know Her. :wink:

Hortons Norton said:

Bike looks awesome Dave! Take it easy till ya get to know Her. :wink:

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It was thanks to very fine folks like you who made it happen.

Not quite a breakdown, but it would have eventually.


Rode to work today, it was suppose to be about 72 and partly sunny. Never happened. During the summer we only work until noon on Fridays so at 11:59 I was gone! Went with a friend for lunch and a ride. Somewhere along the way I noticed the nut holding the carb on was loose. Ruh roh! :shock:

So back home for a teardown.

Stripped everything down, someone (I wish there really was someone else to blame here :mrgreen: ) didn't locktite down anything around the carbs. So locktited the bolts holding on the manifolds and then got new nylock nuts for the carbs.



One less thing to worry about for a while.

Nylocs on the carbs, cool. You are fast on the way of repeating the long lore lost fasteners of Commando owning. Only place you Cdo won't stand out in the crowd it the local meetings : )

Looks like you got the short nylocks? I put nylocks on every UNF/C bolt that would take one on my bike. I even got longer bolts so I could get the standard size nylocks on them. Only place they didn't work too good was the motor mount studs and the BSC motor studs, which I couldn't find anyhow. The top shock studs were too short for the nylocks also.

Dave
69S

Nyloc's are ok for things that do not get hot. Better to use all metal lock nuts.
Nylon6 melting point is around 400 F but will get soft around 200F.

pvisseriii said:

Nyloc's are ok for things that do not get hot. Better to use all metal lock nuts.
Nylon6 melting point is around 400 F but will get soft around 200F.

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Any bets on what the carb nuts get to?

I read someplace that nylocks don't do much for keeping things tight. They do work well at keeping things from falling off. All-metal lock nuts are cheap and are good for just about anything. They look trick and they will literally shave ounces off your bike :!:

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/h ... S21042.php

swooshdave said:

pvisseriii said:

Nyloc's are ok for things that do not get hot. Better to use all metal lock nuts.
Nylon6 melting point is around 400 F but will get soft around 200F.

Click to expand...

Any bets on what the carb nuts get to?

Click to expand...

I know those insulators at the manifolds are on there for a reason. I would say 200F to 300F easy. Regular nuts and "fresh" lock washers will do the trick. Never reuse lock washers especially hen they get hot. Remember, not too tight on these carb flanges.