Steering

Seems that after Norton revised Commando steering geometry through alterations to the fork yokes, there were several reported incidents of customers who werent experienced riders, crashing bikes in wet conditions. Less trail does tend to make a bike feel a lot more twitchy, and I guess this is combination with wide handlebars fashionable in the 70s, may well have been the cause of this.

Carbonfibre said:

Seems that after Norton revised Commando steering geometry through alterations to the fork yokes, there were several reported incidents of customers who werent experienced riders, crashing bikes in wet conditions. Less trail does tend to make a bike feel a lot more twitchy, and I guess this is combination with wide handlebars fashionable in the 70s, may well have been the cause of this.

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850 Commandos had a rake change to 28 degrees from the 750s 27 degrees. The increased rake makes the stearing more stable, but I haven't noticed any difference switching between the two. What has made my 750 more "twitchy" is a 90/90x19 front tire compared to a 100/90x19. As far as wide handlebars, they give more leverage, so would think better control. Maybe the crashing was due only to "wet conditions".

Peter Williams must be wrong in suggesting that the modified yokes decreased IOM lap times by 1/2 minute, and was an alteration that was then subsequently carried out on 1972 production machines? This is outlined in this months "Classic Bike Guide", with more to come next month.

Newbies on new bikes in newly wet pavement, yep must be Norton oversight.

I slide front tires on various bikes on and off tarmac *not* always on purpose : (
My findings are the twitchy-er the geometry or the tire, the easier, less force to turn and lean the front tire, so safer in slick conditions, which includes going so fast on tarmac traction becomes loose as a goose. In wet conditions the only time my fronts slipped was trying to brake too hard slowing for a turn slightly leaned. Otherwise it was Always the rear that got loose first by too much lean and/or power, but not so much I didn't recover it to ease off from newly discovered-tested limit. Being more stable in motorcycles really means more danger and trouble to lean and turn, not safer to press or ride in the wet except for bee line runs.

Advantage of wider bars is not so much the ease to turn forks but the ease to restrain forks from going out of control when tire threatens to slip out or already has. The 3 850's i've tried felt fine until I started my lane zig zag practice and decided too stable to fling like a 750, so lost interest in them.
I've followed a good older rider on 850 with my modern wonder and was hard pressed to hang with, but I can still see why 850's might be slower when fast direction changing is an advantage. Thank goodness real racers have all told me factory geometry of 750 is stable for land speed events so 850 even better.