Total commando units made??

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I'd like to know more about this lump I traded for; the numbers match on the engine & tranny, and don't appear to be ground down & re-stamped. There is what appears to be a horizontal "0" ahead of, and following, the number stampings on engine and tranny.

What gives?
 
I'm sure it's too high for a 'correct' number and I've never seen one in this sequence. What sort of cases are they ?

Do the '0's have the two horizontal lines through ? I'd suspect a miss-stamp, question is, by whom ?
 
According to Mike Jackson, former Sales Director of Norton during the Dennis Poore ownership, 55,000 Commandos were made. The majority shipped to the US followed by Britain and Australia / New Zealand.

MIck
 
79x100 said:
I think that there actually are quite a lot of MkV 750s but perhaps the impression is reinforced by the fact that any 750 needing new crankcases from 1973-on is likely to have been built with those. My 750 (200*** series) has a set that must be a year newer than the rest of it.

I don't really believe 11000 though !
Click to expand...

According to (restricted members only) information on the NOC website, less than 400 750s were manufactured between June 1973 and the last (October) 230935 750, if the numbers ran consecutively?
 
No, I know the typical figure stamping that looks like an "0" with a horizontal line, and these are plain zeros.

Hmmmmmm....

possible re-stamp.

Never mind, it will be a salvage build from the ground up, with the monoshock swingarm of my own design, so the serial number is irrelevant now. I've been down this road; while it's not easy, it's do-able. The people at the county office are reasonable folks and I just need all of my purchase receipts and build documentation.
 
79x100 said:
02/68 - 126125
10/71 - 150723 = 24598 750cc machines
Click to expand...

I think the '68-'70 Norton production serial numbers could have included a certain amount of 650 Mercurys too?
 
L.A.B. said:
79x100 said:
02/68 - 126125
10/71 - 150723 = 24598 750cc machines
Click to expand...

I think the '68-'70 Norton production serial numbers could have included a certain amount of 650 Mercurys too?
Click to expand...

I said that Les ! :)

79x100 said:
We can have a bit of a guess at the maximum possible by looking at the frame numbers used. The total could be less if spare frames were numbered (I think not) and the Mercury models have to be removed but I don't think that they were common.
Click to expand...

My intention was really just to try setting out the widest possible parameters as a basis for discussion. It can't be more than ninety-odd thousand. It's just a question of how many fewer.

If I think back to the shops like Honor Oak Motorcycles in the late 1970s who used to dismantle auction batch-loads of 750 Interpols then I think that quite a lot of Commandos must have died along the way but then there have been plenty of special framed racers which have probably left behind rolling chassis which gained engines built from NOS parts.

I guess we'll never know... :)
 
79x100 said:
L.A.B. said:
79x100 said:
02/68 - 126125
10/71 - 150723 = 24598 750cc machines
Click to expand...

I think the '68-'70 Norton production serial numbers could have included a certain amount of 650 Mercurys too?
Click to expand...

I said that Les !
Click to expand...

79x100, you did indeed, my humble apologies to you!


Apparently the Tomos factory (in former Yugoslavia) obtained manufacturing rights to build Norton Commandos, so I wonder how many TN 750/850 Commandos they actually made?

So, has anybody actually seen a Tomos TN Commando?
 
L.A.B. said:
Apparently the Tomos factory (in former Yugoslavia) obtained manufacturing rights to build Norton Commandos, so I wonder how many TN 750/850 Commandos they actually made?

So, has anybody actually seen a Tomos TN Commando?
Click to expand...

I believe that they built all the black and gold models for the U.S. market :D
 
My MkIII is 334889, and registered in - R reg - Sept? '76 I think, they may have made more the following year, but this may not be the case as another NOC member whos lives local has an S reg MKIII, and the engine number is not far on from mine, they may have just registered existing stock. My bike is an export model that never got exported, as at the time 1976 the management alledgedly needed money and senior staff at Andover Norton bought the crated export models and made them up themselves and sold them onto the UK market. Haven spoken to Mike Jackson in the past when he recognised my Commando as one of the batch, his memory serves him well and the 55,000 he mentions may just be about right. I would imagine that only about 15-20% exist now, maybe a little more. The reason I say this, is considering the size of the NOC and other Commando owners I meet out on rides, non-members out number members at least two to one, even here in the UK.
 
My Mk3 is 1977, 335519. That's quite a few numbers after your 76 model.

Were they sequential in their numbering ?

What was the last number ?
 
L.A.B. ,
L.A.B. said:
GRM 450 said:
What was the last number ?
Click to expand...

336538 or 336539 (depending on the particular source of information)
Click to expand...

Does that indicate another 1000 plus bikes were made after mine in 1977 ?

The tooling used on mine was pretty blunt, what were the later ones like? (cylinder and head)

graeme.
 
Hi, 700 or so on from mine is not what I would consider alot, it also does not mean that that they would have been built in that year. From these figures It looks like a lot of the Commado production was made up in the earlier years which would make the up the majority of production I would presume. Numbers I guess would run sequentially as Norton base engine mods and upgrades on these numbers. What I find amazing is that there seems to be no real accurate figure as to total production figures considering these bikes have been manufactured in living memory of a lot of people.
 
grandpaul said:
No, I know the typical figure stamping that looks like an "0" with a horizontal line, and these are plain zeros.

Hmmmmmm....

possible re-stamp.

Never mind, it will be a salvage build from the ground up, with the monoshock swingarm of my own design, so the serial number is irrelevant now. I've been down this road; while it's not easy, it's do-able. The people at the county office are reasonable folks and I just need all of my purchase receipts and build documentation.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a lot of different scenarios take place in different areas. I just bought another 72 - 750 with matching numbers all around but the engine was missing the horizontal o's and it was a 73 case with the cast over distributor opening. To me it was obvious the po blew a bottom end and bought new cases and stamped his same numbers it.

I rebuilt a 1950 ford pick up about 30 years ago and had to get new registration for it. I had to rivet a plate to the frame and stamp new numbers in it. It looked real hokey but that's what I had to do here in B.C. It could be your lump had to have new numbers for some reason in some state and the po didn't want to replicate some one's existing numbers so he just went higher than was ever used.
 
If anyone is wondering where have all the Commandos dissapeared to, well here is a picture of my friend's shop...

Total commando units made??


Jean
 
God will surely punish this hoarder if he doesn't start selling his stuff on eBay right now! :mrgreen:
 
Jeandr said:
If anyone is wondering where have all the Commandos dissapeared to, well here is a picture of my friend's shop...

Total commando units made??


Jean
Click to expand...


damn that's sweeter than the backroom at the local video rental store (not that i've ever been in that back room :roll: )
 
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