What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

I picked up my latest member of the horde - lol!! Have some carb work to sort on it and throw a battery in it, paperwork, and then vroom!!

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I like that Lift of yours there Richard. I think that some day I will need to get me one of those. I imagine it's quite useful for servicing and cleaning the bike.
 
Pulled the primary to address a weep from behind the primary to chaincase gasket. Luckily didnt have to pull the belt drive unit out as I feared it might be the crank seal - no oil in primary. Just 1/8 turn on all the fixing screws hopefully snugged up the gasket a bit.
 
Following Richards example, i made room on the workstand to complete a half done job on the Commando (lonely tank in the background), delayed by a now completed full ES2 rewire. Now has an Eastern Beaver PC-8 fuse box under the seat and Motogadget MoBlaze Ice indicators :eek:.
 

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Derek Wilson said:
Putting new glass in a Smiths tachometer today - old one had a crack in it. Tried out some tooling I designed and 3D printed for rolling the bezel back on - worked great!! Used an old transmission layshaft bearing as a roller.
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Man, you guys really are a crafty lot. I wish I had an 1/8 of the talent you guys have to be able to do stuff like this to my vintage British rides...:) Much more rewarding, I think, doing things this way.
 
Got enough done to it to do a test run. Few more things to sort - clutch needs attention for one. First run with the single Mikuni. So far, I have been able to sort it with the parts that came with it. Was even able to revive the battery!! Runs well for a bike that has been dormant for 7 years.



What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
Went on a 234 mile ride up into the Adirondacks yesterday. Followed rivers a good portion of the ride. Rode down the Saranac River, up the back side of Whiteface Mountain, down the other side to Wilmington, then up along the Ausable river through Wilmington Notch to Lake Placid.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?


What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?



Had a late lunch at a Brewery in Saranac Lake.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?


Trip took about 8 hours with several pit stops.
 
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Dan1950 said:
Went on a 234 mile ride up into the Adirondacks yesterday. Followed rivers a good portion of the ride. Rode down the Saranac River, up the back side of Whiteface Mountain, down the other side to Wilmington, then up along the Ausable river through Wilmington Notch to Lake Placid.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?


What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?



Had a late lunch at a Brewery in Saranac Lake.

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?


Trip took about 8 hours with several pit stops.
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And the forks are now good ?
 
Starvingphotog said:
Man, you guys really are a crafty lot. I wish I had an 1/8 of the talent you guys have to be able to do stuff like this to my vintage British rides...:) Much more rewarding, I think, doing things this way.
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I would offer that successful results regarding your bike (and so much else) relate a lot more to developed and repeated hands on experience and insight than some form of ambient talent floating around.
Determination and perseverance will take you to the land of good results most every time.
My only caution would be that if you try to hurry it up you will most often screw it up.
 
Woke my '73 after a loooong winters nap. Thought I'd try Castroll Classic after GTX 20/50 exclusively since day one. First kick start and settled into a nice idle. Satisfied here.
 
Hey, I started using Castrol Classic last year after starting to use it in my '67 MG Midget. I found that the MG ran much smoother, but requires more frequent oil changes, which I don't mind anyway. I hadn't noticed much of a difference in my '74 Commando, but it sure idles and runs very smooth. Zinc is a good thing in these older engines. I did a visual and tactical comparison of the Classic and the standard GTX 20w50 and found that the Classic felt a lot more sticky and much more difficult to wipe away from my drain pan compared to standard GTX. I figure this is the Zinc or some other additive in there.

So far though, I'm happy to keep using Classic in my bike and my MG. I even use it in my old riding lawn mower!
 
I have had the float bowls off and on I don't know how many times over the last few years since overhauling my motor several years ago, and then changing the exhaust to a Maney style.

Last year after installing my CNW estart the L one started leaking and progressively got worse.

So I pulled the bowl today after getting new seals and I had completely warped the internal tab of the bowl by over tightening it. Doh!

So I used this trick in a vice since I dont have a press. Worked very well and just finished up with some wet/dry on a glass plate.

Hopefully back to normal now.

Straightening an Amal

While this is a Monobloc there no reason the same technique couldn't be a applied to a Concentric. I think I've done something similar with a vice.
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