What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Yeah, I know. I gotta roll it out and give it a go. It's fully ready to ride, just needs gas. It's been sitting here in my office since Covid (it's in my background during work conference calls and certainly an icebreaker and discussion topic as we wait for people to join the calls) and I've been doing updates and such over the years (i.e. new wiring loom, new chrome bits here and there, new shocks, new oils, etc.). I did start it up when I first got it, in the house with the pipes facing outside when it was in my other office in the house, and it idled beautifully...I am quite curious to see how it rides compared with my 850 that I ride almost daily. Soon. One of these days guys....:)
 
ashman said:
4 years and haven't ridden it, W T F, what a waste, get on it and ride it, it's what they were made for, just don't over rev it, or is it just a show pony to be trailed to bike shows and tell everyone how good it is, can't understand that people spend all that money and never ride them, come on get that Norton dirty and ride it, it's just going to waste not being ridden.
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4 years, that’s nothing. Check out some of these especially #102, 492 since 2013!

Compare that to #101, mine. I’ve since added over 4k since last August. 2 oil changes since March:eek:

Pre Owned cNw Machines | cNw

Colorado Norton Works is now offering pre-owned cNw machines. Considering I have well over 140 machines delivered since cNw was established in 1997, inevitably there will be some surfacing on the secondary market. Rather than having my customers having to go through the selling process I decided...
coloradonortonworks.com coloradonortonworks.com
 
Yeah, I definitely walked into that one, and deserve every ribbing that I get from you lot. Still, I love looking at her. I just got back from a ride on my 850 to run an errand and what a gorgeous ride, even though we have high winds here in Michigan and bloody hot temps (i.e. 31C right now). First time I rode without my snowsuit on...:)

Love the helmet there Cafe man! The colours even match. Beauty. I wonder if these newer helmets have options for BT speakers and mic so that you can enjoy some tunes while you ride. Would be a nice feature. I've got to find a yeller helmet too for the day I take the Combat out for a spin. To be continued....
 
ashman said:
The only tune I want to hear is the sweet singing from my open exhaust, already too much distractions while riding on the road.
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Yeah, I spent 40 years in the HiFi business, the last place I want music is on my bike!!! I don’t even have it in my car (Elise S1) anymore :eek:

Music on the go is for counteracting boredom or if you’re young, pissing people off or showing how much you hate your hearing with a plethora of sub woofers🤣🤣🤣
 
Haha! Good point. I know what you mean. I drove from Michigan to Colorado in my old '97 Ford truck with camper caravan in tow, there and back, and never had music or anything on the entire time. I just enjoyed the silence, scenery, and the experience of the open road in an old truck. Around here almost every big bike Harley has these powered stereos that BLAST music over the noise of the bike and you can hear them a half mile away coming. Bloody loud and noisy. Good points here indeed. My helmet doesn't have speakers or BT, just a standard Arai Regent.
 
Café au Lait said:
Test rode my new lid today, a Shoei Glamster 06, which I purchased from Motolgends in Guilford yesterday using the Shoei PFS or Personal Fitting System. Big improvement on my By City Roadster. Super snug fit and looks the bollox too.😎

View attachment 120061
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Cafe,
How is your new lid with wind noise? I know you have fitted ear plugs.
Thanks,Mike
 
Had a longer ride with it today. Wind noise is noticeable even with my Ultimate Ears plugs but a little lower than my By City and a lot lower than my Shoei JO open face of course. In no way troubling but no good without some kind of ear plugs imo. With the chin curtain there is no wind ingress at all. That’s good and bad as it gets a tad warm in there; next ride I’ll remove it.

Highway speeds it’s great and stable. Shoulder checks don’t result getting the helmet tugged like my By City. I also tried it with my -24dB plugs and was still ok but on a second attempt the didn’t seal at all well and the engine racket forced me to pull over and swap them out.

Overall I’m very pleased with my purchase but I agree with some reviews, it’s not a touring helmet for a noisy bike like mine at least; it’ll be just fine with my W800 though as that’s incredibly quiet anyway and even the 750 Commando I test rode last week would be fine but mine with K&Ns may become tiring. One thing I did notice though was that most of the drone that plagues the By City has gone, that’s cheap helmets for you I guess.

Next Thursday I’ll be riding 8 hours+ which will properly test it:)
 
Some people must have sensitive ears as I can't handle riding with ear plugs in, I love to hear my motor and always hear when the sound changes saying something is not right, but lucky on my Norton that is very rare or a sound coming from somewhere else on the bike like a rubbing or scrapping noise somewhere.
My flip top helmet makes a lot of wind noise but my open face helmet is quiet, but I ride with my open face all the time the flip top is for traveling or bad weather riding only, the open face helmet has less restrictions and can turn my head more than with a full-face helmet, but of course I always get the "full face helmets are safer crowd" well after 50+ years of riding with open face helmets I still have my good looks and all my teeth, well most of my old teeth lol.
It's strange even very expensive helmets can make a lot of wind noise and fitting a helmet in a shop for fit but unable to find out whether they are quiet or not till after you pay for them and ride the bike and of course everyone's heads are different shapes, so hard finding that right helmet but my last new open face helmet has been the quietest helmet ever and took me 3 bike shops to find the right fitting helmet and was one of the cheaper one that fitted right and it also have the locking clip on the back for the googles, not many helmets these day put that clip on the back, I lost my old English flying googles from my previous old helmet without a locking clip on the back, I was pissed off as they weren't cheap googles.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
Some people must have sensitive ears as I can't handle riding with ear plugs in, I love to hear my motor and always hear when the sound changes saying something is not right, but lucky on my Norton that is very rare or a sound coming from somewhere else on the bike like a rubbing or scrapping noise somewhere.
My flip top helmet makes a lot of wind noise but my open face helmet is quiet, but I ride with my open face all the time the flip top is for traveling or bad weather riding only, the open face helmet has less restrictions and can turn my head more than with a full-face helmet, but of course I always get the "full face helmets are safer crowd" well after 50+ years of riding with open face helmets I still have my good looks and all my teeth, well most of my old teeth lol.
It's strange even very expensive helmets can make a lot of wind noise and fitting a helmet in a shop for fit but unable to find out whether they are quiet or not till after you pay for them and ride the bike and of course everyone's heads are different shapes, so hard finding that right helmet but my last new open face helmet has been the quietest helmet ever and took me 3 bike shops to find the right fitting helmet and was one of the cheaper one that fitted right and it also have the locking clip on the back for the googles, not many helmets these day put that clip on the back, I lost my old English flying googles from my previous old helmet without a locking clip on the back, I was pissed off as they weren't cheap googles.

Ashley
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Some people are probably deaf already🤣🤣🤣

Seriously though, I’ve spent a lifetime in the HiFi industry and played a lot of pretty loud music over the last 40+ yrs plus concerts. My ears were my tools in trade but I can suffer some tinnitus and mild hyperacusis if provoked.
I have no issues with my W800 or Classic 350 as long as I wear my moderate (used for concerts with built in filters to maintain an even frequency response) ear plugs but longer rides especially at speed on the Commando I prefer my custom-fit plugs, I put my hearing before the joys of the engine/exhaust sound. Having no air box makes that mandatory I can assure you, at least for me.
 


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