What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

YING said:

Is that yearly service being done in your new garage?Do not get any oil on that floor!!!

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This floor got sealed 4 hrs after it was poured. No worries.

concours said:

This floor got sealed 4 hrs after it was poured. No worries.

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It always pleases me to see things done right.You should be proud of that garage!
Mike

concours said:

This floor got sealed 4 hrs after it was poured. No worries.

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Re. garage floors. I poured self levelling screed to smooth off my garage floor, then laid interlocking plastic tiles once the screed had dried out. Makes a great surface; not too bad to kneel on, and fairly easy to keep clean.

I had mine power troweled. Smooth, flat, dust free, pretty stain resistant. Kind of looks like marble

Better than channel locks or belt wrenches for removing oil filters that are going to be recycled or tossed. Never fails to work.



How's that for unsolicited and potentially useless advice?

Swept the garage floor. Changed the brake fluid, checked the brake pads, bled the brakes. Looked out at the rain, coming down in buckets. Looked at my Norton. Turned out the garage lights and went upstairs to post on Access Norton

Just disassembled the gearbox of the survivor mk 2 850 I am working on. Removed original portuguese layshaft bearing!! dropped in roller bearing and now to begin reassembly of gearbox.`

YING said:

Rob,
Is ACF50 the name of the product that I look for?
Thanks,Mike

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Sorry Mike - I completely missed this. Yes. Here is a link - pricey but worth buying a bigger bottle - will last you years!

I fitted a new fancy Girling brake rotor. I really like the "look" and it seems to stop harder than the OG.
Cheers

Seems replacing those K&N filters exacerbated an intermittent issue I’ve had since I took delivery of cNw#101 that even Matt couldn’t figure out, namely occasional holding higher than desired revs at times, in the 2-3k range. Since the new filters this presented repeatedly and sometimes stuck fast needing a blip, not good for negotiating small roundabouts I could rev to 4-5 k when stationary and would just hold indefinitely sometimes, yikes!

What fitting them has actually meant is a deeper investigation was necessary as the bike is effectively dangerous.

At Nigel’s recommendation I reached out to Ricky at The Carb Shack (in Rainham, Kent) this morning and had a long chat to bringing him up to speed with my bike and its history. He immediately suggested that it sounded to him that it was running too lean at idle and that the new filters were actually making things worse; more air still.

All it took was 1/2 a turn on the idle mix adjusters and the issue is resolved, bike runs great and no held revs. Every day is a learning day eh? He also offered if necessary a rapid service of the pair for £60-120 depending on time and back this week but said he honestly preferred to help folk over the phone whenever possible. Good guy to know me thinks.

I've a long term '74 850 project bike, its been a horror, its mechanicals were a proper mess virtually written off (perhaps it should have been) one of the weird bits was this Quaife cased four speed box, it had some strange machining on the quadrant bush housing that meant there had to be a spacer behind the retaining bolt??? Other bikes have come and gone whilst this carbuncle of a bike loitered in the garage, today I decided to have another go at it, I started by building the gearbox it had a new gearset, bearings and bushes, springs etc surpprisingly it went well, I've no confidence of the quadrant shaft being oil tight but it is what it is!!

Flew back from Casablanca . Peeled off the MK111's cover , in my neighbour's back yard , bless her offer of storage there , from the biggest snows in Toronto recorded history . Denise my other neighbour who is a weightlifter fitness consultant pulled it out of some mud and pushed it to home , with me steering . Some reassembly required . Spring !

Ho-hum, another brunch run. Norton behaved for about 125 miles. I saw a red tailed hawk. LOTS of motorcycles on the road, with a lot more younger riders. Pleasant weather. Who could ask for more?

My long term project bike took a huge leap forward today with the fitting of the engine and gearbox, it was all harder and heavier than I remembered, but I got there in the end, not bad seeing as I only have one good arm at the moment! This bike is called 'The T'urd' mostly because it was the third commando I'd bought since moving onto dry land but also because its been a pile of poo to build!!!

Shep57 said:

My long term project bike took a huge leap forward today with the fitting of the engine and gearbox, it was all harder and heavier than I remembered, but I got there in the end, not bad seeing as I only have one good arm at the moment! This bike is called 'The T'urd' mostly because it was the third commando I'd bought since moving onto dry land but also because its been a pile of poo to build!!!

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Don't forget the horn!

Shep57 said:

My long term project bike took a huge leap forward today with the fitting of the engine and gearbox, it was all harder and heavier than I remembered, but I got there in the end, not bad seeing as I only have one good arm at the moment! This bike is called 'The T'urd' mostly because it was the third commando I'd bought since moving onto dry land but also because its been a pile of poo to build!!!

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Lookin’ good. A huge leap forward like this can do wonders for one’s motivation… strike while the iron is hot !!

Shep57 said:

My long term project bike took a huge leap forward today with the fitting of the engine and gearbox, it was all harder and heavier than I remembered, but I got there in the end, not bad seeing as I only have one good arm at the moment! This bike is called 'The T'urd' mostly because it was the third commando I'd bought since moving onto dry land but also because its been a pile of poo to build!!!

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I haven't got a musical bone in my body, but at college I was in a band called "the Gut Bucket Tree and a Turd" (Donny Davis, Peter McCabe, James Murray & me)
I played jewish harp. The "Turd" was James Murray, because he couldn't play anything.
Our repertoire was 2 songs: King of the Road & Side by Side.

Sorry for the derail but... you started it!

Your bike looks good BTW!!!

BERT said:

Don't forget the horn!

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Yup... Now's a good time...

Started reassemblings on the street in the spring sunshine with many compliments ( Cool Bike ! ) .
Went to reassemble the complex MK3 primary and noticed all 4 outrigger support studs were loose .
Unscrewed them , cleaned the threads with degreaser , then a bit of brake cleaner to all threads , then a bit of Motoseal Ultimate gasket Grey to the crankcase end stud threads and screwed them back in hard with vice grips on the shafts . Tomorrow I go to buy Blue Loctite and Loctite 510 for the primary . A new 9/16 socket too , old one is worn out .

Last time I fettled the Commando, I snugged up the exhaust roses and thought ‘I’ll tighten them properly when it’s hot and running’.

I then proceeded to forget to do this!

So on yesterdays lovely ride, I wondered why I was getting some popping in the exhaust… then wondered why I could hear a jangling noise from the RHS… so I stopped to discover the rose had completely come undone and was rattling around on the down pipe … DOH!

I managed to temp fit it till I got home, no damage to threads, then tightened the suckers PROPERLY on a hot running engine in my normal way, using the excellent RGM rose spanner and a fork stanchion extension bar!

Hats off to RGM for their excellent roses and spanner.

And hats off to Andover, their rubber silencer mounts were the ONLY thing holding my pipe on !

Interesting to think what would have happened if I’d been using the rose tab washers… yes, the rose would not have come out, so the pipe would have stayed secure (ish). But the rose would not have been tight, and I may have not noticed until the loose rose nut had pounded out the threads in the head !