What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Still on Manitoulin Isl. , the world's largest freshwater island . Norton running very well and using next to no oil on the new J.S . Motor . Headed to Aeolian Machine Shop to visit and then a cabin in Dark Sky Preserve for 3 nights and attending the Wikwemikoong Pow Wow .

I think you should change your handle to Canadian Explorer. What you're doing with your Norton (fishing) is what the old man Trudeau (Pierre) did with his birchbark canoe along the many rivers and streams of the country. At least that's what they taught us in school growing up in Waterloo Ontario...

ashman said:

Fine someone too clean you plate, do it yourself not a hard job, get your hands dirty you are a Norton owner, how else are you going to learn about your bike if you don't get your hands dirty

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Since I don't like to get my hands dirty, I have a big box of disposable mechanic's gloves (thicker and more durable than normal disposables) and put those on before I pick up a wrench. I actually enjoy working on bikes. However, at the moment there don't seem to be enough hours in the day, I have way too many projects and I am trying to figure out how to make time to get the clutch apart. I did find someone to clean the plates, I have a clutch puller and I just ordered a gasket from JS Motorsports. Will inspect when I get everything apart, but the bike does shift cleanly and I think the problem is just gunk on the plates.

What a bunch of girls, wear gloves, what's the world coming to, only joking so you can't find 30 minute in your life to clean your clutch plates, it's not a major job pulling the primary cover off, put the clutch puller on and remove the big circlip and pull the plates out soak them in a container of cleaning fluid, (kero or petrol) and then a good scrab and dry them before refitting, well make it 1hr at the most and that's taking your time, the clutch is not a hard job to pull apart.

ashman said:

What a bunch of girls, wear gloves, what's the world coming to, only joking so you can't find 30 minute in your life to clean your clutch plates, it's not a major job pulling the primary cover off, put the clutch puller on and remove the big circlip and pull the plates out soak them in a container of cleaning fluid, (kero or petrol) and then a good scrab and dry them before refitting, well make it 1hr at the most and that's taking your time, the clutch is not a hard job to pull apart.

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You work much faster than I do. On a Mark III, getting all the stuff in front of the primary case off and then unscrewing all the bolts in the cover takes me about 45 minutes. Then getting the old liquid gasket off that seals the paper gasket takes another hour of scrubbing. The JS Motorsports gasket should eliminate all that work. At that point I can start in with the clutch puller. My understanding is that properly cleaning clutch plates means sand (or another media) blasting. I don't have a sandblaster.
P. S. I is a girl. We like to keep our hands nice.

I went out yesterday on the Commando for our annual Classic Bike club charity ride across Dartmoor. For me it was the first time out in a bike for several months, and first time out on the Commando in over a year now I think about it. Once again I had to retrain myself how to ride it, right foot change up for down, left foot brake, careful with the front brake, it’s only 4 gears stop trying to find any more. Even the fuel in it was last years E5 with a bit of ethanol additive. After the first 50 miles went by as part of a gaggle of other bikes (I hate riding in a group) I decided to take myself home the fast way. It was then I realised just how smooth the motor is, cruising sweetly at 4000rpm it was smooth as a smooth thing. A proper mile burner, if it wasn’t for the cramped riding position that gave me back ache.
So to today, I’ve drained the oil tank so it can’t wet sump, as it isn’t going to get used for a few months now. Again. Hopefully we will get away to Norway in about 4 weeks time, for a couple of months.
Next I need to get to work on the Triton in order to get it rideable for next Monday’s Classic Club meeting. I really need to prove it truly exists.
Here’s the Commando parked up before the ride.