What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

[jan nelder]

cleaned the single Concentric, as engine wouldn’t idle or rev, after a long lay-up: generally clean, but cleaned deposits from inside of float bowl, and carb cleaner and suitable fine wires through pilot holes (carb has removable brass screw in piece opposire pilot jet screw, which helped a lot) Main needle had slight cloudy deposits. It worked fine after reassembly, phew!!

 

[YING]

You can do it that way (and there was a release that showed it but the brackets were not for peashooters) although the factory seems to have routed the cable behind the inner bracket.

Hi Les,
I might have not read your reply correctly but tried routing the cable on the backside of both plates rather than between them and found on mine that running the cable through the plates worked much better.
Thanks,Mike

 

[Stevo]

Rode the bike for an hour to the Return of the British car and bike show in Rugby, Tennessee. A great trip

Omitted to mention I did a careful mpg check on that ride. First fill up from previous trip showed 49.2 mpg, next fill up worked out at 45.8mpg. Final fill, which I checked several times because it seemed unlikely, was 61mpg!! Cruising mainly 50 - 60 mph.

 

[Andy Higham]

Rode the bike for an hour to the Return of the British car and bike show in Rugby, Tennessee. A great trip

Omitted to mention I did a careful mpg check on that ride. First fill up from previous trip showed 49.2 mpg, next fill up worked out at 45.8mpg. Final fill, which I checked several times because it seemed unlikely, was 61mpg!! Cruising mainly 50 - 60 mph.

Oh dear how very sad.
MPG calculations are only for works vehicles,. For bikes the only important thing is SPG - Smiles Per Gallon

 

[jan nelder]

Oh dear how very sad.
MPG calculations are only for works vehicles,. For bikes the only important thing is SPG - Smiles Per Gallon

and whether we are talking US smiles or UK smiles, as they are different, of course.

 

[Stevo]

Agreed and in this case they are UK smiles while doing US miles!

 

[Café au Lait]

Spent all yesterday afternoon and evening adjusting my isolastics, boy it’s like trying to make decent espresso On what turned out to be my final test ride I saw someone exit a driveway on an old bike that as I got closer recognised as a 72 Fastback. I flagged him down and I did the final mile 1 1/2 hrs later
You meet the nicest people on a Norton

Off today on the last NOC rally of the season nr Clayton, 300 mile weekend which should tell me where I am with the isolastics.

 

[Torontonian]

Removed (again) the L.H. exhaust header and pipe on the MK 111 . Flared tip had been welded up temporary style , to get us both home to Toronto ( 700 Kms .) . At home , occasional pops on the left side told me to remove it ( fractured bits ) and fit a new 750 style header pipe . All good now with a new crush ring and High temp copper silicone applied to threads , ring , d-floor port piece . Started up to hot , tightened up running hot .
I suspected the thin wall flared pipe ends would give me troubles ( MK 111 style , purchased aftermarket from Britain as a cure for L.H. pipe hitting the primary oil drain plug screw .) . Can't remember the company , but both pipes are now in the bin .

 

[Starvingphotog]

Found some play in may front forks the other day. I was maneuvering it around in the garage, and had the bars cranked to lock to the left and saw that when I hit the front brakes the front wheel seemed to tilt to the right. Did it again and same thing. Jacked it up to lift the front wheel off the ground and wiggled the front wheel and bearings seem tight - no play in the axel. Some slight movement in the head. Seems to me they are different animals in the front end, but what do I know. I'm thinking that the forks may be moving on one side causing the wheel to look like it's loose. Again, not sure on that guess. Gonna plan to do the bearings up there over the winter, maybe with tapered rollers, otherwise sealed ball bearings. Also rebuild the forks since there is some leaking on the left side seals. Other than that, the machine runs excellent and been having a ball with it all summer long. I even got onto a local country highway here in Michigan, that in the early days I swore I wouldn't dare ride. Progress...

 

[TRWham]

Adjusted the drive chain and installed new adjusters (one side had been kluged with an undersized bolt that bent). Did a general clean up and went on a short test ride.

 

[Torontonian]

Knock out the steering head bearings for new ones .

 

[concours]

 

[Torontonian]

Called in the troops ( wife's cel phone ) , CAA Plus , for a boost .
Seems my 14 A. battery can't handle much cranking on the MK 111 . It's 3 years old . Going larger battery shopping tomorrow . She patiently waited for help , which arrived with a portable boost in a mere 7 minutes , on our way home .

 

[jan nelder]

Called in the troops ( wife's cel phone ) , CAA Plus , for a boost .
Seems my 14 A. battery can't handle much cranking on the MK 111 . It's 3 years old . Going larger battery shopping tomorrow . She patiently waited for help , which arrived with a portable boost in a mere 7 minutes , on our way home .

I just returned a Yuasa YTX14BS battery to seller, as it was sold full of acid, but dated DEC 2024, and read 9.4V at the shop 7 weeks ago. It was sat on the bike in the garage and charged three times, and got up to over 13 V, but dropped to under 12 each time. I bought a Yuasa replacment from the local bike shop yesterday, which they filled on the spot, and was 12.6V straightaway.
They said there are different qualities of Yuasa……

 

[robs ss]

I just returned a Yuasa YTX14BS battery to seller, as it was sold full of acid, but dated DEC 2024, and read 9.4V at the shop 7 weeks ago. It was sat on the bike in the garage and charged three times, and got up to over 13 V, but dropped to under 12 each time. I bought a Yuasa replacment from the local bike shop yesterday, which they filled on the spot, and was 12.6V straightaway.
They said there are different qualities of Yuasa……

...as in, real Yuasa and ... the other one!

 

[jan nelder]

...as in, real Yuasa and ... the other one!

probably both real in this case, but different factories, I was told at the bike shop.

 

[YING]

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Bob,
I have looked at this a number of times but not sure what you are doing.Replacing the switch internals?
Thanks,Mike

 

[concours]

Bob,
I have looked at this a number of times but not sure what you are doing.Replacing the switch internals?
Thanks,Mike

Headlight inoperative. However, flash-to-pass works. Traced it to the bat wing switch on the headlight bucket. It had very slight corrosion on the contacts. Disassembled, cleaned, lubed and it was fine.

Because I have added headlight relays, this switch only carries the small current needed to activate the coil in the relay. Full headlamp current would have pushed right through the corrosion, kept on working.

 

[robs ss]

Headlight inoperative. However, flash-to-pass works. Traced it to the bat wing switch on the headlight bucket. It had very slight corrosion on the contacts. Disassembled, cleaned, lubed and it was fine.

Because I have added headlight relays, this switch only carries the small current needed to activate the coil in the relay. Full headlamp current would have pushed right through the corrosion, kept on working.

ACF50 works very well as both a lubricant and corrosion inhibitor on things like this. Both my handlebar switches have been treated.
It's apparently designed for electrical applications.
I can thoroughly recommend it.
Cheers

 

[YING]

Headlight inoperative. However, flash-to-pass works. Traced it to the bat wing switch on the headlight bucket. It had very slight corrosion on the contacts. Disassembled, cleaned, lubed and it was fine.

Because I have added headlight relays, this switch only carries the small current needed to activate the coil in the relay. Full headlamp current would have pushed right through the corrosion, kept on working.

Thanks Bud.What did you use to clean up the corrosion?
Mike