New Norton on BBC Working Lunch

Ho. Ho. Fucking. Ho. Even *Ogri* took the piss out of that episode.

 

Maybe more of an indication of how poor the Triumph frame was, in
comparison.

The Commando engine was okay until they over-stretched it and fitted the
electric-foot; then they got very unreliable and if a given example didn't
just keep stopping with minor faults then it would probably hand-grenade.

On a trip from west London to Munich in '78 we had two new Commandos in the
group. One broke down 3 times on the way there - don't recall the details
but was fixed at the roadside. The other blew a main bearing on the way
back and had to be left in France for recovery a week later.

The two brand new BMW (R75s?) in plod-spec, that we rode back never missed a
beat. As did all the other bikes in the group - nearly all japs (GT750, XS2,
RD400, ... & a Tiger/Bonnie iirc) except a GT500 that stopped charging just
before the ferry and got home by swapping batteries with the other bikes
very few miles.

 

I went on a trip to Croatia in 2003. In the group was a chap on a 1970 H
reg Norton Commando. The only problem he had was the bolts holding on the
rear suspenders kept working loose. He did do an oil service on arrival at
our Croatian base.

 

That's hardly a recommendation. FWIW I knew two people at one time
with 750 commandos. One kept running by virtue of monthly[1] oil
changes and gentle treatment the other grenaded too many times and was
changed out for a GS550 iirc.


[1] TBF at the time it seemed more often.

 

There are always some that were well put together, be it by the
factory or the owners. Everyone I knew who had an old Brit bike, back
in the day, could never hammer it as hard and for as long as Jap (or
even many Italian) owners.

Those whose old BritShit stayed together generally nursed them and
were religious about maintenance.

The Commando lump was just stretched too far - same goes for the
Bonnie, really. There's nothing wrong with a big parallel twin in
theory: witness modern Triumphs, TDM900s, that MZ thing, and others -
but taking a basic engine design originally conceived as a 500 out to
828cc was daft.

My own experience of parallel twins suggests that in the absence of
balancer shafts or rubber mountings, 600-650cc is generally the
optimum. Enough vibes to add character, not really too many to make
life uncomfortable or to break things.

 

In communiqué

Significantly the new Norton has a 270 crank, no? There were already one
or two Commando and Atlas 270 conversions about. My old vintage racing
mate's Matchless powered by such a device seems to go well and stay
together - but then he built it himself (including modifying the crank).


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Yes, that'll make a difference, for sure, but it's stil basically the
old lump brought up to date.

 

Are you trying to compensate for being the top original content poster
last month?

 

Pardon?

 

People seem to forget that in those days the alternatives to the Commando
were either fast, terrible-handling Japanese bikes or fast, good-handling
but hopelessly unreliable Italian bikes. The Commando was fast in its time,
handled very well and was no worse in the reliability stakes than most of
the competition - except for some of the Japanese bikes but as most of these
didn't handle very well many still preferred the Commando.

 

True, few Jap bikes of the era handled well, but most could be made to
handle reasonably. But the reason why people bought Jap bikes was
because they *worked*. I'd rather have a bike that works, but wobbles a
bit, than one that went round corners nicely on the one weekend in the
year when it was functioning properly.

 

Yebbut there were plenty at the time who would rather be faster overall than
more reliable - and it was possible for Norton engines to be reliable enough
e.g the 1973 Formula 750 TT.

 

And oddly enough, the bike buying public seemed to feel the same.

 

Just about any engine can be made to hold together for a race - they
even raced TZ750s in 24 hour races.

 

In communiqué <hfe09h$iqn$-september.org>, TMack

Once the JP Norton featured an outrigger bearing on the gearbox IIRC. I
might, because I was on Pahnd Island that year.


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Oil filters are easily defeated by rouge apostrophe's.

 

In communiqué <>, Grimly

They're taken as red.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Grimly Curmudgeon posted:

What about other colours?