My friend in the Navy had one of these he let me drive, when he borrowed my Barracuda when his car was in the shop. Got me back into street riding. Nice bike!!
Don't take this wrong, bikes beautiful but while I was in college and HONDA PRO school I restored several TRIUMPHS. A correctly tuned Brit Vertical twin will start first kick, hot/cold, 99 percent of the time.
Back in the 60's while delivering newspapers in the neighborhood, I would have to pause and watch a guy on his Norton coming home from work. You could hear him blocks away while he'd do a "California stop" at each intersection and then gun it to the next one. That bike sure had a nice sound to it.
@@tonyshortland8812 Mine had no problems with oil starvation or excessive component wear. Though it is true that the bike spent relatively little time at idle! ;)
@@chuanist 75% of engine wear, occures in the first one minute from start up! 500rpm when cold will be 1000rpm when hot, but, damage already done. You say 'mine "had" no problem' how long did you have it?
@@tonyshortland8812 I ran mine nearly every day for six years and sold it to someone who had it an equal length of time, and was at least as aggressive a driver as myself. I did change oil frequently and used a premium grade. I install magnetic oil drain bolts on everything I drive. The Commando's did not capture more steel than other bikes.
@@tonyshortland8812 My very good regards to Norman and all who sail in him. He wasn't there when I bought the bike, set it up, and rode the h3|| out of it, and to be frank I did not miss him.
What a cool bike, a Norton has such a beautiful sound, i never get tired of hearing it, my missus always says the old Brit bikes had the most macho sounding engines.
Nice Norton I'm envious. I had a 750 .I had my twin amals rebuilt and sleeved .it would start first kick after a tickle on each carb primer . Nice color
@@g.g.6362Really. I'm running the original Amals on my 72 Combat along with 4 other Commandos. Original owner with 60K miles on the Combat and it idles perfectly. The Amals haven't worn out on any of my Nortons and I don't expect them to. You're spreading 'knowledge' that just isn't so.
Dude....tickle the carbs, throw the choke, get it on top dead center, then kick that baby. Tickle, Choke, Kick it. No really, these bikes are awesome, they are the Plymouth Barracuda's of the motorcycle world.
Lovely bike ...... lovely sound ....... why the carb change ? Did you run it with the Amal ? Think people over here used to mod them with SU's and got better fuel consumption than standard. Keep up the good work.
We all know why he put on an Mikuni. Same reason I did, but now after 15 years, I finally fixed the problem. A plugged idle jet. The Amals will be going back on so I can accelerate faster and have proper coloured spark plugs after a good ride.
@@g.g.6362If your start up, tickover and mileage were all lousy, obviously the Amals were poorly maintained or poorly set. Simple enough learning curve.
Mine when new would start on the second kick, but as it got older it became very hard to start. Upon pulling the cover for the points I found the cam plate was worn almost totally round,as it was made from mild steel. My Commando was a 750, and I was told that the 850 was the Commander.
I have a 74 mine was blue unfortunately i swapped out put a Hog wheel on it i guess u no young n dumb been a basket case ever since 43yrs. So wish i had the money to hear it again
In the first place you say the bike is original, then in the next breath you say its got a different carburettor, (single) and air filter. That is not original.
The worst thing you can do to this gorgeous bike is take the Amals off and put on a Mikuni. Lousy acceleration and it loses that beautiful sound of the exhaust. Learn how to tune the Amals so it can snarl again.
@ Art Warmanen 73' guy nxt door Manfred Evans Had 250Barrcuda BSA down road Roger Grafton Had 850 Norton Commando /last best of British EVER no doubts whatsoever..
Nope, not my driving. If you actually knew anything about Nortons you would know that they have clutch problems. The sintered friction plates on the MkIII were notorious for slipping. www.accessnorton.com › ... › Norton Commando Motorcycles (Classic) www.nortonownersclub.org/noc-chat/technical4-commando.../218065021
My mate had one of these and it was horrible to ride. I'm sure it was peculiar to his bike because it was so bad to ride. Going hard into tight bends was the worst, it just did all sorts of frightening shit
These were one of the best handling bikes on the road at that time..and are still a sweet handling machine that anyone who knows how to ride would enjoy riding if fully serviced and set up stock like they are supposed to be ...either your friend couldn't ride or he had a tweeked bike..
Swing arm bearings probably needed replacement if there was a legit handling problem in corners. They wear after ~~20-30k depending on how heavy and aggressive the rider is.
Slides wore out very quickly on Amals but ran good when new. Dual Mikunis have quicker response when set up right. Norton got very respectable performance out of such an old engine design but they were pretty light as well which didn't hurt. Triumph and Norton had the British version of a Ford Chevy type rivalry with Norton having the upper hand with their racing heritage. Bonneville was no match for a commando although still a very pretty bike. 850 with lower compression was better than the old 750 combat motor as it was quite a bit more reliable.
