Norton 750 Commando Racing Superbike Class at VRRA Mosport 2018 

Thanks a lot Robert!

Thanks Martin!

Well all right! That's a good start!

Thanks Richard! I had to ride my ass off to beat that Interceptor!

Yeah, racing is all that!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks Martin!

I agree, and the cool thing about classic racing is the variety in all the machines...!

Thanks Bill!

I miss my 71 combat commando...😰

Thanks Marc!

Thanks man!

Sweet as a nut.I remember ama race here zemke,hodgeson,maladin,fab straights.well in lad.

Thanks a lot Scott!

Thanks a lot! Sorry for my slow reply!

Cool! Sounds like me, I was always broke but went racing anyway... As I like to say, racing is not a hobby, it's a disease!

thanks! I was riding my ass off in that race!

Thanks! Yeah, they did that, that's why the first rebuild item is always superblend bearings...!

I hammered my 71 roadster and only trouble was clutch slip

Cool! I like hearing stories like that...!

I normally race in the pre-72 heavyweight class but I bump up into 80's superbike to get some more action and I love nothing better than beating these guys...!

@@DouglasLMacRae And I like nothing better that seeing you beat them...😁

Thanks!

Thanks a lot!

Cool! I run a Triumph 5 speed cluster in a NRE gearbox shell with Commando output shaft. Works pretty well but was problematic sometimes in races when quick downshifting. I always wanted a TT box but could never afford one.

Thanks! I have raced against a number of fast guys on BMW's although I almost always showed them the door on my Norton! Get the Bimmer or the Norton out there...!!

Go for it!

Hey Randy, as a 2 valve Ducati guy you may find this interesting ... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DVGLYn0fD6I.html,

Do it!

thanks! I try my best!

No argument from me...!!

I owned a '74 commando 850 c.c back in the early '80's,,slightly used,had few problems with it,triumphs of that era were beautiful machines but required a little bit of fiddling to get them to perform properly,Norton's were good off the showroom floor,just requiring basic maintenance.

Thanks a lot! This is what the Norton was born to do!

You can! If a starving artist like me can do it, anyone can!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks Geoff! I try my best and the short stroke motor works pretty good...!

@@DouglasLMacRae You sure do and that motor sure does. Very impressive man and machine team work!

@@geoffhalsey2184 Thanks Geoff!

Thanks Ewen! That big horsepower Honda is tough to pass

Thanks Michael!

thank you sir!

I certainly will be there as long as the bike is together and I have a couple bucks for entry! That is cool you are building a Commando racer, see my reply n the above comment if you want to look up some of the stuff we did to this bike, at least with the handling anyway. Look forward to seeing you out there...!

Thanks for the reply Doug, is it possible to get Herb to do work on an engine? You can respond to me at mgillis@mcw.com

Thanks! cool!

Thanks Martine!

Yea!!

Yea!!

Thanks a lot! I enjoy the challenge of beating a guy on a newer Honda on my old Brit bike...!

Yeah, I find that really annoying but they work good and that I believe is the important thing...!

Hey Bruce- I did a post on Access Norton discussion board a few years ago called something like 'Norton Racebike Handling Secrets Revealed' which I detailed a bunch of stuff we did with the bike, it has photos in it as well, if you do a search on that site under the 'Norton Commando Motorcycles (Classic)' section, you should be able to pull it up. Yea, these modern race tires, I run Avons, work real good and we are getting around 74 hp at the rear wheel on the dyno but keep in mind that the CR750 that just beat me in the video is in the mid 90's...! We have done a lot of work getting the weight down though...

@@DouglasLMacRae Yeah, I was thinking about how swamped we were in the late 60s and 70s by the Honda horsepower and wondering what they were getting out of that one. But I also noticed that he could pull hard on the straights but had a tough time hanging on the corners (which in my mind is a combo of the weight of the Honda, the handling of the Honda, and the skill of the Norton rider); there were a couple of side by side acceleration moments too and the big horsepower Honda wasn't getting anything. Are you still running Isolastics? If so, I had always wondered about a lightened and boxed Isolastic cradle for the rear of the engine and the gearbox/swing arm made from aluminum alloy but I never got into actual work of weighing the stock cradle, etc. But it was a thought. Of course, we're decades apart on technology but I was amazed at the improvement in handling with the Isolastic head steady (a Norvil part). It was good before with proper setup on the two main Isolastic mounts and the stock head steady but when you were putting the big loads on it in corners, the difference was sweet. Thanks for the video, I loved every minute of it -- in fact, I've seen several and thought that they were great.

@@brucebear1 here is the link to Douglas' post on Access Norton site www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/race-commando-handling-secrets-revealed.8641/#post-113806

Gearbox is a 70's Triumph 5 speed cluster in an NRE gearbox shell with a Commando clutch output shaft. Works well generally although I always wanted a TT gearbox, I just could never afford one...

Truth be told, some of the footage in the video was from the Friday practice day where I was fighting a mysterious misfire at high revs all day; I finally traced it to a bit of crud in the fuel tank breather line and the bike ran like a top in the final races

Yes, a bit of the footage I took from the Friday practice session where the was bike mis-firing at high revs; after taking half the bike apart, I finally sourced the issue as the fuel breather line was blocked. After that, ran like a top!

Thanks! I honestly never understood the appeal of driving like a maniac on the street- driving fast is what you do on the track which is much safer and a lot more enjoyable!

It is the reason I do not drive bikes while loving them, too many fatalities and some selfknowledge. The same reason I do not like very fast cars I will seek the limits of what it can do. While I do seem to get wiser as I age and am more in control on the road there is something that triggers me when I see space on the road with a nice bend. I guess your mates had the same fuse in their head blown. But what I meant to say is, while I have driven on track and it is surely the best way to drive fast it is in no way comparable to getting your thrills on the open road while at the same time getting to your destination. They are totally different experiences. One is all about the perfect line, the other has way more factors to keep into account, esp reading the movements of other vehicles. I can see when a car wants to switch lanes way before the driver in that car decides to a lot of times. It has made me a much better driver in the end but is it commrnendable? No.

Thanks! Out of Toronto.

Awesome website sir. Am restoring my first Norton, a 1969 commando. Would love to get into classic racing myself. Is it overly competitive or more for fun/passion of the machine?

@@iwbuck It certainly is both- the fast guys really want to win and there are many guys out there who are happy to run a moderate pace on a cool bike. It depends on the person, some are never satisfied with second place, some are happy just to be out there going around. Best thing to do in getting started is to realize that you will be slow at first, as I was, and to just keep working at it until you build up the confidence and start to pick up the pace.

Hey, I pass lots of people on the straights too!

Yeah you passed a lot of guys on the straights but that’s probably just you.

That's because the Nortons aren't there.

Uuum you want them to race a Norton against modern 200hp racebikes?

@@niconesta8566 Nico there's guys out there that think there 70 commando, done up by so and so , blows all modern Japanese scrap off the road, they exist lol.. some people never progress.. though the last norton to run a TT was an interesting one .. check this out .. www.odd-bike.com/2013/02/norton-p86-750-challenge-nortons-last.html

Except they leak rice...