Cravens and Commandos

I had a Commando MKIIA in the mid 70’s and as I did a fair bit of travelling between Nowra and Sydney I had a set of Craven Comet Panniers fitted by John Galvin. The best thing about the Comet design was the ability to slide a carton of beer into each with a bit of space for ice, just the thing for a day at Amaroo or Oran Park. One night that Commando was stolen without the panniers fitted. I bought a Commando MKIII as a replacement but for some reason I was not able to secure a set of Craven racks so I adapted a set of universal racks to fit the Craven panniers. The pannier to rack attachment was not too secure and on a run in the country with my brother on pillion the left pannier departed company with the bike after we hit a pothole at 120km/h. It was very badly gouged and scratched but it held together and I just recently had it repaired by a local bloke who does surfboard repairs as part of getting the Commando back on the road after 20 years in the garage. The pannier is back near new with the Galvin sticker virtually undamaged. The MKIII served me well for several years as my commuter bike but it did let me down once in the early ‘90s. On the way home from night shift one morning the Boyer ignition system failed completely at Homebush just near Fraser Motorcycles. I didn’t want to leave it on the street as I went home to organize a trailer to pick it up so I walked over to Fraser’s and asked if I could leave my bike there. The colour drained out of the workshop foreman’s face and he reluctantly allowed me to hide it out the back. He said that if the boss was to find out he had let a Norton in the workshop he would be sacked on the spot. How times change, here we are 20 odd years down the track and Frasers are expecting a delivery of new Nortons. I hope to have the MKIII with the Craven panniers back on the road with historic plates before the end of the year. Andrew McCarthy Toormina NSW