BEST OF BRUTISH
As you’ll see from the photos of my Norton Commando, it still had the original 1969 front end with the 2ls brake when I started racing it. This made life very difficult, as even the AM4 linings faded under duress. The 1970 front end improved matters but the disc still needed hand-numbing pressure to be effective. Anyone doing a rebuild should never use a 4.10 front tyre as this ruins the handling – stick to 3.60 maximum.
Early on I loaned the Commando to my friend Andy Sargent so that he could practice at Thruxton, as the gear linkage on his Triton had failed. Andy ran wide at the righthand curve after the start, and the Commando did a 180-degree endover-end, landing flat upside down!
I was back out on it a couple of weeks later, a great deal poorer. There were no problems for the next couple of years apart from a broken (cheapo) chain, and the blanking plug blowing out of the original type of revcounter gearbox – both happened at Brands. (Anyone got a surplus drive box…?)
In 1973 I was brought down at Snetterton during a 50-mile endurance race. Once again, I was back at Brands a week later and commuting 200 miles per week. I went twice to the TT, two-up with panniers and suitcases. I usually cruised at between 80 and 100mph. This caused some excitement when I had a rear puncture – doing 80mph. I held it successfully and only needed a change of pants!
Incidentally, I raced with mended punctures too. I saw a demo of Tip Top patches at the London motorcycle show – wonderful product.
So there you are: Commandos could be truly great bikes. Mine was cheap to run, reliable and great fun for many years of really hard use. Oh! And it didn’t leak. A bloody good allrounder.
David Woods, member 12,982
Amazing stuff, David! Are there more stories like this out there? Frank W