And so it resumes

Well we’re kind of at the end of chapter one now. I’ve just taken it round the spinney in front of our house a few times which involved getting into 2nd but it’s not far enough for 3rd gear. I did half a dozen laps so probably about 1 mile and now I just need to register it, insure it and tweak the timing and carbs a bit.

It seems to pull really well which is nice, the clutch takes up perfectly and the brakes don’t. Well they do but not very well but they’d need a bit of bedding in no matter what the expectations.

I suppose I should clean it a bit then take photos and get the necessary paperwork sorted so I can register it.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with myself but as I said, that’s chapter one out of the way and the thread stays open until I actually ride it legally and I need to decide if I want to keep it.
 
I've followed this thread Andy and good to hear you are nearly there, hopefully it will all be straightforward from here on in.

I thought I'd put on this link here, this guy is very talented. He has many resto projects on there but this one is the start to one of his Commado jobs. He also has a few Guzzi jobs on there and loads of other stuff. Really good viewing .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ_GS0MeUOI&t=3s

:thumb2
 
Thanks for the link. I liked the Brembo front brake conversion because I know that even if I get the standard one fitted to mine working as design it’s still going to feel crap to me after decades of steady improvements through my years on bikes.

The one thing he had which I’ve promised myself is the electric start conversion. Three weeks of kicking over a big twin and frequent kick backs have left my right ankle needing a support bandage and daily ibuprofen even though I’ve always put a boot with ankle support on before kick starting it. I think the fact that for three summers I only got through the second half of the cricket season by having regular cortisone injections in that ankle doesn’t help :blast

The plan for this week is to thoroughly clean the bike, touch in a lot of chips in the paintwork, wax it and spray silicon over everything under the tank to protect it. I’ve never registered the bike so technically the DVLA don’t even know it exists, I do have the customs declaration form so I’m going to take photos of the frame and engine numbers plus other supporting photos required by the NOC then get that done as soon as possible.

I’ve got plenty of other small jobs to keep me occupied until my ankle feels ready for some more abuse and there’s no time like the present for doing them :D
 
Thanks for the link. I liked the Brembo front brake conversion because I know that even if I get the standard one fitted to mine working as design it’s still going to feel crap to me after decades of steady improvements through my years on bikes.

The one thing he had which I’ve promised myself is the electric start conversion. Three weeks of kicking over a big twin and frequent kick backs have left my right ankle needing a support bandage and daily ibuprofen even though I’ve always put a boot with ankle support on before kick starting it. I think the fact that for three summers I only got through the second half of the cricket season by having regular cortisone injections in that ankle doesn’t help :blast

The plan for this week is to thoroughly clean the bike, touch in a lot of chips in the paintwork, wax it and spray silicon over everything under the tank to protect it. I’ve never registered the bike so technically the DVLA don’t even know it exists, I do have the customs declaration form so I’m going to take photos of the frame and engine numbers plus other supporting photos required by the NOC then get that done as soon as possible.

I’ve got plenty of other small jobs to keep me occupied until my ankle feels ready for some more abuse and there’s no time like the present for doing them :D

The brembo conversion is very good but bloody expensive and you may have to change the right hand controls. To upgrade the brakes on mine I have bought a new master cylinder that is a smaller bore so gives more pressure, I’m also getting a conversion kit from rgm which is a 12” floating disc and
Lockheed racing caliper plus braided hoses. Not as good as brembo but way better than std. I have also got a smaller bore rear master cylinder but will keep std caliper with that. The rear brake is not too bad anyway.

The Alton starter and belt drive does have a very good reputation from what I read.Mine is a mk3 so I can’t do it on mine,and the only way for me to do a belt drive primary is get rid of my starter, which I don’t want to do. I think the Alton starter kit is about £1800 though:eek:
 
I think the brakes will be waiting for a while, I need to actually ride the thing and see how the front disc beds in. The only time I’ve hammered a Commando was back in about 1978 when I did half a dozen laps of Snetterton on an 850 the same as mine and the brakes were best described as adequate but I remember the engine braking making up for that if you were happy to just bang it down through the gears and be glad it was someone else’s bike :D

Anyway, this afternoon it’s time to touch up the paintwork with a can of Humbrol enamel because it’s got loads of small (and not so small) dings on the frame plus one or two on the tank and side panels. My ankle is giving me a lot of shit so I’m going to avoid kicking the brute into life unless the temptation becomes too much :blast
 
So here we are nearly 6 weeks on and nothing done because of that bloody Montjuic!

I’m waiting for parts to turn up for the Monty and my ankle seems pretty solid again so I’ll wheel the Norton out of the garage and fire it up. I never did tweak the timing because my timing light kept sulking so I ordered a new one and it’s still sitting in a box next to the bike. The NOC website says the DVLA still haven’t started sorting out registrations so I can’t do that yet and my electric start budget has been blown on an engine rebuild, forks rebuild and re-furbishing the wheels on the Laverda.

Sorting the timing will be a decent step forward :D
 
I’m out of contract again so it’s time to try and get that bloody Norton registered then insure it and give it a decent road test. If my memory serves me right it needs the timing tweaking a bit and the electronic speedo was acting the twat but it was charging ok and the fuelling wasn’t a million miles off. I’ve had a reasonably productive couple of months working excessive hours so I’m giving an Alton electric start conversion some serious consideration again :beerjug:
 
Excellent, I will look forward to it. Apparently those electronic speedos are a bastard to calibrate, so good luck with that.
Mine is now on the road:JB and I’ve done nearly 500 miles on it. I will put up some pics and explain why it took a bit longer:blast than hoped..................

Enjoy...........:rolleyes:
 
I must admit I’m almost certainly going back to a mechanical speedo and the electronic one will be on eBay with no starting price and no reserve which is what happens to most rubbish.
 


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