Debby and The Norton

Up and Running

2011-04-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

I revived The Norton from winter hibernation recently. I'm not seeing any more oil leakage from the head, so maybe, just maybe, the head retorquing did the trick. We will see.

At our club's Spring Tech Day last weekend I did brake work. I've been running a custom front brake with a Nissin four-piston caliper and a Harley brake rotor. I've been really happy with it, but the caliper developed a couple of sticky pistons last season. So I took the bike to Tech Day and the consensus was that a caliper rebuild is called for. In the meantime, I went ahead and put the stock brake back on. So I now have stock caliper, rebuilt with fresh seals, a drilled and resurfaced OEM cast iron rotor, and a Nissin master cylinder. I like the look. I'm using an old set of EMGO pads that need to be replaced, but I think with good pads this brake will be ok. I might leave it on the bike for a while.

Problems

2010-10-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

After five years of faithful service, The Norton failed to make it through the season. Back in July, I was prepping it for a weekend camping trip when I smelled hot oil. I noticed oil all over the left header and the chaincase, and more oil dripping off the cylinder head fins. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but my assumption was a blown head gasket. So I parked the bike.

A couple of months went by before I had time to do anything with it. Finally I got the bike on the lift, had a look, but didn't really see any obvious failure points. So I retorqued the head, cleaned it up, and put it back together.

I fired it up today for the first time since July. It started first kick! I took it for a long test ride and all seems to be well for now. It's running good and it's not blowing oil anymore. So the source of the oil leak is an unsolved mystery at this time. I'll just have to keep riding it and keep an eye on things. A leak from anywhere on the head will run down and collect at the front, so it can be difficult to pinpoint the origin.

Back On The Road Again

2010-05-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

Finally an update! I just brought The Norton back to life this weekend after an extended winter hibernation. The bike performed great last year. I took it to the INOA rally at Mancos, CO and it performed brilliantly there, including a 238 mile loop in some of the worst weather I've ever encountered. The rider suffered on that ride, but The Norton never missed a beat. I rode so much down there I actually wore out the rear tire.

The bike is sporting some updates for this season, including a steel gas tank, that reconditioned oil pump I mentioned earlier, and a nice new set of wheels. The new hoops feature Borrani alloy rims, stainless spokes, and they were expertly built by Woody's Wheelworks. The rear is an 18 incher and I've got Avons on the bike now. They seem like good tires but I never really had any complaints with the K81s. The Avons do seem to track raingrooves a bit less than the K81s.

The new oil pump produces a bit better pressure when hot, but it's not a big difference. It will be interesting to see if it helps with the wetsumping. The bike was wetsumping pretty severely with the old pump. My 850 (I could write another blog about that bike, and probably should) has a pump that was reconditioned by Raber's, and it wetsumps a lot less than this bike.

The new look for The Norton is silver and black. The new tank is silver, and I'm using the same black sidepanels as before. I like it. Looks very elegant.

Spring Updates

2009-05-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Time for an update! The Norton had a good season last year, other than developing an oil leak that blew gearbox oil all over the right muffler. It turned out to be from the kickstart o-ring (no oil seal conversion on this bike). I pulled the cover, put some silicone in the groove, and installed a new o-ring. No more leak, for now anyway. I need to do the same with the primary case sealing band. ATF gets through behind the big o-ring and it drips onto the floor. Otherwise the bike is drip-free.

For this season, the rear wheel received some attention. I decided to remove the rim clamp as it throws the wheel way out of balance and does not seem to be necessary anyway. I found the original Dunlop steel rim to be heavily rusted inside when I removed the tire. I cleaned it up as best as I could for now, but the bike needs a new rim. I'd like to find another good steel rim if I can, but NOS ones are hard to come by and the new reproduction steel rims are said to be of poor quality. So I may end up having to go with an alloy rim.

I'm also replacing the oil pump and switching to monograde oil soon, to hopefully get the wetsumping under control. I bought a used pump on ebay and took it apart to do the lapping procedure. That's almost done, just needs the final cleaning and reassembly. The pump that's in there has gotten so bad I have to drain the sump if the bike sits more than three days. I'm hoping the rebuilt pump will do better!

The Howling

2008-08-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

Summer has almost come and gone, so I guess it's time for an update.

The rear brake developed a problem about a year ago. Occasionally, when I would apply the brake, it would make a loud howling noise and a shuddering sensation through the pedal. It felt as it the brake shoes were chattering. I had the brake drum off a couple of times but didn't see anything wrong. But the howling persisted.

So a couple of months ago I took it off again and disassembled the brake plate. Again, I didn't really see anything wrong other than an accumulation of brake dust. I cleaned everything up with brake cleaner, regreased the pivots with disk brake grease, and put it all back together. This time I took care to center the brake plate by holding the brake on while tightening the stub axle nut. I had been a little lax about that recently.

Results: no more howling! The brake seems to work better too. So I think doing the centering procedure is important, and an occasional cleaning and greasing is probably helpful too. It pays to do things the right way.

Spring Tuneups

2008-05-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a late spring here, so the Spring Tuneup isn't quite done yet. But it's getting there. I did the primary drive maintenance recently, changing out the ATF and cleaning the clutch plates. They were getting a little sticky from either gearbox oil or ATF, I'm not sure which. I might install a clutch pushrod seal kit next I go in.

I was having some problems with the carbs flooding and I noticed the float levels were set too high. I set them to spec, which is done by warming the bowls (I used a heat gun) and adjusting the position of the float seat with a small pin punch. It took me a few tries to get it right, but they're back on now and I haven't had any more flooding.

I also reached a milestone, wearing out my first rear tire on the bike! So I bought a new K81, fitted it to the front, and put the old front tire on the rear. The tires are easy to change with the Dunlop steel rims, but the rear was a bit difficult to balance with the rim clamp throwing things off. I'm not sure if the rim clamp is really necessary, but since it was original fitment and it's still there, I'm still using it for now anyway.

Still to do: gearbox and engine oil changes. Then The Norton should be ready for another season!

The Long Cold Winter

2008-02-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

Winter drags on, but December and January are behind us now and Spring is around the corner.

In the meantime, I can work on the bike without worrying about losing riding time. The fork oil change is done and the fork sliders and clockholders repolished. I like to do my fork oil changes the hard way, by removing the legs, taking the springs out, and allowing the oil to drain for a few days from the upside-down legs. Then I pour in a little solvent to flush out the sludge, let that drain, and they're ready to be refilled. It's more work this way, but I've found that just removing the drain screws and pumping the forks doesn't do a very good job of getting all the oil and sludge out.

The next task will be to fix the rear brake light switch and wiring. Both have gone non-functional. The cheap Lucas-imitation switch has expired, so I bought another cheap Lucas-imitation switch to replace it. I also have to trace out the problem with the wiring.

After that, drain the sump and that will be it for now. The rest of the maintenance - oil changes, new rear tire, new AGM battery, and timing chain adjustment - can wait until spring.

Deep Freeze

2007-12-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

Winter has settled in and the riding is over for a while. The Norton rests quietly, awaiting warmer weather and clear roads. I drained the fuel system a while ago, and the contents of the oil tank have transferred themselves to the crankcase. I'll have to drain it before trying to start the bike. It doesn't like to start with three quarts of oil in the sump. I bought a brand new oil pump and I'm going to install it to see if that helps with the wet sumping.

Other maintenance work planned is a readjust of the timing chain (I think I did it a little too tight last time), a new rear tire, a change of all fluids including fork oil, and a new AGM battery. I'm still running the battery that came with the bike when I bought it four years ago. The battery still seems to be fine, but enough is enough. I think it's time to retire that battery to timing light duty.

Season Wrapup

2007-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Well, The Norton did fine this season, needing nothing more than routine maintenance. It's been 4,000 miles since the rebuild now, and the bike is doing fine. We had our last big club ride of the season a few weeks ago, the annual Plains Ride. This route was a bit longer than usual and the bike logged 165 miles for the day. That's the longest ride I've ever done on the bike.

That oil leak turned out not to be the cylinder studs after all. I eventually traced it to the left rocker banjo. It seems an old crush washer was stuck to the banjo bolt head and I didn't notice it. Old used washer plus new washer equals oil leak! The oil then ran down the space in the middle of the head and collected at the front, looking exactly like leaky studs.

So, that leak is dried up! Now if I could just get the tach drive sealed up...

Back to life

2007-05-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

It was a long, hard winter and a cold, wet spring, but The Norton is out of hibernation and has been for a while now. It came back to life on the second kick and has been running great. No major work is planned for now, but I have noticed several leaks on the cylinder head that I would like to fix. Oil is coming up the front studs and I've noticed a leak from somewhere on the left side. I haven't quite pinned that one down yet, but it might be coming from the rocker feed banjo. I want to fix the leaks, but the bike is running so good I don't want to mess with it! So I think this will be added to next winter's work list.

Hibernating

2007-02-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

We're having an unusually harsh winter here in Colorado and I haven't been able to ride the Norton since mid December. It's all tucked away in the garage now, winterized and waiting for spring. Unlike last winter, I don't have any major work planned for this winter.

I do have a couple of small projects: building up a new front wheel and building a spare engine.

For the wheel, I have an original Dunlop steel rim and a hub that's nicely polished and fitted with sealed bearings. I just need to find a little time to take it to the wheel builder to get built up. I was going to do it myself, but the Norton front disk wheel is built with a large offset to accomodate the disk rotor and I'm told it's tricky to get right. So I decided that's a job for a professional.

The motor has a rebuilt and balanced crank, new superblends, new big end shells, and I'm going with a WebCam 12 grind. That's hotter than stock but not as radical as the Combat cam. I also sent the cases out to have the breather relocation and oil scavenging modifications performed. Brown dropped them off yesterday so all I need to do now is get the cam and I can put it back together.

Otherwise, just some routine maintenance to do at spring startup.

The Bruiser

2006-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

My black tank started leaking. It is a fibreglass tank, and they don't hold up well to the ethanol fuel we have now. I had the tank professionally lined two years ago and all was well at first. But this year the paint started bubbling. I found pinhole leaks at the center of each bubble. I don't know if the liner broke down or if the guy who applied it missed a few spots. In any event, I had to take it out of service.

So I fitted this tank. It has the original factory finish, in Fireflake Royal Blue metalflake. It's a very pretty color and looks beautiful in the sunshine. More importantly, it had never been lined, had never been exposed to the evil ethanol fuel, and was leak-free. To protect it, I lined it myself using Caswell Plating's epoxy tank lining kit. I think I did a good job, so hopefully this one will last a long time.

We had a club ride this weekend. The weather was perfect and it was our last ride of the season, so we had a good turnout. The blue tank attracted a lot of attention. Then someone noticed the sidepanels, which are still black. He said the bike is "black and blue, just like a bruise" and therefore the bike needs a new name - The Bruiser!

Sigh...

Pumping the sump

2006-08-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

800 miles on the engine now, and all is well. I've got enough break-in miles on it so I can ride the bike pretty much normally now. It's not ready for long full-throttle pulls yet, but I rarely do that anyway.

Last time I mentioned balancing the timing. The static timing turned out not to be that accurate and the two cylinders were off by a fair amount. The bike does run quite a bit smoother now with the timing set properly, so I'd say it is important to use the strobe light. Static timing alone just isn't good enough.

The bike has been running great but it does still wetsump quite a bit. I've been riding the bike at least twice a week so I don't have to drain the crankcase! A short "sump pumping" ride midweek keeps everything good for the weekend :)

Over the hump

2006-07-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

500 miles on the bike now. The motor mount bolts seem to be bedding in, and everything else has been good too. No smoke, starting on the first kick, and running great. And now I can start progressively running the bike harder too. Even with the one-third throttle limit it's had no problem keeping up with traffic though.

The club ride last weekend was rainy but a good time. It was the bike's first overnight trip, up to the mountains. We crossed the continental divide at Loveland Pass (el. 11,990 feet) and overnighted at Lake Dillon, which is around 9,000 feet. The bike did fine at altitude even though I have it jetted slightly on the rich side.

Today I finally got out the timing light and strobed the ignition. It was off a bit - left cylinder was at 24 degrees and the right cylinder was at 31 degrees. I guess static timing just isn't that accurate! Didn't seem to affect the bike's performance however. I'm told that when everything else is sorted, the timing isn't that critical. That does seem to be the case. In any event, I set both cylinders to the specified 28 degrees (I'm running points; no Boyer for me thank you very much). Test riding will have to wait until later in the week, due to more rain.

Running In

2006-06-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

The bike has been running well, and I've been engaged in the "running in" process. I've been following the procedure in the original owner's manual, which advices not lugging the engine and not using more than 1/3 throttle for the first 500 miles. After that you can start gradually increasing the load and throttle over the next 500 miles.

I also retorqued the head and adjusted the valves after the first heat cycle, and changed the oil at the 200 mile point, which I reached this weekend.

The only issue so far is keeping the motor mount bolts tight. They've been loosening fairly quickly, which I'm told is common when the frame is repainted or powder coated.

Next weekend's club ride will be the reborn bike's debut!

Leaks fixed!

2006-06-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

I solved my leakage problems today and enjoyed a pleasant twilight ride on my nice new bike. It was a perfect evening for riding, very nice.

A different set of float bowl gaskets took care of the carb leaks. The oil leak was more difficult because the oil goes all over and it's hard to tell where the origin is. I eventually traced it to the rocker spindle plate for the left exhaust valve. As I'm sure you all know, the plate is actually a "sandwich" of two plates, with a gasket for each. It turned out that the outer plate was bowed, forming a gap that let the oil just come squirting out all over the place. I fixed it by replacing the bad set with another one from a spare head that I happen to have on the shelf. The parts were used but in good condition. No more leak!

The front brake still needs some attention but it has improved with use. I think a new set of pads would be worth a try also.

Snortin!

2006-06-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that once again I have a Snortin Norton! I finished off the final assembly tonight, added gas and oil, and three kicks later - woohoo!

Overall, everything is working and it sounds and feels pretty healthy. There are some issues though - the carbs are leaking pretty badly at the float bowl gaskets, there's a pretty substantial oil leak somewhere on the cylinder head, and that trick new front brake is not working all that well (old glazed pads maybe?) So, I have to fix those problems before I can start actually riding the bike. Pretty encouraging though!

Tomorrow's the big day!

2006-06-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

I didn't quite get it done this weekend. I just ran out of time and had to ride another bike to the club meet.

But tonight I did finish it! Suddenly, it's all done. The bike is all back together again. The job started in August of last year, ten months ago. It's been a long hard road since then. I've struggled a lot, and I've learned a lot. And now, suddenly, I have a Norton Commando motorcycle again, not a pile of parts. Wow!

Tomorrow's work list: install gas tank, add gas and oil, kick. What will happen? Stay tuned...

The Final Push

2006-06-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the bike all week, trying to get it ready for the club ride tomorrow. I'm getting really close, but the final few things are by far the most difficult. All the previously-installed parts start getting in the way, so the assembly work keeps getting harder and harder. And it's hot out there now so working on the bike is very tiring. But it's almost there!

I think I'll have it finished off sometime tomorrow morning. Then it'll be time to put some gas in the tank, turn on the ignition, tickle the carbs, and cross my fingers! The club meeting is in the afternoon, so I just might make it...

Big progress tonight!

2006-05-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, look at this - two posts in the same week! But I made some good progress on the assembly tonight and I'm kind of excited.

First accomplishment for the night was installing the head. That's a bit difficult with the engine in the frame and no assistant. It's the pushrods that make it difficult. You have to shove them up inside the head as far as you can and then hold them in place while you angle the head and slide it into position. That actually wasn't as difficult as I feared, but getting all four pushrods engaged with their rocker arms was a struggle. I'd get three in place then one would slip out of position. I struggled with it for over an hour, but finally got them all in position and snugged the head down. Everything looks good, no pushrods were harmed in the process, and Mr. Valve did not say hello to Mr. Piston when I cranked the engine over. Definitely a Good Thing.

Next up was bleeding the brake. I tried the other night but the line was full of air, having been just installed, and I wasn't having much luck. So I borrowed a vacuum bleeder. That made quick work of the job. Definitely a nice tool to have. The brake feels good - nice and progressive, not wooden-feeling like the stock brake. I can't wait to try it out.

All in all, a very satisfying night!

Just wrenching away

2006-05-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've been told there's a few people who actually read this blog. If that's true, I apologize for the lack of updates. I've been too busy turning wrenches. It's a lot of work building one of these things and this particular bike has been fighting me every step of the way.

I've made lots of progress in the last month though. The wiring is all hooked up now, including all the new snap connectors I bought from British Wiring. Those things were hard to install because the sleeves are such a tight fit. I ended up buying a nifty little tool from British Wiring - a pair of pliers designed specifically for pressing the bullet connectors together. It cost $35 but made the job much easier. I'm happy to announce that no blood was spilled or wires broken on the hookup!

I've also installed an entirely new front brake. This is a custom creation, using a Nissan master cylinder from a Honda CBR600F2, a Nissin four-piston caliper from a CBR600F4, and a Harley rotor. The rotor carrier and caliper mount were designed and machined up by one of our club members. It's all installed and looking good. I just need to bleed it then it will be ready for testing!

And I've installed the motor and done most of the assembly. This particular engine (I have two) has a lightened crank and a Megacycle cam. That should put some snort into the old bike! As of tonight, the head is still off and I need to readjust the primary chain tension. Otherwise though, it's all assembled. I even installed the points and set the timing! I did that with a degree wheel and dial indicator. The timing scales on the primary cover can be wildly inaccurate. Some people have reported them being off as much as twenty degrees. This way I can have some confidence that the timing is more or less correct. And I'll have my timing scale calibrated for future use.

I'm pushing hard to have the bike running for our next club outing this coming weekend. Don't know if I'll make it as there's still a lot of little things to be done. Some of these simple little jobs can burn a lot of time. But I'm trying as hard as I can to get it done. Soon my Norton will be snortin once again! (with a little luck and barring any expensive mistakes...)

If if doesn't fit make it fit

2006-04-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about restoring a Norton Commando is, it's generally fairly easy to get parts. Most of them are still being manufactured and there's lots of parts dealers selling them.

The not-so-nice thing is, the parts never fit. Nothing ever just bolts on. You have to make the new part fit, and often that involves special tools and/or skills. That's fine if you're a professional machinist, but I'm not.

About a month ago I bought the new snap connectors that I need for repairing my wiring harness. I still haven't installed them however. The "sleeves", as the female connectors are called, are too tight to accept the male bullet connectors. Each one has to be gently-but-firmly expanded just the right amount so the bullet connector will snap into place and not fall out. It's a pain and I've been putting the task off for about a month now. But otherwise the chassis is done so I have to quit procrastinating and get it done.

Another annoying fitment problem was the new centerstand that I purchased as an upgrade. The stand originally fitted to my bike was a flimsy design that tends to twist and break. The 850 Commando featured a much-improved centerstand design and it "just bolts right on" to the older bikes like my 1971 750.

But it didn't just bolt right on. It didn't fit on the engine cradle and the spacing was so far off it wasn't a matter of filing off powdercoat or flexing the stand. I didn't know what to do with it, so I took it down to our club's recent Tech Day.

The solution involved brute force, in the form of a hydraulic frame spreader. Our Tech Day host used to do auto body work and he has a very well equipped shop. We used the frame spreader to spread the centerstand arms out. Then it bolted right on. That just left the spring to deal with. It's quite strong, and it has to be stretched out to approximately twice its length to install it. I couldn't do it, but our host could. Thanks Gary!

On to the engine assembly now...

British wiring

2006-03-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

As the buildup continues, it's time to reinstall my wiring harness. That posed a problem, though, because the harness needed some repairs before going back in. I'm using a stock harness (actually it's a reproduction installed by the previous owner) and while the harness itself was in good shape, there were a large number of snap connectors that were broken and corroded. I also needed new rubber grommets for the frame and some new wire to repair some broken leads (alternator and brake switch wiring). British wire, it turns out, is sized differently than American wire - instead of the AWG sizes we use, they rate it by the number of strands. The Norton harness uses 14-strand wire, with each strand being 0.3mm in diameter. Can't find that at the local Radio Shack!

Of course I had no luck trying to find suitable replacements locally. Even the usual brit bike suppliers don't have a lot of the parts I needed. So I was really happy to find British Wiring, a family-run business in Olympia Fields, IL. They had everything I needed, and all at very good prices too. I emailed in my parts list, called in my credit card info, and two days later I had my parts! Truly excellent service.

Now I can move forward with the wiring. I'm happy!

Roller!

2006-03-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

It's a roller! The Norton is starting to look like a motorcycle again instead of a pile of parts.

We had bad weather this weekend so I stayed in and worked on the chassis. And I got the bike standing on its own two wheels! The gearbox is in, the new Hagon shocks are fitted, the new sidestand is installed, and the swingarm's needle bearing conversion is done. No more oily mess for me!

Just for fun I slipped on the seat and my Fireflake Royal Blue tank. I sat on the bike for the first time in months. What a nice feeling!

It hasn't been easy though. I've been running into fitment problems every step of the way. None of the new parts I buy ever seem to fit. They invariably require rework. Sometimes I can do it myself, other times machine shop services are required. The buildup is taking longer than I expected because every time I hit one of these problems I have to stop, figure out what's wrong, develop a plan for dealing with the problem, and then execute the plan.

One such issue was the new vernier isolastic kits I installed. The front one went right in, but when I tried to install the rear I found it did not fit into the frame. It was too wide. At first I thought it was another poorly-designed pattern part but investigation revealed the iso unit was not at fault. It was my frame. The distance between the mounting plates is supposed to be 8.750 inches, plus or minus .010. Mine was "minus" by considerably more than that. It took a while to figure out what to do about it. In the end, I used some threaded rod and nuts to spread the frame slightly (a couple of millimeters) so I could install the cradle.

Another little surprise came when I installed my new 520 x-ring chain conversion. The new brake drum did not mate up properly with my old brake plate. When assembled, the wheel wouldn't rotate! The problem turned out to be rivets on the brake drum that interfered with some bolts on the brake plate. It seems the rivets were more "proud", or projected out further, then the ones on the old drum. Shimming and grinding was required to make the parts work together. I still need one more shim to finish the job, so when the parts come in I'll have to take the wheel off and finish the job.

There's still a few more of these issues to resolve, but the chassis is nearly done. Soon I'll be ready to start reassembling the engine.

Fresh Powder

2006-02-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

I had the frame powder coated about a month ago. I got some recommendations from club members about where to go and paid a visit to a couple of the shops. I selected Powder Coating Specialties of Golden for the job. They do a lot of motorcycle frames and obviously knew what they were doing. So I drove the parts down, selected High Gloss Black for the color, and one week later the job was done. Total cost for all the parts shown was $265, including the prep work. Can't beat that!

The parts look great and clean up was minimal, mainly some light dremel work on bolt holes and such. They did an excellent job of masking things like the steering head bore. I really didn't have to do much to get the parts ready, just a basic cleaning.

There is a some controversy in the community over powder coating vs repainting. Some people don't like powder coating because that's not how the factory did it in 1972. Others have various criticisms of powder - they say it's hard to touch up, it may peel away from motor mounts, over time it may dull, etc.

The criticisms don't seem convincing to me though, and I don't feel a need to keep the bike one hundred percent original like the "resto nazis" do. I think sensible improvements are a good thing. And the previous paint job certainly didn't hold up very well. So I think this is the way to go.

The Teardown

2006-02-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

I rode The Norton to quite a few of the club events when the 2005 riding season started. It had problems though - heavy smoking and oil consumption, a knocking sound coming from somewhere in the engine on startup, and severe wetsumping. These bikes all wetsump (oil drainage from the oil tank to the crankcase when parked), but this one would empty the oil tank in just a few days. Definitely not normal.

In July, I bought an oil pressure gauge kit from my favorite parts supplier, OldBritts. I hooked it up and went for a test ride. The results were discouraging. The bike had decent oil pressure at startup, but when the engine warmed up the oil pressure went to zero.

So I decided to do a top end rebuild and to service or replace the oil pump. I had planned to do that work in the winter, but based on the gauge readings I felt the bike might not last that long. When I opened up the oil pump I found ground-up bearing fragments inside. That, of course, meant a full tear down and rebuild.

We pulled the motor and tore it down at the next Tech Day in August. The rod bearings were junk, the crank journals scored, the pistons had seizure marks, and the exhaust valves were burned and leaking. The oil consumption turned out to be caused by a bad hone job, which resulted in the rings not seating. And there was more shrapnel inside the crank's sludge trap. Oh, and the crankcase was cracked at the oil pump mounting area. The motor basically needed new everything.

With the motor out, it was a good time to go through the gearbox. Pulling the gearbox exposed a lot of peeling paint and rust on the frame. And when I removed the forks and triple clamps (the triples had peeling paint) I noticed the steering head bearings were shot. I decided I might as well take the bike down all the way and do a full restoration.

Help Wanted

2006-02-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

The club had a website so I surfed over for a look. What I found was both encouraging and intimidating. It sounded like a good group but some of the members looked, well, kind of scruffy! I was actually pretty nervous about making contact but I needed help with the bike.

My fears were unjustified. In spite of their appearance, I found the club members to be friendly, helpful, and actually a great group of people to hang out with. And they had Tech Days, to which you could take your bike and get help. So I started going to club meetings, including of course Tech Days. I started making some real progress with the bike.

By spring 2005 I'd gotten the bike sorted reasonably well with the club's help. It was now a one-kick starter, and the handling was much better after tightening up the isolastics and rebuilding the swingarm pivot. I started riding the bike to club events. It was fun to ride, but obviously still had major problems and I really didn't trust it. So I basically stayed pretty close to home with it.

Beauty Is Only Skin Deep

2006-02-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

When I pulled the bike out of its shipping container it looked great. The seller had done a truly impressive job of polishing and detailing it for the sale. It gleamed in the spring sunshine.

Unfortunately, the beauty was only skin deep. Underneath the gleaming alloy and shiny paint lay a multitude of horrors. I was soon to learn that the seller's statements had all been gross misrepresentations. The "few little drips" was an oil slick under the bike. The "occasional puffs of white smoke" was a heavy cloud of blue smoke coming out of the right exhaust. The "little pinhole leak" in the gas tank was a crack an inch long. The bike burned almost as much oil as gas. The brake lights didn't work. The headlight blew out the first time I started the bike. And so on.

For the rest of 2004, I struggled to get the bike running and roadworthy. I was living in an apartment complex at the time so I had to keep the bike in a storage unit. I started spending my weekends at the storage unit, going through the bike. I fixed the leaks, I rebuilt the carbs, I replaced the bent fork tubes, I fitted new plug wires and points. And so much more. Everywhere I looked I found problems. It seemed endless.

I was in over my head and I knew it. So I sought help. The bike came to me via the internet so I went to the internet for help. I didn't find any local owner's groups but I did find an online support forum. So I signed up and started posting questions.

The guys on the Jerry Doe forum (named after the site owner) were helpful, but there was only so much they could do without actually seeing the bike. It was starting to look hopeless again, but then one of the forum members told me about a local owner's club. He'd seen one of their online newsletters and posted an article from it. So I found out about our local club, Norton Colorado, from an internet friend in Australia!

The Beginning

2006-02-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Why on earth would an otherwise-rational (mostly) middle aged woman buy a 35 year old motorcycle off ebay?

Well, it wasn't just a crazy impulse. I've been involved with motorcycles almost my entire life. I'd previously owned a Norton 850 Commando. My dad bought it new in 1973 then gave it to me a few years later. I loved the bike, but it was hard to maintain and it was unreliable. So it eventually went to a new home.

I always regretted letting it go though, and thought that someday perhaps I'd get another one. I never did, but I never quite gave up hope.

Then I discovered ebay. They had motorcycles for sale. They had Nortons!

Before long I found a 1971 750 Commando in the listings. It looked great in the photos and the owner glibly gave me all the right answers to my questions. So I bought it. It was in Michigan and I'm in Colorado so I had the bike shipped. In April, 2004 I drove down to the ForwardAir terminal in Denver and picked up my Norton. Finally, after all these years, I had fulfilled my dream!

And so my adventures began....