Meanwhile I also looked, again, at why the brakelight doesn’t come on when using the front brake. I thought to be smart and check first if the switch itself is perhaps defective.

Frontbrake light switch

I had to loosen and turn the master cilinder a bit just to be able to lower the protective casing a bit. First I measured the negative power, OK. Then I had a brilliant idea, put a screwdriver between the two contacts and … Nothing. The brakelight still didn’t come on. That means that the problem isn’t the switch, but somewhere else in the wiring. So next time I’ll have to remove again the fueltank and check again the nice tie of wires there.

Following the electrical wires

I’ve followed the wires, from what I can see it is the brown wire, taken together with the red indicator light for the alternator in the headlight shell, followed it under the fueltank but.. Nothing. I didn’t find it (yet). Unless the switch itself on the handlebar is defective, I already changed the switch on the rear brakepedal once, but the front brake is quite well protected. Oh well, I still have 3 weeks left, I’ll find it

While I had the fueltank removed, I did see something else “wrong”, something I already noticed before; when opening the throttle, the left carburator is opened before the right one. This was a perfect ocassion to see it; when opening/closing the throttle, the slack on the cable going to the right carburator was well visible.

Slack in the gas cable for the right amal carburator

The slack, compared to the left, was about 5 mm. By adjusting the cable on the right Amal, both react at the same time. Meanwhile it stopped raining, so I put everything back together again, the fueltank, the buddyseat, the headlight and changed the spark plugs; last time I put in brandnew Champion spark plugs. Maybe coïncidence, maybe not, but the Norton was more difficult to start. When I removed them and put back the NGK Iridium sparkplugs that I cleaned, the Norton started on the third kick. The modification by removing the slack on the gas cable could be noticed; when opening the throttle for acceleration, there is no longer the moment of “hesitation” and the Norton runs a bit better too at low engine speeds (2.000 – 2.500 rpm), less “jerky” while riding at a constant speed.

What is left over of the sheet copper

The threads were well in the sheet copper, they even cut through the sheet copper and I had to remove it in fine, thin parts. None the less, it held firm for one year and allowed me to ride the Norton around a bit. I’ve proceeded same way as last time; cut a small strip of copper, put it on the thread, make sure it enters neatly and tightened. We will see how long it will hold again.

To heat the engine up and tighten a last time, I took the Norton for a short ride and when I was in Boulogne on the quai de seine, I saw a biker pushing his bike in the opposite direction. I turned around at the next trafic lights and pulled up behind him. I had my backpack with me with my tools (just in case the Norton would die on me) so perhaps I could help. He explained me that the battery was completely dead as was the battery of his cell phone to warn his friends. I offered him to use my cell phone, but he told me that wasn’t necessary because he was almost there, just left on the next crossing. Hum… Yeah, but “the next left” was in a couple of kilometers.. I don’t know, I could have offered to swap batteries, after all, the Norton can do without, or I could have pushed him, or … But he told me not to worry and he was doing fine.

Strange … I had to push the Norton several times and I can’t realy say that I enjoyed it, so why would someone else push his if it could be avoided? When I came home and told my wife about my afternoon she said “you’ll see, he wanted to push and I’m sure that some 10 minutes later he must have been wondering why he didn’t accept to use your phone”. Oh well, I can only offer help, can’t force someone to accept it if they prefer to continue to push their bike.

On my way, I stopped at the flowerstore. The owner stepped outside and we talked a bit about the Norton and Nortons in general before I continued my ride. Then, I noticed a sound I haven’t heared since a while; some hissing and some, be it minor, backfires in the right muffler. Once back home, yep, the exhaust locking nut moved, the one that I had set with the sheet copper. Well, I can’t complain realy, it remained in place for 1 year. So I already know that next time I won’t be able to ride; first I’ll have to set and tighten the exhaust locking nut again.

Last wednesday I also went to Machines & Moteurs. Bought a new airfilter, sparkplugs and several joints. Strange, yet like last time they didn’t have the joints for the carburator’s admission in 32mm, only in 30mm. The airfilter seems enormous. Oh well, I’ll start on the Amal carburators in september, when I’ll be in holidays, I should have everything now.

Turning back into Boulogne I decided to try again and go straight this time, direction Meudon, but there also, trafic was completely stuck. Then something strange happened; while waiting for the red trafic lights in Boulogne I figured that I could better pull up the sidewalk and let the Norton cool down a bit first. Two ladies of respectable age, sitting a bit further on a bench, left; first one, then the other. Am I so scary?? I also noticed that I don’t realy have to go to any bike meeting; just park it on the side walk, wait a bit, and a meeting starts all by itself from curious people asking about the Norton

After the engine cooled off and trafic was a little less stuck, I decided to try again, but same thing; completely stuck, on and passed, the Pont de Sevres. That made me decide to do it different; stop the engine and just free-wheel. That worked for a while, meaning while going down the Pont de Sevres, but works a bit less on straight road. So I pushed the Norton on the sidewalk and pushed it into Sevres passed the trafic jam. Sure, I could have done it different; either trying to pass in between cars, either taking the lane in opposite directory and become a ghost rider, but I didn’t want to do either. Perhaps am I just too worried, but feeling how hot the Norton was getting without any chance on cooling, it seemed the best alternative.

ElféChrome

Really, without any effort it cleans all the chrome of the Norton like nothing. At some places the chrome started to change color a bit, a kind of light yellow brownish and lost its shine. But no problem with the ElfeChrome; put it on as a fine layer, wait a bit untill it turns white and polish it off and taaaa daaaaaaa, the chrome regained its bright shine and all clean

The Norton Commando after some ElféChrome

Okay, I confess, I didn’t do everything yet and started with the most obvious and easy accessible parts, but the result is amazing and without any real effort. Next time I’ll do the wheel rims and I’ll try again the exhaust pipes who start to turn a bit blue.

When I got back, I checked the Norton once more, but couldn’t find anything. Luckely. I did check the Dunlop K81 (front and rear) tire pressure though, there I had a surprise; in the front only 0.5 bars and in the rear 0.9 bars. I should have checked them earlier! From the Dunlop specifications the K81 tire has a max. load of 615lbs and a maximum pressure of 41 psi. As I have no clue what that means, I had to look it up and convert it into something I do understand; maximum load of 300 Kilograms and maximum pressure of 2.8 bars. So I’m good, I’ve put 1.6 bars in the front and the rear and will see how that goes, I can still add more if needed.

I learn as I go with the Norton; before I left, I took out the sparkplugs and cleaned them and I noticed that this time one was way more black than the other one. That reminded me that last time, by misstake, I turned the wrong screw on the left Amal carb. As the right sparkplug looked better, I turned likewise the same screw on the left Amal carb. But… No way to get her to start. Maybe that was not a good idea after all, so I turned both back half a turn and she started right away. I also noticed that in fact the both Amal carbs don’t exactly open at the same time; when opening the gas, closing the gas and listening closely, one can actually hear the left carb closing before the right one does. I’ll leave it like that for the moment, as I still need to change them with the new Amal carburetors anyway and I’ll try to make sure to do it right with the new ones.

Just before pont de Sevres on my way to Boulogne a couple on a Harley Davidson pulled up next to me. That was a completely new experience. I mean, usually when a biker pulls up next to me I can still hear my Norton. Quite well even. But with the Harley next to me, though the Norton has quite some sound, I could barely hear it anymore. We waved hello and once crossed the pont de Sevres they turned right in the direction of Paris where I went straight and I could finally hear my Norton again. For my defense, it was a BIG Harley engine

I also sent an email to Paul Goffs just to ask if it is normal that the Girling spring scratches the paint, but I haven’t heared back yet.

Girling Shocks, paint scratched on damper (see red circles)

The damper seems to be centred in the spring, but somehow it must touch. Not the right shock though, where no paint scratches are seen at all. Strange and a bummer, but well. Next time, if I have to replace the shocks again, I’ll make sure to set the pre-strength on the second notch, which should make sure that the spring itself remains tight in position.

The Norton ran good today; easy starting on a cold engine and, once warm, a good idle speed of the engine. I also tested the brakes; or well, not by choice, but in a reaction when I switched lanes and the car in front of me suddenly braked. Luckely, the test passed, the Norton (still) brakes good even if it probably requires a bit more force than with modern braking systems