I am jacked! I am in Manassas Va. waiting for a phone call. I am picking up my 72 Norton Combat Commando today. I have not ridden it since 1984. A little old lady pulled out in front of me after a spring shower on a sandy curvy mountain road and I laid it down. I slid right between the guy wire and the pole when I went off the road. Talk about puckering up, it was hairy! Anyhow not hurt bad, me or the bike but that was the year my first baby was born. Priorities took over. Fast forward 20 years. I still had my Norton. I had moved it with me from the mountains to Pensacola Fla, to the flatlands of Va. and now back to the mountains. Kids mostly grown, time to get it restored. When I first moved beach front Pensacola we only had a car port. It only took about a month to close it in a make it into a decent garage but that salt air took its toll. Any of you not famialar with Nortons, lots of polished aluminum, stainless and chrome. A lot like our Cougars. My pipes had been damaged in the wreck anyhow but right off I found my Dunstall 2 into one back into two headers first thing! I have never seen them since. It was just meant to be. I will have to do a video with sound. Nothing else sounds like a Norton anyhow, its a twin and both cylinders fire closer to each other than all other twins. Causes major vibration at idle but mega torque. You can see in the rear views though at 100. The whole drive train is in whats called an isolmeric suspension which really smooths it out off idle. But man you should hear it through these headers. It shoots flames out the rear when down shifting and they are not shorts. They actually extend slightly beyond the rear tire. The design is most for cornering but good power too. If you scrape these pipes in a corner you are going down. I joined the east coast Norton club and found Chris Greenbacker. He is the guru of all gurus of Nortons kinda like Tom,at KTL, and Royce combined. Anyhow he agreed to do the engine restore and upgrades and he got carried away which I was hoping he would. Eight years later,IT IS BEYOND PERFECT!!! Shes only got 3600 miles on her and now way way better than showroom I am doing the paint in laquer but I still need to find someone to do the lettering before clear coat. I dont want to go back with decals. Pictures to come once I get back to the hills. 
Sorry about the writing, I need to get someone to show me how to space and do paragraphs. I very seldom write anthing more than a sentence or two.
awesome.
I love Nortons, and the Commando is probably the all time crowd pleaser.
Give us some pics, Wood!
Old Wood, its not to late to fix the paragraphs, just click on the the edit button on your post and add them. Should only take a few seconds.
I have tried twice. I am on Hughes net and this damn sattelite just w’ont let me tonight. I have lost all my one finger litterary works of bulls##t enough for this evening. Every time I go to upload it comes back page not found and everything is gone. I will have better pictures (the good Lord willing) tommorow anyhow.
Scott, the problem is you have to know how to do it. I will get my daughter to show me tommorow. Good night to all in Cougar land. Tommorow is another day in paradise.
Old Wood, as long as your signed in, just look to the top right off the first post you made at the top of this thread. You should see a rectangle shape with the word “edit” inside, it should be just left of the “!”. Just click on the edit button. Once your original post comes up. Move your mouse cursor thingy to where you want to start your new paragraph and click once then hit the enter key on your keyboard twice and the new paragraph should start. Hope this helps.
Lets try Photobucket. I set up an account but dont know how to get it here. What can I say, I am just a dumb ass hillbilly.
Maybe? In this picture the bike is missing the side covers. The black triangular tank below the seat is the oil resorvoir and not meant to be seen. The cover will be black laquer with gold 750 Commando. Also this is just the loaner gas tank. These are the stock pipes, the Dunstalls have to be re-chromed yet.There is a little two prong plug receptacle that is for powering an electric shaver! The limeys think of everything. I have never used it,with the infamous Lucas electrics it probbally didnt work. I have to say though of the two Nortons I’ve owned I have had no problems except the starter on the 850 which I never used anyhow.
Well shucks, not all that hard and I did it all by myself. This is just the temporary tank and the bike is dirty. Also no side covers and the headers have to be re-chromed. Chris really did a great job. Even the battery hold down is first class. Now I am having a problem selecting the picture I want to post. How do I delete the code on a picture so the one I want will post. Thanks for any help.
That Commando looks great! Congrats! I sold my Triumph to buy the car. Miss it and plan to start looking for another Triumph, Norton, or BSA after the Cougar is “finished”.
looks really great. 
Thanks guys. Savant I hope you find a nice one when you get ready. The weather cleared and I got to take it for a spin. It is really hard not to take a combat over 4000 grand. I gotta go 500 miles.It was hard to beleive its been 28 years since I rode it last.
Very nice!! I have a friend here at work that has a couple of Nortons and I’ll foward your photo’s to him.
Wow - great looking bike
The first bike I fell off was a Norton Commando - I was riding pillion on a seat just like that after a Christmas party in 1973 and the guy driving took off when I wasn’t expecting it. It was actually a similar colour to yours, and supposed to be some special edition
great looking piece of machinery but where is the oil leak
Niiiiice! I love old bikes, almost as much as my Cougars. And you’re absolutely right, Nortons are special machines.
See if this works. I think I am starting to get the hang of this. Thanks a lot guys. No oil leaks at all. It used to leak a little at the tach drive but all fixed up now. The only thing I hate is we had to go to the Mikuni. My Amals were not salavgable and the new ones suck.
but where is the oil leak
If it isn’t leaking oil, it is most likely empty. Oil leaks on British products are not considered to be defects, they are features. They provide an instant visual guide to fluid levels: if you don’t see a small puddle of gas on the floor, you know that you are out of gas. I am pretty sure they put this in the owners manual.
My Amals were not salavgable and the new ones suck.
Amal, SU, and Zenith were all engaged in industrial espionage, readily stealing what passed for technology from each other. To counter the effect, each began to develop and implement design defects into their products, knowing that their competitors would steal the new design changes and incorporate the flaws into their products. Eventually most aspects of all of their designs were inherently defective. Unable to determine what defects to fix first they determined that the only practical thing to do was to declare the product perfected and go to tea. After all, the Germans had just invented a new process called rust. The Italians seemed to have perfected it, the French renamed it, and the Americans were trying to mass produce it. The British government, out of fear that only Rolls Royce and Bentley might utilize the new process, nationalized it and mandated that all British industry utilize the process, and pay a special tax for the privilege.
Sorry folks, still suffer from Post British car restoration syndrome (PBCRS). I don’t talk much about the dark years… I mean, what kind of people tell you to check the fuel level by using a torch to look into the tank?
^ 
Nothing is ever as good as you remember it, but the addition of Mikunis may help leave some halo around your bike the Amals would otherwise chase away.
Amal’s big claim to fame is being original equipment. That’s pretty much it.
Now for your next tech trick, go get a GoPro video camera and take some video of you riding it down the roadway. Then post it.
Or crank it up and let us hear it run. I love the idle of those things. 