1954 19s FORKS

I assume they are long roadholders? RGM and Andover have exploded parts diagrams and all the bushes and stanchions are readily available, and of course they should be available from the club shop.

Basically there is a damping tube at the bottom of the sliders. The stanchions have a bush at the bottom which is held in place by a big nut. There is also a top hat bush that slides down the stanchion and sits in the top of the slider, after that goes an oil seal which is held in place by a threaded retainer. They really are very straight forward!

Dan

I have a 1955 Model19 with these long Roadholder forks. The damping is really basic and ineffective. Mine used to bang and clank, bottom and top out all the time over even small bumps. I talked on here about converting them to Commando internals as some had done, but there are some engineering problems to overcome to do that

In the end I took them to All Bike Engineering in London who specialise in rebuilding forks and dampers for modern bikes. They took the job on as a project as they are not classic bike specialists, and rebuilt mine with modern internals and damping to modern standards. The external springs have been replaced with with internal ones which makes refitting the forks much easier, and on the few miles I have done since the conversion the fork action is 100% better with no clanking, bottoming or topping out. It was a case drop them off, pick them up job completed and fit them. I don't what has been done inside as I haven't yet looked. It worked out cheaper than a Commando type conversion.

I haven't done a lot of miles yet so can't give a long term review but so far ride quality is far better and I am happy.

If you phone them talk to Nick and say it's the same forks as on Stoweys Norton.

I used commando internals on my ES2 which also works a treat and is a bolt on improvement that can be reversed!

The serious trials guys also put modern internals into the legs.

dan

And the cost Dan? (for the Commando internals).

George

Iâd have to check George, but I did everything at the same time, from RGM, new stanchions (commando) damper tubes, valves etc plus the damper rods, bushes and seals and internal springs...... they all needed doing anyway, I think the bill came to just North of £300.

I had to make an extension for the damper rod as the commando set up is a tad shorter, next time Iâd buy the extra long damper tubes which should avoid that.

One thing I would say is the internal commando springs are quite firm, and as my ES2 is in trials trim I opted for the external springs (cheaper) and softer. As it happened I needed some stiffer springs for my montesa cappra which has a Suzuki front end, the commando springs dropped right in!

A final note of caution, I didnât measure inside the long roadholder stanchions to see if the dampers would work inside them, instead I bought the stanchions and tubes from the same source. If they do fit the job would obviously be much cheaper. Quick mental addition from the RMG site works out just under £200 incl vat for just the damper set up. Of course if you can get any second hand bits it would be much cheaper.

Oh I should also add that I already had the top fork bolts with the threaded insert for the damper rods.

I see RGM do a bush and seal kit with extended top bush for £29 plus vat, that would be a cheap way to stop some of the clanking!

Dan

There's been a discussion on the britbike forum about using the extended top bushes on long roadholders and the consensus (if you believe it) was that they don't do much. I would have theought the extended bearing surface would have reduced flexibility however.

A long upper bush will affect the oil bypass holes which are low down on the stanchions, and alter the progressive damping designed into the fork.

One of the problems with the Norton fork is that the sliders are just too short. This was not an issue with feeble '40s brakes and 21" front wheels, but when you go fitting a big front stopper (double disc Commando?), it is. Norton should have made the slider longer, to the full height of the installed lower fork shrouds. Then, a longer upper bush would be useful. An engineer friend of mine recommends a teflon upper bush instead of phosphor bronze for reduced stiction, but says that the short slider prevents a really good fork action

A question for the true geeks - did road bikes ever get the alloy damper tubes as standard? My Model 88 has the supposedly Manx-spec alloy damper tubes. Did any Commandos get the long alloy damper tubes other than the Norvil?

I have some brand new RGM Commando damper bodies which I won't be needing, so would be interested to sell them

Paul