So I went out for a spin on my MK2A one afternoon recently, 40 miles or so, to a beauty spot and back. After a cigarette and a slurp of water at the beauty spot, I went to get back on the bike and noticed the tail and brake lights had failed. Ok thought I, that hasn't happened since I can remember but I have a spare under the saddle. The spare didn't fit â the bayonet pins weren't 180? apart! Grrr ... And the sun's going down. Panic stations â better dash home PDQ! I got home safely, only to find one of the seat securing knobs had gone. ?#??@! But they have roll pins so they're captive! Er, no, the remaining knob has a hole for a pin, but no pin. Presumably the lost one was the same. Whoever was on that shift when my bike was built didn't bother with the pins!!!
The moral is either check your seat securing knobs are captive, or don't do as I did and forget to tighten them in a panic after taking the saddle off. Take your pick. Sigh ... Thankfully they are made of a common alloy, and not unobtainium.
p.s. The bulb that didn't fit was picked for me at Halford's (my nearest source these days) after the super helpful guy who came up and asked what I was looking for had checked their parts system â I was amazed that it listed bulbs for a Norton Commando 850, so I let him get on with it. Now I'm not so amazed â another moral is never to let anyone pick a bulb for you, no matter how many similar-looking bulbs are on display or how convincing the assistant is that they've given you the right one ...
p.p.s. My centre stand broke today â oh joy ... Well it is 43 years old, so I suppose it's allowed.
Same bike ,same problem. D…
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To be honest I'd already…
To be honest I'd already ordered a replacement knob and pin before I inspected the remaining knob and found it pinless, and installed the pin without thinking about electrolysis. So I've been pondering what to do about the remaining knob. I have some pretty fine (about 1â1.5mm), plastic-coated gardening wire that seems to last forever, and I think I might bind some of that through the pin hole, locking-wire style, to make that knob captive. I'll know when or if I do it, but I suspect that might never be noticed either. Until I've passed on, anyway!
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I showed my well worn seat…
I showed my well worn seat knob to an old engineer, sadly no longer with us, he just said 'give it here son' A week later at a club meeting he presented me with the same knob, with a threaded brass insert. That was more than 20 years ago and it remains perfect in service to this very day.
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I did something similar to…
I did something similar to my Commando's seat knobs but used stainless steel. The threads in the alloy do wear quite badly especially if the seat is on and off frequently.
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Same bike ,same problem. Does anyone actually bother with those little pin things? In the battle between Ally and steel ,there"s only one winner , so get a new set from Andover,as good or better than most and assuming that your top lug threads are o.k, then keep the nuts under tension by a good quality bungee around the shank and attached( in my case to a craven carrier) ,may be one to the grab rail, oa long one all the way round from one nut to the other Mine are black and echo the frame and are not obvious. Andover"s nuts (we know that anyway) are multi facited and extra shiny as you look at them and are just one more iconic feature on a Commando