Commando Handling

I haven't tried the Norvil headsteady but the idea of the rod link types seems to me to be the better idea.

I have the Dave Taylor link that RGM sells and there was a noticeable improvement over the factory headsteady.

There is a picture of a home made head steady made by Mike Taglieri on the "Captain Nortons Notes" website with general instructions to build your own. I did, and it works well for a fraction of the cost of the professionally manufactured ones. You need a couple of bits of angle iron, a couple of rose joints and an arc welder. It doesn't need to be beautifully engineered as it sits out of sight under the tank. I haven't even painted mine yet, but one day I'll get round to tarting it up a bit, in the meantime my cylinder head can move fore and aft but not sideways. Result.

I struggled to get a norvil head steady to work properly, mainly because they are poorly manufactured and don't fit under a Fastback tank. I pissed about shimming it up to reach the correct height and take out the inaccuracies in the mounting. No matter what I did it would nip up when finally fitting it. Handling is now good apart from chronic whitelining but that's a tyre problem. (I was a toolmaker once so don't think I didn't give the Norvil item a good chance.)

Previously wrote:

There is a picture of a home made head steady made by Mike Taglieri on the "Captain Nortons Notes" website with general instructions to build your own. I did, and it works well for a fraction of the cost of the professionally manufactured ones. You need a couple of bits of angle iron, a couple of rose joints and an arc welder. It doesn't need to be beautifully engineered as it sits out of sight under the tank. I haven't even painted mine yet, but one day I'll get round to tarting it up a bit, in the meantime my cylinder head can move fore and aft but not sideways. Result.

I struggled to get a norvil head steady to work properly, mainly because they are poorly manufactured and don't fit under a Fastback tank. I pissed about shimming it up to reach the correct height and take out the inaccuracies in the mounting. No matter what I did it would nip up when finally fitting it. Handling is now good apart from chronic whitelining but that's a tyre problem. (I was a toolmaker once so don't think I didn't give the Norvil item a good chance.)

Thanks for the tip about 'CNN'. I'm recommissioning a Mk111 after being off the road formany years, and considering incorporating handling improvements. I've followed all the old threads on head steadies and I was thinking about the RGM-supplied one. However, I've seen comments somewhere that the clamping arrangement on the frame top tube can move.

Mike Taglieri's head steady looks brilliant! It seems to follow the principles of other rose-jointed types and the best bit is I can make it at home!

I'll post the results (might not be until Spring, though!)

Allan.

Hi Alec, on my last rebuild one of my aims was to make my 750 interstate handle better.

I fitted the Dave Taylor head steady with spring from RGM.

Vernier Isolastics,

Made sure the front & rear wheels lined up properly,

& best of all a pair of Avon Roadrider tyres 100/90 19" front & rear.

Now the bike is really good around bends & across white lines in the middle of theroad.

I cant belive I put up with Dunlop TT100's for all these years.

Its now a pleasure to ride & ive done more miles in the last 12 months than for many years.

Biggest improvement has to be the tyres followed by the dave taylor type head steady.

I think a simular design in head steady to the dave taylor version would do as long as it gets rid of the random movement of the rubbish original.

Best of luck & enjoy it when your on the road again.

Cheers Don

Yorkshire Branch