Norvil Commando - How reliable?

If it has been assembled proberly and there are no underlying faults with any of the components then it should be totally reliable. Why, I wonder is you present 850 unreliable? If it has electronic ignition, cartridge oil filter, electronic voltage control and the final luxury of a scott oiler, it should go with minimum maintenance for a considerable time. I have fitted these mods to my 1970 fastback (apart from the scott oiler) and don't touch it from one month to the next. Starting on a single mikuni is a second kick affair and it runs out of puff at about 80mph but how fast do you want to go on a forty year old bike? Starting was never a problem with the twin carbs but it wasn't much fun round town. Pick up on the single carb is brilliant. I wouldn't buy another one if you're not happy with the first.

Tim

I agree with David's comments to the extent that it is possible to make 40 year old machines reliable. However I have been there and done that with a T160 Trident over a 12 year period and after selling it wanted a big capacity machine without having to go through it all again. I just don't have the time for it anymore and don't want my outings ruined by breakdowns. So about 2 months ago I bought a 2nd hand Norvil 850 Roadster. After 1,000 miles of riding it my impression is that it is very well put together. There is not the slightest oil leak, it regularly starts first kick and burns virtually no oil. Mine is 8 yrs old but was idle for the last 4 years and had only 4k miles on the clock when I bought it. I have had some issues but most are consistent with a 4 year lay-off, exceptions being a poor quality speedo cable and a final drive chain that started to disintegrate (seems to suggest some poor quality components were used).

The only other thing I would add, is that I had a very poor experience with some members of Norvil staff, to the extent that I will never spend my money with them again.

I would also be interested to hear opinions from other Norvil owners.

David

I too have had such bad service from Norvil that I will never use them again

It is shame you find this as my 850 MKIII is utterly reliable, having fitted the sensible mods it seems more reliable than the gent over the road from me that has a modern bike that is only used in the warmer months - every spring it coughs and splutters into live. Modern oils, electronic ignition, uprated headlamp, tyres, iridium plugs etc make it one hell of a comfortable bike that munches miles. The longest maintenance job I do is oil the cables once a year, the rest takes no more than an hour a month, and thats including checking tyres, levels etc.

Previously wrote:

If it has been assembled proberly and there are no underlying faults with any of the components then it should be totally reliable. Why, I wonder is you present 850 unreliable? If it has electronic ignition, cartridge oil filter, electronic voltage control and the final luxury of a scott oiler, it should go with minimum maintenance for a considerable time. I have fitted these mods to my 1970 fastback (apart from the scott oiler) and don't touch it from one month to the next. Starting on a single mikuni is a second kick affair and it runs out of puff at about 80mph but how fast do you want to go on a forty year old bike? Starting was never a problem with the twin carbs but it wasn't much fun round town. Pick up on the single carb is brilliant. I wouldn't buy another one if you're not happy with the first.

Hello David If you bike runs out of puff that 80 mph Then I would take of that Mikuni and bin it and fit a SU carb instead , My 650 Manxman Is fitted with a single carb a Amal 389 And I can its hit over 110 mph I have let go off the handel bars at 100mph and it stear's lovely ? and my friend as trouble keeping with Me, and He is On a 750 dohc Honda four , he say that my bike will out excellerate his Honda , I said you have too be joking with me? No he said your bike is fast , I said what with 8 inch high rise bars on ? I must be like a sail in the wind , that Must slow me down , No he said It does Not slow you down that much? And I have Not tuned it yet , its just in standard tune ? So there Something wrong with your commando ? it should be faster than 80mph yours anna J dixon

I hadexactlythis problem when Norman White rebuilt my engine on the last 850 that I had a few years back.

I believe on thetesttrack (officer), it did about a ton and that wasabsolutelyit - not a bit more. I remember being quite disappointed when I could only just pull away from some geezer on a Ludicrous Davidson Lazy Susan or something at 90mph.

So I thought right, dyno time!! NW did a superb job with the engine, however when we stuck it on the dyno itproduced about50BHP and 50ftlb of torque at about 4,800 revs (as memory serves); and itwouldn'trev any higher.

The dyno bloke looked at the graph said he had seen the fault before, and that the carb was simply not fuelling properly at higher revs.

Thesolution,he assuredme,was to get a vacuumfuelpump from an old Suzuki DR600 (or something), fit it, and it would run perfectly.

I never got around to doing that but when you look at the way the power and torque plots on the graph simply disappeared at about 4,800 revs it made sense.

We did work througheverythingelse.

I'd love to know what happened to that bike - somebody in Southampton bought it apparently.

Fun innit?

Anyway back to the "new" 850, rebuild almost complete - taxed, tested, and insured. Just needs carburation and timingsorting out- and a fewoilleaks I appear to have put on itfixing, and we are there - only another day's work.

I took it out for a naughty Norton the other day - now I know why I love 'em.

Good luck with it all

Jack

Previously wrote:

If it has been assembled proberly and there are no underlying faults with any of the components then it should be totally reliable. Why, I wonder is you present 850 unreliable? If it has electronic ignition, cartridge oil filter, electronic voltage control and the final luxury of a scott oiler, it should go with minimum maintenance for a considerable time. I have fitted these mods to my 1970 fastback (apart from the scott oiler) and don't touch it from one month to the next. Starting on a single mikuni is a second kick affair and it runs out of puff at about 80mph but how fast do you want to go on a forty year old bike? Starting was never a problem with the twin carbs but it wasn't much fun round town. Pick up on the single carb is brilliant. I wouldn't buy another one if you're not happy with the first.

I had

Anna,

Why am I not surprised that your Manxman is so fast compared with my Commando? When I said it runs out of puff at 80 I didn't mean that was the top speed, just that the rate of acceleration reduces after that. Thanks for your carburation advice. I've done SU, single Mk1 Amal, single Mk2 Amal and both the original 30mm and later 32mm twin Mk1 Amals in the mere 35 years I've owned the bike. The SU was excellent but was a poor starter, (probably needed a fuel pump) The twin Amals just take too much wrist strength for more than about 50 miles, but were the best for top speed. The single Amals iced up or stuck open at the most inconvenient moment. The single Mikuni is the best "real world" compromise. Brilliant mid range grunt, good tickover, good starting. Being mechanically sympathetic to my 40 year old engine that hasn't been apart in the last 25 years means I can get on and ride it and most importantly, enjoy the experience.

I would love to see your single carb Manxman do 110 with high bars. What gearbox sprocket do you have fitted to achieve that?

Just to add to the 'norvil'? comments, due to poor service in the past I am driving to TMS inNottingham to collect one head gasket for my Commando (required urgently), Mick Hemmings was closed, otherwise I'm sure Angela would have put one in the post. I live near Wolverhampton and will be passing the 'norvil'? premises on the way and back! Need I say anymore?

Simon, safe riding.

Previously wrote:

Anna,

Why am I not surprised that your Manxman is so fast compared with my Commando? When I said it runs out of puff at 80 I didn't mean that was the top speed, just that the rate of acceleration reduces after that. Thanks for your carburation advice. I've done SU, single Mk1 Amal, single Mk2 Amal and both the original 30mm and later 32mm twin Mk1 Amals in the mere 35 years I've owned the bike. The SU was excellent but was a poor starter, (probably needed a fuel pump) The twin Amals just take too much wrist strength for more than about 50 miles, but were the best for top speed. The single Amals iced up or stuck open at the most inconvenient moment. The single Mikuni is the best "real world" compromise. Brilliant mid range grunt, good tickover, good starting. Being mechanically sympathetic to my 40 year old engine that hasn't been apart in the last 25 years means I can get on and ride it and most importantly, enjoy the experience.

I would love to see your single carb Manxman do 110 with high bars. What gearbox sprocket do you have fitted to achieve that?

David, my 1972 Roadster is fitted with the SU conversion. I have none of the problems you mention. My bike is 1st or 2nd kick starter any time. But it does require a bit or a lot of choke depending on temperatures. It does run out of steam above 80mph, but this is undoubtedly a fuel supply issue. Plugs show that it runs very lean, at top speed. My plan is to improve fuel supply, firstly by adjusting the mixture and I also intend to fit an airfilter, which will affect mixture as well. Did you find and run an airfilter? If so, where or from whom did you get it?

Previously wrote:

Anna,

Why am I not surprised that your Manxman is so fast compared with my Commando? When I said it runs out of puff at 80 I didn't mean that was the top speed, just that the rate of acceleration reduces after that. Thanks for your carburation advice. I've done SU, single Mk1 Amal, single Mk2 Amal and both the original 30mm and later 32mm twin Mk1 Amals in the mere 35 years I've owned the bike. The SU was excellent but was a poor starter, (probably needed a fuel pump) The twin Amals just take too much wrist strength for more than about 50 miles, but were the best for top speed. The single Amals iced up or stuck open at the most inconvenient moment. The single Mikuni is the best "real world" compromise. Brilliant mid range grunt, good tickover, good starting. Being mechanically sympathetic to my 40 year old engine that hasn't been apart in the last 25 years means I can get on and ride it and most importantly, enjoy the experience.

I would love to see your single carb Manxman do 110 with high bars. What gearbox sprocket do you have fitted to achieve that?

Hey Up Dave Well The Gearbox sprocket is a 19T But the Engine is A 22T And The 650 was all way faster than the 750 Atlas If I Fitted Gardner flat-slid carbs and ported the head a bit and tuned the engine He would top 125 mph with on worries , I had A tune And Ported 99SS cafe racer with a 5 speed quaife gearbox with flat side Gardner carbs on and that bike would keep with my friend GS1000 , On the motorway and that was back in the late 70s , I use too thrash the nuts off the bike it would just come back of more of the same ? well if your self down to east yorks look me up a we go for spin ? Yours Anna J