a friend with a '71 commando that he recently purchased, came with a rear wheel that was the earlier type with no cush drive & the 3 sleeve nuts. Now the bike was semi assembled & the wheel itself was notinstalledon the bike. His clutch is the diaphragm type with no cush rubbers. I assume he has the wrong rear hub for his bike? I know '71 was the change over year for the rear hub. I assume if you have the earlier 3-spring AMC clutch with the cush rubbers, that youdon'tuse the later cush drive rear hub? Conversely I assume if you have the diaphragm type clutch with no cush rubbers than you should be using the later rear hub with cush crive? I canr imagine you would want no cush at the clutch or the rear wheel, that would be hard on the gearbox I would think.
Thoughts?
Skip Brolund
You worry too much Skip. T…
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You worry too much Skip. The earlier Commandos did have the triplex primary chain and the diaphragm clutch with no shock absorbers, and retained the same rear wheel and sprocket from the earlier Atlas and Dominator models. The bike is probably correct.
I suspect that the later rear wheels incorporating a cush drive were a bodge to try to prevent heavy footed idiots from damaging the gearbox by sloppy gear changing. I have a 1969 Commando S which has the set up without a cush drive and it works very well for me. IMNSHO, the cush rear hub was a poorly thought out and badly engineered design.
The really pertinent point here is that there have been complaints from riders of rear wheel spindles breaking on the bikes with a cush drive in the rear hub. This is a real worry as it could cost the life of the rider. Tell your friend he has the best set up, and stick with it, but change gear with due care.
Colin.