Topic: 1975 Norton 850 Commando Interstate

[newday777]

The past week I've been helping my friend David Ross get his 75 850 Commando Interstate ready to sell and took a short ride to the bike night last night before the rain came in. This is the 1st year of the electric start and left foot shifter. It hasn't been run since 1988. Always fun to get a bike back out of mothballs.
We put new tires on, flushed and bled the brakes as well as checked the lights yesterday afternoon.
It idles great but has some stumble above 1500 rpm to figure out and get the horn working. Going back over this afternoon to do some more with him. He's 90 now and moves a bit slower these days but still very sharp.
He was a Norton dealer as well as imported Seeley frame kits back in the 70s and 80s with his brothers.
Last year he sold the 74 850 Commando that I got to exercise.

[newday777]

Bike Night always attracts some great bikes.
David and his daughter came along.

[Twodogs]

Very nice 👌

[Bankerdanny]

I have always had a soft spot for these. Ironically when I was a teenager in the early 1980's, a family friend offered us a basket case 750 Commando for free. I told dad I wasn't interested so he declined. In retrospect I imagine he liked the idea of a restoration project with me (he was a long time British car and bike guy who rode a hopped up Goldstar in college) and was probably disappointed when I wasn't interested. Now that I am in my late 50's and he is gone I regret not saying yes.

[newday777]

In the spring of 74 I bought a new CB450 K7 and put 9,000 miles on it, by fall, and the summer past I was more than comfortable and wanted a bigger bike, I went into David's shop and thought about the 850 Commando but the prices were higher than a new CB750 and even though I really liked the looks of the Norton the price made the decision at 18 years old so began my love for the CB750s.
Now I get to have a few rides on the same Nortons at no cost to me other than investing some time with my friend. A win win for me! And it's fun to see him light up talking with everyone about it and the memories of his life with them.

[HondaMan]

Those Commandos are SUCH handsome bikes!

[newday777]

They are indeed very stylish as well as handsome Mark.

This 1975 David has been resurrecting has been giving lots of problems running, that every time I took it out after he thought it was running great on the lift, it would fall flat on it's face as I left the driveway with every twist of the throttle so he went through another set of Amil carbs he had, to his dismay, deciding just to order up a Mikuni conversion, he is awaiting the arrival in the next week or so.