You should all try a Solex.Piece of piss

I had a 750 Commando with a 'soft' Combat engine - 7.5 : 1 compression, SS cams and 'dinner plate' valves, reved very high for a Commando... Went like the proverbial and didn't go bang Didn't kick either thanks to the soft compression. Was built for me (the engine - after I blew the standard one... ) by a mate who succesfully raced his Commando engined kneeler outfit against Suzuki 'Kettles' and such in the mid 70s... Mine only got about 30 mpg but went from 60 to 90 in top about as fast as you could roll the throttle, only did just on the ton but the power was where you needed, happy days...

Sounds something like the '58 Triumph Thunderbird I had, with its (relatively) low compression pistons so it would be flat out around 100, but would still be down the road and out of sight of my friend's Rocket Gold Star with its RRT2 gearbox every time we went out for a spin.

Particularly galling for him, as he worked at Beeza's 'R & D' department.
Never did get that magneto back which he borrowed, now I think of it...

ken

Ah yes! I had a '63 Thunderbird, half 'bathtub', first of the unit engines. Bought it, sold it to a mate after a couple of years, bought it back from him then sold it to him again... There might be a pattern there
Also had v. soft pistons - about 5.5:1 I think - lovely & smooth, so unlike a Brit Probably only did about 85, it was 14 years old by the time I first got it, toured all over the UK & Ireland on it, thrashed it round The Island, finally fell out of love with it when it spat me off twice in 5 mins in the Kings Rd @ 1am when the front wheel locked up for no apparent reason... Wish I'd kept it.

Never owned a Trumpet but I found a certificate on top of a locker when I moved police stations many years ago, that was when Triumph did the speed tests at Bonneville and the results created the Bonneville bike from the speed twin! I gave it to a mate of mine who was a Triumph man.
I had a Mk2 850 Commando from new ( my only ever new bike) Loved it but it had the cams that someone for got to harden. It was funny that I did't really notice the power drop as it was gradual.I only found out whilst trying to stop an oil leak. The funny thing was a mate of mine who worked at Dunlop was on a factory visit to Norton,when he mentioned my self adjusting cams,he was whisked away and to keep him quite was given a set of development cams and followers for me. They were high lift maybe 4S,but on their advice I changed he silencers from the quite black cap ones to the long 750 mega type,re jetted the twin Amals, the bike was like sh** off a shovel and returned 50+ mpg no matter how hard I rode it. I only sold it because the other Achilles heel was the layshaft bearing designed for a 350 and 500 single engine couldn't cope with the power. I must have changed it 3 times before it locked up and spat me off, at low speed fortunately. I put an up rated 'Manx' bearing in but was afraid of next time being down the road at speed.There started my love affair with boxer engines

Well being experienced @ blow ups (I was mainly a Triumph man) when the Commandog went I thought ' I have heard that noise before' - sort of increasing clat, clat - so I was busy whipping the clutch in when it went bang... bits of engine bouncing up the Kingston by-pass with us and a brief fight to stay on as the oil went all over the back tyre.. My gear box just fell to bits on the way back from Box Hill one Sunday, all the screws came loose and I couldn't find a gear, quick bit of work with a screw driver managed to keep some of the oil in and it got home. It always seemed to be a bitsa tho, nothing felt quite matched on it, and it was really a bit tall for me... Only working bike I have @ the mo is a '79 Plastic Maggot which is wide, fairly tall & top heavy, but wonderfully comfey

Last good ride I did before I sold my Enfield was to go to Le Mans to see the Moto GP in 2005 - problem was trying to keep up with modern Japanese bikes. At the end of the trip could not start it because the exhaust valve had burnt so no compression. It was the only bike I have ever had were people would not look at us like hooligans and was even allowed to park it in places like National Trust properties so they could keep an eye on it....

My best blow up was on a Police 750 BMW that had an iffy gearbox,I was flat out in 4th and when I nicked it into 5th,it went in and popped straight out again,I saw the rev counter hit the stop from the back,as is all went bang!!!! The resulting skid mark was a cracker before I pulled the clutch in. Once it was back in the workshop,they found it had shed the crank balance weights, both rods were a bit bent and the valves hadn't just kissed the pistons,it was more like a French kiss. My Sgt at the time was glad to see the back of that bike.

i had a 750 fastback commando also a 99 the 750 i rebuilt then rode it for a bit then swapped it for a3.8 1961 e type
ive had many old brit bikes in the past
got a honda now a zz90

NORTON COMMANDO by douglr88, on Flickr

I love this but can't ever afford one