Norton Commando rear sets problems
 

I think it was 10 yrs ago I got a Norvil rearset kit, everything to do with comfort. The Interstate tank on my 850 pushes you back 2" further than on the Roadster tank. On the highway, this causes your body to become a human kite, anything over 65mph and you are holding on for your life. The rearset kit places your feet in a perfect place for me, with my heals right under my hips,,,,,with a 5-10degree lean towards the bars, just great.

My problem is with the brake portion of this kit, where they have a much shorter cable to the rear brake, and, as a result of this setup, the rear brake is not much better than dragging your feet, seriously bad. I'm pretty sure I've routed the cable correct [I think it's still too long]. I'm wondering if anyone has a similar problem with this? I'm wondering if this is just a natural thing when you lose the great leverage of that stock big footbrake arm?

Have you been in touch with Les emery about the problem Steve? They may have made some changes by now. I suspect you'll need the floating disk with Lockeed race caliper conversion.

http://www.sumpmagazine.com/classicb...-commandos.htm

No, havn't chatted to Les since I stopped by his shop in '09.

His front brake upgrades are really nice, for sure. Maybe I'll just upgrade the front,leave the rear alone,,,,,I don't do alot of gravel on this bike anyways.

As far as I remember the rear drum of a Commando is a joke: I went from the stock pedal to the Hyde rear set and the brake was still bad.... Then I installed a MK3 wheel with a cut down disc and a Yam R6 caliper and now I have a rear brake!
.. I remember someone making a SS "frame/thingie" to make the rear brake plate more rigid and the drum more efficient.

I was chatting to my mate this afternoon. He's quite happy with his Commandos rear drum with the standard lever. His bike had rearsets on it when he first bought it but had the same issue as SteveG with the brake.

Yeah, my brake was great until I put the rear set on. I'm thinking alot of it has to do with the massive leverage of the stock long foot lever compared to the much shorter Norvil one. As a comparison, I have the standard brake/footrest on my 750 Combat, and can lock the rear brake to a tire skid with it,,,,never happen on the 850.

I remember years ago a couple of the local guys fitted hydraulic conversions to the rear drums to get round a similar issue.

Just doing a trawl on the internet and found this

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...o/2ba37e02.jpg

Came from here http://www.accessnorton.com/arc-the-...t12396-15.html

Original Mini Parts are as cheap as chips so it wouldn't cost much to try it http://www.minisport.com/mini-spare-...o_21A1058.html

Dinky little Mini slave cylinder is less than $10

http://www.minisport.com/mini-spare-parts/GWC1102.jpg