1972 Norton Commando Combat A tribute to the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorn football team!

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I am building this motorcycle as a tribute to the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorn football team. The primary colors will be burnt orange and white and I will be incorporating a bunch of performance and reliability upgrades as we go along. The guys at Corbin are building me a custom 'Gunfighter' seat in tan ostrich with orange welting and an orange Longhorn on the tail of the seat. If you like motorcycles, especially Nortons, watch this space! Hook 'em Horns!

This afternoon I received my custom Ostrich gunfighter seat from the guys at Corbin. The workmanship is absolutely superb and I just love the way they incorporated Bevo into the tail of the saddle. I can't help thinking that most of the California based Corbin staff were probably supporting USC on January 4th, 2006 

I am still having triple tree problems as the used trees that arrived from Baxter Cycle the other day won't work. I am tempted to buy some of the cool, billet triple trees being offered by the guys at Colorado Norton Works - although they are a bit pricey. I'll have to give that some more thought....

Anyway, for now, check out the cool Corbin saddle below 
 

I have been trying to decide what style of handle bars I should use on the Longhorn Norton, so I asked the good folk at Baxter Cycle in IA (where I have been sourcing most of my parts for this project) to send me a couple of different options. As we were trial fitting the bars, we realised that we had a problem with the triple trees. I think we have 850 triple trees that don't look like they will work with the 750 frame? Part of joys of restoring a basket case, I guess 

So......back on the phone to Baxter Cycle who are sending me the correct triple trees for my 750 frame.
 

I like this look - apparently  known as Vincent bars	These look like they might be a tad uncomfortable!	I had the front forks re-chromed

This morning I received and installed the new frame data plate and front triple tree bearings.

The motorcycle as delivered	This Commando has been disassembled  since the late seventies	Tearing the frame down
New bearings will be installed after powder coating	The only two threaded holes in  a Commando frame	Removing the battery box
One of a number of Nortons in the CJ stable		Ready for blasting and powder coating
	One Burnt Orange Norton Commando frame!	Hook 'em Horns!
New data plate will be installed