Warning: the following post is heavily Norton-biased.
Reader discretion is advised.
Today was one of those days where everything falls into place nicely and you get loads done without even making an effort. The weather was beautiful: crisp fresh air with a sunny blue sky and not a lot of traffic out on the streets.
I met Witold at Peppe's workshop, the latter was working on a
Norton Model 7, a conservative restoration that's nearing completion, yet still with some hurdles to overcome.
Witold and I then made a quick stop at his place and went to my garage, where we set about doing an oil and filter change on my Commando. First though, we took them both out for a spin, to get the oil warm.
There is an oil filter in the oil tank, a spin-on cartridge filter fitted remotely and two sump plugs, one big with an internal filter and a smaller one at the front of the crankcases, to let all the oil out. Both sump plugs are magnetised and there was a little bit of metallic dust attached to them, but nothing serious. I thoroughly cleaned all the parts and refitted them, then went about unscrewing the old cartridge filter. As anyone who's done this can attest, this can be a bitch of a job: the filters expand with heat and get properly stuck so that removal becomes often very difficult. Luckily Witold improvised a sandpaper strip that he placed on the filter, for the strap wrench to grip onto. Then using an extended lever we got it out. New filter in, fresh oil and I'm good to go for the season. All I'll need is a small quantity of oil to carry in my travel kit, for top ups.
And then just as we were finishing up, Gianluca came by with his Dominator 99, also to do an oil change.
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