When I joined the traffic division I was allocated NBC144M, a 750 Commando with a Combat motor (is it still out there?) [Yes it is! 2021 Ed.]. I say allocated because I was responsible for that bike, no one else rode it, the force had long since realised that Brit bikes couldn’t be used by lots of different riders - they had enough trouble holding up to one rider. In fact, they didn’t hold up for even one rider, there was a pool of a dozen spare bikes in constant use to make up for when your own bike broke again... and again and again.
To be totally fair to the bikes, you need to know a little about police motorcycle patrol work before you can comment. Traffic law enforcement is the name of the game, but that’s not all - escort work, VIPs, abnormal loads and parades also need to be dealt with. Each brings its own problems for the bike.
For traffic enforcement read speeders - now our Nortons had the close ratio box, which gave superb acceleration, but not a lot at the top end, about 105mph on a good day. My regular patrol covered A roads and additionally some through routes. What follows is confidential... how some police bikers catch speeders! In the city limits I used to hide behind street furniture, signs, hedges - you can even hide a police bike behind a phone box. With the motor running you sit and wait then sneak out after the bad guy at full bore!
Problem one with this technique is that leaving a Combat engine at tickover for five minutes produces glowing red exhaust headers; still, the chrome wasn’t much good anyway. Problem two is that full bore acceleration on a regular basis destroys nearly all of the Norton. Tyres and chains - forget it. Reynolds and Dunlop should have full bank balances forever.
Out on the A roads things were different. A Cortina GT could loose you on top speed - one car that got away was a Reliant Scimitar; he must have been doing 125, I could only watch him go!
Other bikes, however, weren’t too difficult. Remember, in 1974 Jap machinery was about and some were rather quick Z1s, GT750s, CB750s - but they didn’t handle. All of which meant that Mallory Park race day was great fun. On the straights the bad guys were gone but in the bends they were done for - at least if our mechanic could set up the isolastics so that the Noggie really could handle.
Well, more about NBC144M - each day the first job was to check the bike all over, and I mean all over - chain adjustment, tyre pressure, visual check on all parts. You had to, otherwise it fell apart. Just a week of missed chain adjustment took eight teeth off the rear sprocket! On another occasion whilst checking I noticed an oil leak from the cylinder base (yes, I know they all leak there, and, yes, my left boot was waterproofed by the oil) because of a loose nut on the base flange.
I tightened it and set off - an hour later I was doing a brisk overtake when there was a big bang followed by lots of other bangs and then nothing. The base nut was now missing and so were all the rest and the barrels was a full inch off the crankcase! The mechanic was very pleased, at that time 750 barrels were like the proverbial rocking horse droppings, the bike was off the road for three months.
What else happened? Exhausts regularly broke up. I was on a VIP escort one day - now, VIP escorts don’t hang about, once out of the 30 limits there are very few rules, you just go. Those limos are not slow and you are supposed to be out in front to clear the way for them. So there I was, 90+ and holding in there. I don’t know why but I looked down at the motor and saw.it - a crack in the exhaust header. ‘Only three more miles, don’t break on me... it broke, end of escort, on the radio, trailer again, please.
NBC144M was relegated to spare and I was given a shiny new Mk3 Interstate, the electric start 850. It looked fabulous, those big exhausts with trumpet mutes looked magic against the old type megas but they really screwed up the performance, but then so did the forever slipping clutch, the camshaft and soft valve ings which limited revs to five grand, on a good day.
Then there were the electrics. After two weeks the indicators stopped working. Stripping the switch revealed lots of green gunge. Six months later the motor kept dying on bends and roundabouts. For police work, there was a plate mounted on the forks which got in the way of the wiring loom - when the bars were turned the wires stretched; just what you want on a bend.
The new exhausts were junked in favour of the old megas in an attempt to improve performance but to no avail. This was the five speeder but that didn’t help, the motor tune was such that in the increase to 850cc the vibration problem of two massive pistons had increased so Norton had to detune it. There was more torque, but this was no help for high speed work.
Remember, these bikes were doing about 100 miles a day, 5 days out of 7, 52 weeks of the year. In private hands you would need a second mortgage to do that. The bikes were always in for repairs, at least once a week, together with running repairs - welding, bolting up, etc. All good clean’ fun. The electric start isn’t worth mentioning, it might not have been there for all the use it was.
In fact, it was only when they had gone that you could look back wistfully. The BMW 750 that replaced the Noggie was incredibly boring, so bloody reliable, no acceleration, still couldn’t get more than 105mph and to add insult it looked like a bag of spuds with the after market fairing.
Occasionally I see a Commando and remember the days I used to let rip on one, the days when the weather was fine and the bike ran sweetly and you could buy a week’s groceries, a new suit, two pairs of boots, have a night out on the town and still get change out of a farthing...
Phil Gooding