TOPIC: Fire-roasted '64 Atlas

Hi All,
Greetings from Plainfield, VT,

I am new member to the forum, but not so much to the world of Norton. My Dunstall-equipped, caf'e racer Atlas was recently baked in the total fire loss of my former dwelling, and I am determined to raise it from the ashes. Most of the steel or iron parts survived well, however, most of the aluminum parts, such as the cylinder head, hubs, fork lowers, transmission case, etc, did not. I have access to a 72 Commando chopper in boxes and bins, and would like to know if the Commando engine and transmission, in spite of the isolastic set-up, will bolt into my slimline FeatherBed frame. As far as the frame and rolling gear goes - aside from the fork stanchions being 12-16" too long, everything seems to measure up pretty nicely from the donor bike.

I spoke with the Classic Bike Exchange in Essex, VT on Saturday, and they strongly recommended that I throw my questions out to NENO for some advice.

Your thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Bob
P.S.: I am attaching photos of the remains of the frame of the bike. As the bike was under construction, the rest of the parts, (including the cylinder(s) and head, were stored in boxes in another area of the building, and took the hit even worse than the frame.

Wow, That looks like it got cooked pretty well. My one concern would be how the heat affected the frame. The concern being whether or not the strength of the steel and or brazing was compromised.

As far as fitting a later Commando motor into the featherbed frame. IIRC, the mounting points on the cases are the same, so it should fit into the featherbed frame mounts.

Good luck with the project. I'd love to see pics in progress.

The atlas frame is not brazed in any way so no problem there. However there is SOOOO much needed I don't see why you don't pick up an atlas basket case and do away with all the nickle /dime hunting for all the stuff you need and repurposing a bunch of commando parts with the many many problems that it will precipitate.
Come to a tech session and I can run you through the laundry list of problems you will encounter with either route you choose.

Thanks Dave. The Commando is attractive, as it has a complete bike in bins and tubs and frame and wheels for $1K. Do you know of any Atlas basket cases? I am striking out in VT.

Tech session: Is that a physical appearance, or online chat or skype?

Thanks for your response,

Bob

Hi Bob
I host the NENO Boston North shore group tech sessions at my house/shop. While we don't have to have it at my house/shop, the good part of having it here is I have here a huge majority of the parts and tools to be able to show the actual things we talk about and show the procedures using the tools.
The good part of a club is the networking sometime drastically beats the commercial (EBAY?Craigslist) offerings. However featherbed are somewhat slim pickings compared to commando. Your commando parts could be used to barter for the correct items rather than cashing them out to buy featherbed stuff.Put an add in the NENO SWAP MEET.... looking for atlas featherbed stuff.