Greetings, I would like to restore the Smith's Instruments on my 72 Commando. Has anyone done this recently, and is there a specialist here in the US for this type of work? I plan to use alloy instrument cases (06-0510) and find new bezel & trim rings. I beleive if I had the parts, I could do this myself (is it recommended to use compressed air to blow out any dust? should I use any type of lubricant or cleaner) or should I seek out a specialist to recondition my tach & speedometer (what is fair price) I am not sure if the alloy cases are "correct" for 72 750. Mine are black, think silver/alloy is right? At any rate I will get the 06-0510 cases and have them professionally polished out. Just not sure to do with the actual instruments thanks, Jeff (ps I solved my handling problem. After replacing the swingarm spindle and shimming the front/rear isolastics my local shop never checked the head steady. as I rewired the bike (podtronics!) I started tightening everything, lo and behold the head steady was flopping around in the frame. rode 8-9 hours last weekend, first time the bike has felt "right" to me)

Nisonger in New York: http://www.nisonger.com/ Had them rebuild my Chronometric tach off my '58 TR6, and they did a great job. Didn't feel like I was shipping it off to the great unknown. The guy who worked on it actually called (!!) my house with a question after he opened it up. My '72 had the alloy cases. The black ones have the extra rim around the bottom for holding on the plastic cover, but I've seem some of those polished up as well, so it can be done if you have black, and want a shiny one. A couple of those I've seem had been polished, and had the black plastic cover on them, and it didn't look bad at all. Glad to hear the handling problem was fixed. Commandos are so sweet when all it well, and so mediocre when not. I'm always amazed when some of my friends don't want to go after some of these handling problems. Not that hard to get them up to snuff. Don W.

Hi, I called Nisonger's and they are very friendly people. The man I spoke with said they will restore the instruments for 125 each, which seems reasonable. No problem with the alloy cases. Interestingly, he said "all the cases were black" when I asked. My parts guy told me "they were silver until the 850's, which were black". Right or wrong, mine will get polished alloy cases. Thanks for the recommendation. Regarding the handling fix, I guess the message is "if you want it done right do it yourself"- Jeff

Jeff The 73 model year had long aluminum black painted housings. The early short aluminum ones will also fit 73 through 75. your choice... IIRC The long ones allowed the use of veglia instruments. With long 2BA studs the smiths were used in the long housing. Nissonger has sucessfully done smiths guages for me in the distant past.