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I rode plenty of Commandos back in the day, I was a fanatic Featherbed Norton rider but the Commando was a disappointment due to it "sweeping vibration under the rug" by simply rubber-mounting an existing large capacity parallel twin, and in truth barely curing the problem........and then to add insult to injury, they unbelievably produced it in a retrograde frame!
I know that there were/are reasons, theories, discussions, arguments, disputes and even feuds over the model, the limitations of the time, the reasons responsible for the direction of its "design", worker vs management, etc., etc., but compared to the efforts of the time by Triumph/BSA, and more importantly Honda, it was a far from a well received machine. The only thing it did do was arrive on the showroom floors a little ahead of the Trident/Rocket II and Honda 4 competition. But it did so with serious problems with its "isolastic" engine/swing arm mounting system and also frame steering-head design, new bikes had cracked frame sections on the showroom floor and new owners soon had sever vibration problems with rusting/seized isolastic engine mounting shims.
American buyers disliked the initial gas-tank/seat design (it was pretty weird!) and sales were slow. The isolastic problems were eventually improved, the frame had additional bracing to address the failure problem and a more traditional tank/seat design was introduced, but by this time it was really too late as the Trident/BSA triple was a more modern alternative, and the Honda CB750 had also been released, for less money, 4 cylinders, smooth, disc brake, 5 speed, electric start, modern, reliable, etc., etc.
Despite all this the model survived for 10 years and had, and still has, its devoted, avid followers and its legend lives on to this day, I'm just not that sure that it is fully deserved.
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