Pre 65 bike?

[pepperami]

I’m sure this has been done before, but humour me please.

I was chatting with a few lads interested in all sorts of bikes, big, small, whatever.
We got onto the the subject of viable older bikes and in particular older British bikes.
None of us would want them as a daily rider, but we agreed that we wouldn’t want them as show/trailer Queens either.

I said that in my extremely limited knowledge of old Brit iron , I suggested a Matchless 350/AJS 350 single.
I know of a couple who have these bikes and always manage to keep them going.

Years ago I had a very rattly clanky BSA Bantam and that put me off old Brit iron.
A few of my mates tried in vain to use BSA C15’s as a regular ride and both spent to much time ‘maintaining’ them, so I personally wouldn’t consider them.
Looking at the classic bike magazines, it appears that there is absolutely nothing you can’t get for almost any Triumph.

So the few on this forum that have any experience with old Brit iron, I would be interested in your opinion on what older Brit iron you would choose.
Ease of maintenance and some form of reliability would be more important than outright performance.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Riejufixing]

Hm, difficult. A little more information than just "pre-'65 would be useful. Should it be a single 350/500, or is bigger/smaller OK? Some sort of performance requirement, or just "as long as it will do 60"? Your AJS/Matchless 350 thought is decent.

I've still got some old bikes. Once you get one and it works, they should stay working reasonably well, with only occasional catastrophes. I used to go up & down to Cornwall on an old Matchless 250 "lightweight" (NO sniggering!), which it did reasonably. It would do 70 or so, but 50-60 was nice. I've still got it under a pile of other stuff. An AJS 18S (500) was good, too, I used to use it to get to work and back (about 12 miles each way), plus the odd trip to Cornwall & back. That's very happy at about 60-70, sounds nice too (and sets off car alarms when passing parked cars at low speed).

You want exotic 2-stroke? Get a 250cc Ariel Arrow, which looks most peculiar, but can be made to go extremely well. Twin, two-piece crank, 16" wheels ISTR, semi-unit, Earles forks, dummy tank.

Not long ago I saw a chap on an Ariel Red Hunter, a 500, in Wickes car park, of all places. That looked nice, and it would never, ever go rusty. His daily transport.

There's loads of stuff still about, it's a matter of getting something and "reliableising" it (don't forget that they've been through the hands of countless ignorant greebos etc).

I think modern oil helps, too.

[stinkwheel]

A Redditch Enfield Bullet. The most known of known quantities.

You can still get practically all the parts for them, many of them brand new.

I'll have a 500 fury please (rocking horse poo). Or a "bighead" 500.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[pepperami]

[Riejufixing]

[stinkwheel]

Another good shout would be anything with a villiers twin. Again because they are ubiquitous engines, loads of manufacturers used them including: Panther, Norman, Ambassador, DMW, James/Francis-Barnett, Greeves, Cotton and Royal Enfield.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Riejufixing]

The biggest spares problem seems to be tinware.

[wr6133]

Echoing Stinkwheel, a Bullet. No worries about parts, though if going down that road you can save a few quid by buying an Indian one, you'll care less about abusing it too.

[Robby]

Does it have to be a Brit bike? Because in the hypothetical world of pre-65 bikes actually use regularly, I would be leaning towards Harley or Guzzi.

Harley because you can still get a selection of parts for all them, certainly back into the 40s and likely earlier with no real trouble. Expensive, but won't depreciate. I think you would even get electric start, and if it doesn't work it could be fixed.

Guzzi because they were still doing the Falcone (500cc ish single) range, which can trace its roots back to the 1920s and were good utilitarian transport. Extremely simple and a lot of support still exists, so keeping one going shouldn't be a problem.

If it has to be a Brit bike, my preference is always for a 1930s AJS 350. Long and low, with a hard tail and girder forks. Doubtless not that much fun to ride and a pain in the arse to keep going, but I like the look

[pepperami]

Some very interesting stuff coming out here

I hadn’t considered old continental iron?
Old American iron not at those prices

Tinware? Aftermarket, I’ll bet there’s not a single Triumph that you can’t get aftermarket tinware for???
Must be the same for a lot of old Brits.

You see Ariel Leaders/Arrows coming up for sale on thief-bay quite often.
Bullet? Hmm? Yer maybe? Possibly?
Continentals , to expensive for what they are.
____________________
I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Easy-X]

Any reason for pre-65? Anything earlier than 1980/81 is classed as "vintage" with regards to tax, MoT, CC & ULEZ. Plenty of bikes from the '70s don't entail ritual masochism
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[stinkwheel]

[MCN]

I had a BSA C15. I have a BSA C12.
The C12 I like and kept. With a hankering/switherishly to restore. Polished tae-fuk.
I sold the C15. As it didn't look as good as the C12.
Draganfly own the Factory Rights to make parts for Triumph/BSA/and others.
Lots of parts found from China though.
I could put my C12 into a reliable everyday use condition with a bit of effort. But it's more a lack of performance out of these machines than anything else.
I have to plan any braking I need to do. Say I see something I should slow of stop for. Then I'd have to start braking yesterday.

The brakes match The engine output. 250cc single. Two Valves/Cyl. 4 speed 1 up 3 down.

I modificated mine to have a single rider only saddle. They were only sold as dual single seat to the public but the armed forces/police and some other services could get single rider seated versions from BSA.

Parts are cheap considering they are sort of custom made on small batch style.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[pepperami]

[Riejufixing]

[ScottT]

I agree with the anything Villiers powered comment. All parts are available for all post war engines and can be easily upgraded to electronic ignition (kits readily available).
But with any bike from that period brakes will always be an issue.

[stinkwheel]

If you want to get into the guts of it, Michael Waller is doing a series on youtube renovating a C15 and making it into a loose copy of the factory special C15T trials bike.

https://youtu.be/PkU2UGpASew
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[pepperami]

[Riejufixing]

[stinkwheel]

Brakes only slow you down.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[jeffyjeff]

Old BMW's are cool, but not cheap. Had a '62 R60/2 from 1976 to 2005. Earles forks, 6V charging system, magneto ignition. 29 years and only broke down on the road once. Solder joint failed on the condenser. Luckily, I had a spare in the tool kit; repaired it on the spot. The 4 speed transmission was not for performance, but it had good range in each gear.
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History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men - BOC

[A100man]

[Riejufixing]

[steve the grease]

You could do worse than join a local classic bike club. Quite often members have bikes to sell. Some because they are 'downsizing ' , some because they enjoy and have the time to do up older bikes and make a few quid and others because they are getting past it and need to get shut of their collection. Often bikes like these will have known provenance, often having been owned for a long time.

There are bikes that were great , bikes that could have been good and bikes that were never any good , even when they were new. Grab a copy of " Whatever happened to the British Motorcycle industry" By Bert Hopwood ( maybe from a library as they seem to be going for rather a lot on ebay/ abe books at the moment) which gives a huge insight into what became a dying industry, limping along from one underfunded disaster to the next. I love british bikes , but I haven't had one for 30 years, and probably never will unless prices go south. It's a bit like £12K for a done up 2CV - they're just not worth it.
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All the above is my personal opinion, you can see my lips move, but I'm talking out of my arse.
I've been riding, and fixing , bikes for 50 years, in that time the more I learn, the less I am absolutely sure of.....

[steve the grease]