A friend in L.A. has a friend who needs to sell a 1972 BSA motorcycle. She said I could have it for $500. Hm…
I have two motorcycles already, and only one of them gets ridden – rarely, since I’ve discovered that up here in the Pacific Northwet there is this thing called a ‘riding season’. But a BSA for half a kilobuck? It’s tempting. The tank is off, but is probably there. The handlebars might or might not be off. (My friend said she’ll take pictures Sunday.) No doubt it’s not running. If it’s in poor condition, it would be fun to have a café bike rather than a showroom restoration. Modding it would be cheaper than restoring it.
But. I’d have to go to L.A. to get it, a 2,400 mile round trip. I’d have to drive the Jeep, so that’s about 120 gallons of gas – over $500. Plus $100 or so to rent a trailer. And I won’t have any time until mid-June. The guy needs to move the bike. Where will it be stored? My friend lives in an apartment, and doesn’t have a lot of room. She has a carport, and is buying his AJS. And at this point I don’t even know what kind of BSA it is.
Unless you really want a project bike, I would vote no. Too much time money & travel involved. Restoration would be exorbitant; if you got it cafe racer mod would be the way to go. How much experience do you have at that sort of thing?
I ride a 2001 Aprilia Scarabeo 150, very like this one: http://dealer.moto.it/gitielle/dettagli02.asp?EIDFOTO=3107134&EID=133843&vers=
Short riding season here in PNW unless you don’t mind being cold and wet much of the time.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. The price of the bike isn’t bad, and the major expense would be having the engine rebuilt. It’s the going-down-to-get-it bit. I do need to get down to L.A. sometime, but a ‘bounce’ isn’t really thrilling. And the gas. Och! I canna stand the rape o’ me purse!
I don’t have much mechanical experience, but I could work on my Enduros when I was a kid. I’m sure I could take a bike of that vintage apart and put it back together, but the engine would have to be done by a shop and the frame would have to be powdercoated elsewhere. Time is the big factor. I don’t have enough of it.
I’m a BSA fan ('69 Thunderbolt daily runner) from the Far Upper Left Coast and I’d say if it’s a Rocket or Lightning, I’ll save you the trouble and pick it up for you. Either one could be a great project and the Rocket would be a rare ride… but don’t listen to me - it’s a well-known fact that brit-bike enthusiasts are a couple pecks shy of a bushel.
I don’t know yet which model it is. The A65 Rocket was made until 1965, so it can’t be that. The Thunderbolt and Lightning were made until 1972, so it may be one of those. I suppose it could be a Rocket 3, but I doubt it if he’d sell it for $500. (OTOH, he sold the AJS to my friend for $300. He was asking $1,500. ISTR my friend saying it was in poorer condition than the BSA.) Currently there’s a '69 Thunderbolt on eBay with a BIN price of $3,500.
My Dad had a Victor from roughly that model year back when it was new. Like all Brit bikes of the era, you own it to look at it and maintain it, and occasionally struggle to start it. But not actually to, you know, ride it.
I exxagerate slightly, but simple as it was, that thing was a maintenance dog from the word go.
Practically, it’s damn silly for a guy with no free time and another unfinished project bike and no storage and no place to work on the bike and who occasionally complains of insufficient cash flow and who’ll spend 2x the price of the bike just transporting it home and then spend 10x *that *much more getting it to running condition and who lives where bikes are usable in only 2 months each year but only half the days of those months and … and … and …
On the other hand, you’re a sucker for frustration in a British-with-wheels-shaped package. A certain MG (or was it 3?) comes readily to mind.
So drive down there already & pick it up. You *know *you *need *it.
Well, it would be a good commuting bike. The XJ600 is too slow (not really, but I like to have reserve power). It’s 110 miles to the office, and I have an 80-mile butt on the YZF-R1.
There are other similar companies of course - do your homework - but LA to PNW I bet would be around $500. Your friend will have to box it up securely, or the shipping co. will do it for a fee…
You can never have enough bikes, but **I’m **too old & lazy to be fixing one before I can ride it!
