Readers Classic Motorcycles - Chat Photos Builds/Resto’s etc

Waiting for my test/licence at the moment, but here's my 1957 Ariel New Hunter 350...inhertied from my father-in-law:



And I inherited his subscription to the VMCC magazine

All the best,

cool......

Spoke to our boss, it was us that helped out

daj":2mdnvf0q said:

Spoke to our boss, it was us that helped out

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It was good of them. Now there aren't the sidecar provisional rules
means you rarely see chairs, do many people buy them now?

a friend of mine is in the local Vintage MCC I will try and put some bike photos up here later.

ibbz":3djerd0s said:

Kawasaki KH 125 - any thoughts?
(Kawasaki as my brother had a 100cc one in 1986 I remember, may have been a 125cc not 100% sure)

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I had a KH125 when I was 17 until I passed my test. I quite liked it, had a reasonable amount of poke compared to some of my friend's 125s. It wasn't the most reliable bike though, with things going wrong on it more often than the FS1E and z250 Scorpions I had either side of it.

I've got a KH125 rotting away in the garden if you fancy a project

ibbz":2t4qkto8 said:

andyz":2t4qkto8 said:

Well, if you want to have a bike which you never have to MoT, then it would have to be a D5, made in 1958 and 59. Pre-60 vehicles are now MoT exempt! Having said that, a D10 sports or D14 would be a better bike to ride, as they have a 4-speed gearbox.

For taking your test, you can't get a better bike than a Honda CG125. You won't lose any money on it either.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks man, CG125, cool, which year? And anything by Kawasaki I could look for?
I was also looking at some modern bikes, Chinese made called HMC Classic 125 - a copy of a triumph Bonneville - looks sweet and retro-ish, which I like!

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KE125 maybe ?

Yes new Indian Enfields are fundamentally the same as a mid '50s British Royal Enfield Bullet with a few upgrades like front disc brake (previously drum), electronic ignition (previously contact breaker), optional starter motor (previously kick start) and optional 5 speed right-side shift (previously 4 speed left-side shift). However the build quality is patchy. I walked into a New Delhi Enfield Dealer 5 years ago and the shop owner told me he goes himself to the factory in Chennai to hand select his shipments of bikes to "get the good ones". For example he finds many with wobbly crank-to-clutch assembly which causes vibrations etc. They are not bad but a nice British made original is the way to go if you can find one. Even the Chennai factory is straight out of the '50s. The guy welding the fuel tank halves together does it sitting on the floor bare foot with the tank betweek his knees. The fire alarm for the factory floor is an old 1 foot square plate of thick steel hanging on a wire with a hammer along side, the 'alarm' is just "dang-dang-dang" as you whack the steel with the hammer. I'm not joking!
My dream classic British bike would be a pre-war Triumph Speed Twin. Haven't got one so i'll have to make do with my collection of British Motorcycle brand badges which my father and i had fun putting together. They are all British except one Harley Davidson badge but that almost counts anyway as Mr. Davidson was a Brit.

Don't own one, and don't know much about them except that my dads mate had a Vincent Black Shadow many years ago which he wrote off when a drunk ran into the road in front of him. Apparently he really did have to swerve several times before he hit him, which wouldn't have been too bad except in his efforts to miss him he ended up on a conflicting trajectory with a black cab.

He was hospitalised for a few weeks and the bike was totalled (my dad kept it at ours until the assessors had been) but the drunk was merely bruised! He's got some humungous BMW tourer now.