For those who like old Motorcycles.

[alastairq]

2 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

or will I go hide my head in a bucket of water, Marvin style?

 Upside down bucket of water, of course...

 

[MrWolf]

Nothing wrong with that Enfield, okay, it's new, but it is in a classic style. 

Most of all, it's keeping you on the road!

[2mmMark]

21 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

I'm afraid I would never wear an open face, I saw the results of too many face/road interfaces when I worked in the NHS.  My current hat is a BMW System, the best I have had in over 40 years of motorcycling.

 

Like Alastair, I now have issues errr getting my leg over (the bikes) and have issues now changing gear when I need to lift the lever using my knackered foot, and had been casting around for something easier for day to day use.  Mrs NHN spotted this - Royal OilEnfield Meteor 350:

 

...and a test ride confirmed what a lovely little (if slow) bike it is.  Under 4 grand on the road....cheap as chips.  Or a decent 125.  Plus my spanners fit, its metric.  The build quality is in a different world to the older Indian Oilfields, fully up to 2021 standards - it's due in a week or two!  Edit - forgot to add it has a heel and toe shifter.  Tried to fit one of those to my BMW but there's no room.

 

Not quite appropriate for this thread, but for those of us who would have a Britbike but decades of tools etc would be useless, a nice alternative.  Discuss?  or will I go hide my head in a bucket of water, Marvin style?

 

Proving very popular, so I understand.  Dealers have full order books for these.  I'm tempted to have a test ride to see if the "heavy flywheel" characteristics of a trad single have been retained.  The semi-cruiser style isn't to my taste though. If, however, something matching the style of this becomes available...

 

Mark

[spikey]

29 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

...  those of us who would have a Britbike but decades of tools etc would be useless ...

Hrumph.  Poor excuse for not buying a Proper Motorbike.

 

More seriously, I can't have been the only Ancient British Biker who finally realised he was never again going to need all his Imperial spanners, sockets, taps and stuff and was glad to find a donor?  In my case it was a most appreciative young fellow who was knee deep in metric tackle but had just acquired a knackered Speed Twin.  

 

Boot sales?  Or at risk of stating the obvious, Ebay?

[alastairq]

I agree..it looks to be  a decent bit of a bargain!

 

I've just had a look on the website....was a bit surprised at first to see that a compass was standard fitment!

 

The I read a bit further, and discovered that, if I went and bought one of these bikes, I[d also need to go and buy a half decent modern Smartphone to go with it.  {Instead of a 10 year old Huawei basic phone that I have at present, battery permitting]

 

Performance-wise, some might find the [lack of?] a decent top [cruising] speed a bit of a drawback, and be fritt of going near motorways or dual carriageways.

 

The Enfield has roughly the same road performance of my Kawasaki Z250 single cheepy-on-an-offer bike of the very early 1980's!

The one with the fat back tyre, but not the custom appearance....bought as a cheap commuter bike cross country [25 miles each way, mud permitting]

 

I could tramp up & down the M1 and A38 to visit a lady-friend without compunction...even though traffic speeds were much the same as they are today.

The only tiring bit was to my right wrist, having the throttle wound wide open mile after mile.

 

But it started every time....

I replaced it with a 2nd hand Kwacker Z400, which was cheap, and suited my motorcycling philosophy of the time [don't need more than 2 cylinders, the more you have, the more to go wrong was my view!]  That was doing the same commute at the time[with 10 months off while they screwed my leg back together]...summer & winter, sunshine & snow...even got a used Avon fairing with the correct fittings for the bike...amazingly. Slowed its speed down a bit, but proved its worth a time or two when coping with kamikaze pheasants. The 400 had plenty of oomph for my tastes, I couldn't afford to go getting speeding tickets, relying on my licence to work. 

 In those days, as a bus driver, one was governed very much by the thoughts of the Area Traffic Commissioners, who in fact, also tested bus drivers..the DSA testing came later.  Get a fine and one also got a snottogram from the Commissioners to the effect that, do it again and one's PSV licence might be revoked!  {Pre-PCV and Cat D]

Anyway, mods were,  a single silencer, [Motad?  I got sent two by mistake, only paid for one, offered to send  the other one back, but the vendor didn't believe he'd sent 2!!!],  and lordy only knows how many rear tyres?  Oh, and some Hagon adjustable rear dampers..the ones with the big plastic washer/spacers....Obtained new in Scarborough at less than half the price of replacement rear units when my crashing bum shot the original one's.

 

I was never ever a biker.

 

Only ever a motorcyclist!

[alastairq]

I should mention, the one thing I disliked when using a motorcycle was the inevitable clobber that had to go with it.

Something I don't really have with the Dellow.

Which only really requires me to don a pair of plimmies.[Otherwise pedal selection can become a bit of a lottery with size 11s]

[MrWolf]

I don't mind the clobber, it's carting it around all day, or worse, getting wet in the morning and staying wet all day.

I don't like being called a "biker" it's an American term for a style that I don't subscribe to. 

Also the majority of the people who I have met over the years who style themselves as bikers, don't actually have a bike.

I've been called everything else, which I don't mind, but being called a biker in the UK irks me, I have never owned a heavy metal T shirt, let alone a busted ass old Virago with flaming skull decorations.

[New Haven Neil]

The little Meteor is a halfway house in feel, it is still a long-stroke engine so pulls well low down (performance is about the same as a Bullet) but doesn't have the flywheel effect as much, but it has more than a Jap single, and has a balancer so isn't as vibratory as a Bullet/C15/G3/whatever.  What it is though, is a very nice little bike, just one of those that makes you smile. No rocket ship, but its not for that.  It does handle really nicely indeed, frame designed by Harris Performance in the UK that RE bought out a while ago, they did the Interceptor too.

 

I'll never use the satnav gadget (not much use over here!) but it seems to work well according to reviews.

 

There are more 'roadster' and 'classic' (ie Bullet) stylee versions coming soon using the same basic architecture, but the low seat is why I went for this one, it suits my current needs.  If I don't get the hip fixed (the foot isn't fixable now, 2 ops later), it may be my last bike.  Gulp.  

[New Haven Neil]

A fair review i thought.

 

 

[Kickstart]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Not quite appropriate for this thread, but for those of us who would have a Britbike but decades of tools etc would be useless, a nice alternative.  Discuss?  or will I go hide my head in a bucket of water, Marvin style?

 

 

I had enough problems finding WW spanners, etc. Had collected a few, but then a friend donated a load to me.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[MrWolf]

You can buy Whitworth spanners brand new still from proper tool suppliers, for about the same price that hopeful individuals are asking for "antique" spanners on eBay. 

I have found that the best way to get them is to hit the car boot early, before the eBay wannabe antique dealers get there, spot a likely box of kit and say "How much for the lot?" 

 

Usually you can get them very cheap because the stallholders are sick of humping them about. I would sort out the box back home into two piles. One of British, German a, Swedish and American made spanners and the other pile for the scrapheap. 

There's always some pound shop rubbish, but it's easy to pick out and generally metric.

 

[spikey]

That Oilfield review was interesting.  I did think it sounded awfully limp when he revved it a bit, but I guess that's what you get with all the noise-reduction bollox nowadays.  What's got me though is those footrests and that chunky brake pedal being so far forward.  Couldn't be doing with that.  But if they did one with a sensible riding position and I wasnt so bloody old ...

[alastairq]

13 minutes ago, spikey said:

But if they did one with a sensible riding position and I wasn't so bloody old ...

Why not try it & see?  

[alastairq]

57 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

is to hit the car boot early

 I have to do that often, just to get the ruddy thing to open.....

[Northmoor]

NINETEEN INCH front wheel with  a seventeen inch rear?  It's practically a Penny Farthing.  I guess all the Ewan-n-Charlie Wannabee Adventure Bikes have got everyone used to that sort of geometry.

 

Looks and sounds lovely though, but I'd want that seat a bit higher and to move the pegs, I don't want to sit with my feet forward like I'm on some pretend Harley.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Northmoor

[New Haven Neil]

The pegs aren't as far forward as a Harley or hardly-clone, but kind of half way - the riding position is surprisingly natural, I got used to it very quickly although it did feel a little Harleyish at first having hopped off the BMW.  A ride on a pal's real Harley soon put me right on that, a FatGlideGit or something.....now that had forward pegs!   Knees were about 90 degrees, (I'm just over 5'10'') and I wasn't cramped at all.  It was a surprise, believe me!  I had a bunch of expectations and really only rode it because my opinion (Mrs NHN) had suggested it, and I did like the look of it, and none of those expectations were correct.  After a mile I was smiling....after 20 I bought one.

 

It sounds better in the flesh too, but obviously up to, or down to 2021 standards.  This will change on mine!  There may be a little more oomph on offer too, I see HItchcocks already do an air filter/intake upgrade.

 

Car boot sales for tools and auto-jumbles are a non-thing here, there's just not the population, despite the TT/MGP etc.    Going to Newark etc is something i really miss.

Edited August 9, 2021 by New Haven Neil

[spikey]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

Why not try it & see?  

Because I'm with Northmoor on this

 

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

 ... I don't want to sit with my feet forward like I'm on some pretend Harley.

 

[Dunsignalling]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

NINETEEN INCH front wheel with  a seventeen inch rear?  It's practically a Penny Farthing.  I guess all the Ewan-n-Charlie Wannabee Adventure Bikes have got everyone used to that sort of geometry.

 

Looks and sounds lovely though, but I'd want that seat a bit higher and to move the pegs, I don't want to sit with my feet forward like I'm on some pretend Harley.

Looking at the photo, the fatter tyre on the back looks like it makes the two overall diameters something near equal. Seat height looks pretty good to me (I'm 5'7") but I'd need a sit to check out the pegs (28" leg).

 

From the road test it looks like a very handy and characterful runabout with enough about it for an East Devon - North Cornwall day out without needing to top-up at Okehampton Services in both directions!

 

John 

[polybear]

12 hours ago, spikey said:

What's got me though is those footrests and that chunky brake pedal being so far forward.  Couldn't be doing with that.  But if they did one with a sensible riding position and I wasnt so bloody old ...

 

Any good

 

 

Or:

 

 

Now if only I had a garage....

Edited August 10, 2021 by polybear

[spikey]

Oh yes, that bottom one's more like. Which one is it?

 

Pillion rest height would't suit madam nowadays even though she's younger than me, but I reckon I could live with the rest of it once I'd polished the singularly pointless lettering off that cover.

 

 

[Kickstart]

16 hours ago, MrWolf said:

You can buy Whitworth spanners brand new still from proper tool suppliers, for about the same price that hopeful individuals are asking for "antique" spanners on eBay.

 

 

I think King Dick still make them them, but limited other choice.

My WW ring spanners I bought 15~20 years ago. Unused, Britool spanners in "War Finish"

 

All the best

 

Katy

[alastairq]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Any good

 

 

Now if only I had a garage....

  Now, how do they get that motorcycle to stand up all on its own, with no visible means of support, I wonder?

 

Did they stand it up, run away quickly , and the camera person clicking the shutter very rapidly before the machine fell over?

 

At around 6 and a half grand for the bike, it is hardly in the financially economical stakes compered to the 350 single.

[alastairq]

As a tall person of reduced flexibility, I find the conventional [as in, Interceptor] riding position to be tiring after a while. My knees end up knocking my elbows half the time.   I find life uncomfortable if my knees are bent beyond the right angle position for any length of time.  The Meteor [350] riding position would place my knees at a less stressed , less than 90 degrees angle, but not so far forward as the US -style easy rider stance.  I also endure a lot of lower back pain with the 'leaning -forwards' riding stance as well, these days. I prefer to have a more upright seating position as a result...but with a higher seat height to  suit my quite long legs....I end up with that forwards lean, to reach the bars. 

The problem I find with being tall [although I am shorter than I was 40 years ago!!]...I find is, in order to reach the ground to pick something up, I have to bend a lot further than my [much shorter[] daughter does. Which offsets her need to stand on a chair to reach the top shelves of her kitchen cupboards!

 

I'd take the 350 over the 650 any day.....but then, I'd ride at the same speeds I'd drive my Dellow....not having any urges to top the ton at every opportunity.

For me, speed is not the be-all-&-end-all.....

Pace, on the other hand, is what I'm good at.  Especially in the Dellow..or even my not-so-old Suzuki GV ....sadly made this century....just.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, spikey said:

Oh yes, that bottom one's more like. Which one is it?

 

Pillion rest height would't suit madam nowadays even though she's younger than me, but I reckon I could live with the rest of it once I'd polished the singularly pointless lettering off that cover.

 

 

 

Interceptor 650; 6 grand to you, sir.  However, there's plenty on the 'bay for a lot less - there's a 2019 model with 700 (yes) on the clock for £4.5K, for example.

[spikey]

53 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Interceptor 650; 6 grand to you, sir.  However, there's plenty on the 'bay for a lot less - there's a 2019 model with 700 (yes) on the clock for £4.5K, for example.

 Much obliged.  Gosh.  And to think the most I ever paid for a bike was around £800 - and that for an immaculate very low-mileage twin disc R80/7 komplett mit Krausern ...