Ha - bit of dramatic license. It had shit the bed, they just stopped until AAA showed up. I made it a total of 8 miles on my first vintage bike ride. Out of our group, 3/4 broke down within 10 miles!
It is (was) fucking loud though. One of the most unpleasant bikes to kick start ever...
Sounds about right, many folk I used to work with were into their sort of classic bikes (50-70s British stuff), most never got very far, and they all lived in new build suburb type places so their break down locations were often just outside a gregg's or a vape shop, not very picturesque.
Noise or speed?