Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Do you want to spend your time to ride it, fix it, or be afraid to ride it in case you have to fix it.

I also have the urge for older style bikes. I love the look of the twinshock trials steeds for example.

Sod having one though. Parts availability is a more important question with anything older now.

The zero-value Scorpa Easy 90’s Rotax engine bike turned out to be so difficult for parts that it’s still in pieces in a box - eventually it will be listed for someone else to use to rebuild their own.

I nearly bought a Bultaco Sherpa. They hold value for collectors. However it turned out a lot of parts are actually just someone else’s that has been broken for sale.

BSA hold that place as a classic, but nah.

Buy a modern Jap dual sport with parts readily available. You’ll not lose money on resale at the moment either.

If you like a project why not mod a bike?

I remember seeing an air cooled bonniville scrambler that had been heavily modified to give it a backdated look. Not saying you go that way, but a lot of that B44 look and vibe can be created.

What about the R80 G/S as a compromise? A sort of modern dual sport but 40 years old.

According to my chum here (old Brit expert, builds them for a living.) The B44s / B50s are competent bikes and go well, the downside is they are famously fragile. Engine rebuilds are ruinously expensive. I’d have something like a Yammy DT1 instead…

I was looking at BSAs and Triumphs before I bought the Matchless.

The way I saw it, Triumphs were up there with Nortons and almost Velocettes in terms of the money they commanded, from my reading they'd reward you with more reliability and obvs, more instagram points.

BSA seemed a lot more budget friendly but still far from cheap and (again from what I read, so not 1st hand experience by any means) it defintely sounded like they were a step down on the quality front. There also seemed to be a lot of totally shagged ones around, much more so than with Triumph etc.

I ended up going with the Matchless because it seemed like they, along with the likes of Ariel, AJS, Greaves, Francis Barnett etc were a bit of a less obvious choice. This meant you got more for your money. Something a bit rarer but still plenty of spares support. It probably helps that for many Matchless models there's a corresponding, virtually identical AJS so while it might seem like my G3 is pretty rare, when you put the G3s together with the model 16s there's actually a fair number of them.

It's also worth remembering that a lot of stuff back then wasn't proprietary or specific to a model or even make but was fitted to just about everything, Amal carbs, Lucas electrics, Doherty levers and so on. So far I've bought a carb, a stop/tail light, a battery, a brake lever, some grips, a fuel tap and a cork washer for the fuel cap and none of them have been specific to my bike.

As other's have said, you're unlikely to lose money. I reckon that spending £60 on a carb for my bike which got it starting and running way better than it was has probably added £500 or so to the value. It still needs the electrics and oil tightness looking at but these are jobs I can tinker away at and shouldn't cost me too much to get sorted.

I got rid of my Enfield years ago because it needed tinkering too often but at that point I needed a reliable bike to take me to work and to college and across the city to my gf's house. I no longer need a motorbike so if it spends a couple weeks out of action waiting on some part to arrive or for me to get around to doping a job on it then so what?

As people have mentioned you need to keep on top of them, they don't like to sit. Our Bantam has just done a piston out of the blue annoyingly. Also due to age they ride nice but the sensation is like riding a wave which can take some getting used to, damping is very basic as you can imagine.
You would get a C15 cheap enough but these require love and time to keep them running well.
I have trailed C15s and they ride well. Power is nice and the noise is excellent. Below is a very nice one I have used in the past. I have ridden stock ones as well though.
It you want a reliable old trials bike consider getting a TY Mono or Twin. Super reliable and loads of parts. Prices are ok as well.
I always say this but if you want an older bike for minimal outlay buy and MZ TS or ETZ. Range of capacities, cheap, loads of cheap spares, Reliable, ride well etc etc etc.