Any bikes that fit this bill?

Hi all,

I am looking for an enduro/ trail/scrambler type bike with the following
features

1) Must be over 30 years old for import purposes (cheaper)
2) Four Stroke engine preferably (Two strokes can be very noisey).
3) 125cc up to 500cc single or twin.(Bigger is better)
4) Capable of climbing hills, trailriding, woodlands, local road use.( No
jumping or aerial acrobatics)
5) Blistering acceleration and top speed is of no concern ( I just plod
along).
6) Cosmetics should be clean and tidy ( not necessarily gleaming),
originality is not important.
7) As long as it starts, steers and stops .
8) Must be able to be road registered and carry lights ( MOTed)
9) Ability to carry a passenger.

I am an ex pat brit now living up in Norway and have been looking to buy a
bike off Ebay.
There are quite a few old
British bikes on there from BSA, AJS, Triumph etc but I dont really have the
faintest idea of what I should be looking for.

I suppose my ideal bike could be summed up as a "Landrover on two wheels".

So if anyone can offer some models that loosely fit the above, then I would
be grateful to hear what you have top say, and of course if anyone is
selling or knows of such a bike currently for sale then please contact me.

Regards Alan

 

Yamaha XT600. Reliable engine and electrics, a bit thirsty, but quite
quick acceleration for a single


Armstrong MT500 ex army bike. (rotax engine is non EU)
If you can't cope with the left hand kickstart, get a MT550 civvy model
with electric boot. The clutches on the Rotax starter motors are a bit sus
tho'.

Mehanical reliability would be of some concern in Norway, and so would
side of the road fixability. The Armstrongs are designed to be worked on
in the field with minimal tools. Get some bendy plastic unbreakable
levers.

HTH

 

Alan was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

In which case sir may want to ask this question in
uk.rec.motorcycles.classic instead...

The two above shout XT500 to me, but that'll miss your age limit by a
few years. I *think* Mr Honda's XL250 Motosport might *just* fall into
the correct age bracket, though.

Lighter would be better in that case but I think you should be fine
even with the bigger bikes.

That'll probably mean > 250cc.

How good are you with the spanners? Because with a ShiteOldBritBike
you'll need to be able to repair it yourself (frequently, as some
people would say).

BSA scramblers might fit the bill, although I'm not too sure about
their ability to carry a passenger.

 

tallbloke was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Unfortunately none of the above are older than 30 years, even if that
may seem to be the case...

 

<fx: faints>

But.. but.. but... it's a japper!

Why not a B40 or similar in enduro clothes? I'm sure they'd outhandle
any fucking jap single.

 

Hows about a B40?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2471640939

I'm tempted myself, looks a blast. You might need to find a bigger seat
thoguh!

 

Hi all,

Thanks for all the input.

I served my full apprentiship with Lex Tillotsons in Dundee as an HGV fitter
so I can repair almost anything if needs be.

Good point about asking on Classics NG but I was unaware of its exsistance
until now.

The B40 looks nice but the price is probably going to to get very high over
the coming days.

There was a 74 Honda XL250 on Ebay recently and it was nice and all that but
the reserve was not met twice in a row and it was up to over 900
quid..........thats serious money.indeed.

Thanks again to one and all

Alan "I want a bike badly" Davidson

 

I tried to read the UK. Motorcycle. Classic NG but my news server does not
run it.

Alan

 

Send a strongly worded letter of complaint to your ISP *now*.

But it strikes me that if your server doesn't carry the group, OE6 will
complain when you send the message, so are you sure you checked right? just
put 'classic' in the newsgroups box, and it should turn up in there
somewhere (on mine it's right at the end).

 

spouted the following in

Your assumptions about 'my prejudices' let you down have they?

 

Possibly because it's called uk.rec.motorcycles.classic

 

Not half as noisy as the new 4t's.

Not off road it aint.

Yam XT350 or the Suzuki DT350
**** the 30 yrs bit

 

Hi all

The NG is simply not shown on my servers NG list.

My ISP is news.online.no so it does not carry everything,

I searched the NG list for motorcycle, classic, etc etc every permutation
possible but it does not get distributed on there.

If I could get the XT 350 or DT 350 I would be a very happy camper but I am
simply not in a position financially to "Feck the 30 years bit" as you put
it.

Anything under thirty years is charged as follows.

A fee for every cc plus vat
A fee for purchase price plus Vat
A fee for every Kw plus Vat
A fee for every kilo of weight plus Vat

But a bike 30 years or over attracts a one off payment then its head for the
hills, this leaves me no option whatsoever other than to buy a bike older
than 30 years.

Its simply a matter of not having the dosh.

Regards Alan

 

<snip fancy requirements>

Sir wants a nice[1] old Suzuki SP370 or SP400 sir does.

[1] Read as 'shite old'...

 

AJ,

Now theres a good idea...... and thanks for the link

Alan

 

This one looks like a good candidate for foriegn relocation...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2470422493&category=
36092

 

It wasn't a serious comment.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Shiteoldbritbike imported as is. Later on (that week), put a nice Yamaha
600 single lump in it.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

spouted the following in

It wasn't a serious retort.

 

My mistake in that case.