Bl**dy 'L - this seems very cheap for an RE-5?

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/148994083.html

If I had the time to arrange shipment - and space to store...

But fortunatelty - I haven't )

Seems pretty cheap though...

 

Iain Ogilvie said...

It is cheap, but you try sourcing clocks and indicators, especially if
it's a later model

 

The later model used instruments nicked straight off the Kettle (not
sure about the redline position on the tacho, though). It was the early
model which had the silly bog-roll dashboard.

 

And Oi.

But that looks like another $10,000 just waiting to be swallowed by it
on restoration.

 

The Older Gentleman said...

Easier to find bogroll clocks and spherical indicators from the states,
the kettle style clocks have a different redline to the triple and they
didn't make as many so they're rarer. Later model indicators are generic
Suzuki ones, I admit I got that wrong.

I found an immaculate GT250 the other day. Shame the bike was shit back
in 1976 cos this was a peach. 30 years won't have made it any more
desirable to me.

 

Indeed. I bought one in the early 1980s and it was appalling.

Tiny power band, dreadful handling, nasty vibes and a voracious thirst.

 

Anton Gijsen said...

No, if it was an X7 I'd have called it an X7. The GT series ran to 1977
then the X7 came along in '78, the year I left school and bought a FS1E.

GTs and X7s were and still are utter shite.

 

Gotcha. Bet you wished you'd held on to/not crashed your Fizzie, eh?
There's an immaculate rare model in one of this month's classic bike
mags for... wait for it... £3900 !!!

That would explain why they're so cheap, then.

Got any recommendations for a decent air-cooled two-stroke twin which is
cheap to buy and get bits for and isn't too thirsty on the juice? I
think that narrows my choice down to something like an RD200.

 

<fx: opens popcorn>

 

The RS200 ain't too bad - around 35mpg IIRC.

 

Anton Gijsen said...

My little (40 yrs old) sister still owns it and is restoring it with her
son's help ready for when he turns 16 next year. It's been in our family
since 1973. This one isn't actually a FS1E, it's an early model and
badged as a Yamaha SS50. They changed the designation because of the
Honda bike with the same name.

There's no such thing as an economical 2-stroke twin, but if you insist
on buying a stroker then any Yamaha will be your best bet. Mups' RS200
would be an ideal choice imo, and it's for sale.

 

.... who "borrowed" the design.

 

off DKW, yes, but they then refined it somewhat. Compare the BHP output
of D1 Bantams to the late D14/4s and B175s.

 

Anton Gijsen said...

But they were still shit compared to other manufacturers bikes. No
matter how much time, money and development BSA could have put in,
they'd never have matched the Japanese on any level.

 

Anton Gijsen said...

You are having a laugh. The engineering and material quality is poor by
anyone's standards.

Absolute bollocks. You have to ask yourself why they aren't around any
more. It's mainly down to the fact that what they were building was of
poor quality compared to what the Japanese were producing.

There

was

nothing

else

available

cheaply

at

the

time.

 

You *what*?

Materials, yes: for the standards of the day, they were certainly good.
Workmanship? Appalling. Lawnmower engineering badly put together, on
geriatric production equipment, by a workforce that didn't give a ****.
The finish was good, mind.

But they're not around any more. Can you guess why? Clue: it wasn't
because their materials and workmanship were superb.

 

Yoo 'eard.

Every bike has its weak points, I'm not saying that every British bike
is perfect, it's not. I'm not trying to slate Jap bikes, I ride a Jap
bike and I love it.
British chrome is fucking superb. I'm rebuilding a Bantam that had been
stood in a damp shed for 25 years and the only chrome bits I'm replacing
are the silencer and headlamp rim, i.e. the bits that always get pitted.
Even the exhaust pipe is in very useable nick. Although I'm not the
fussiest of people when it comes to that sort of thing.

It's because of those slitty-eyed folk and their cheap, mass-produced gear.

 

I think our friend here may suffer from the delusion that the
workmanship on a properly restored Brit bike is in any way related to
the way it was when it fell off the production line.

Hint: it wasn't.

It was because they so willingly embraced new ideas and continued to
push the envelope, right?

 

Anton Gijsen came up with the following;:

Nope, it's because BSA wouldn't invest, or develop their products to meet
the challenge of the competition.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Anton Gijsen

So density is a measure of quality for you, is it?

Figures.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
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Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
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