I -still- want one of these.

URL:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BSA-DBD-34-CLUBMANS-GOLDSTAR_W0QQitemZ37011297
8598

Totally irrational I know. This one does look rather nice and original.

Better value than
URL:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BSA-GOLDSTAR-DB34-IMMACULATE-CONDITION_W0QQite
mZ160298192234 I wonder what reserve they've got set? Len Haggis has
been turning them out for years for a lot less than that.

 

In both cases I would want to see a lot more clarity on traceable
originality. Only a small fraction of the machines claiming to be
Goldies were actually built as such by BSA.

Caveat Emptor.

 

Aye. Frame and engine numbers at least look ok for the first one.

 

No. I want one as well. For me, it's one of those few, very few, bikes
that are utterly timeless and just look superb.

And, according to legend, go like stink as well.

Oh, all right: in the same pantheon, for me, as:

Speed Twin, Black Shadow, Jota, Z1, H2C, 850 America, 900SS (bevel
drive), CBX, RD350LC, Le Mans, and one or two others I'm too pissed to
remember.

 

Indeed - when I worked as a motorcycle mechanic in the very early 1960s,
someone brought a DBD B34 in for repair. It was only months old, and its
owner had done the usual - over-revved it.

Pushrod jammed under rocker arm, piston hit valve and broke the head
off, which, after rattling round in the cylinder for a bit, was caught
on edge by the piston...

Funny thing - engine stopped, more-or-less, but flywheels continued with
the broken con-rod flapping about, which it didn't do for very long, and
when it stopped flapping it broke the drive-side crankcase half into
three pieces, right into the bearing housing.

Unaccountably, the rider fell off...

Horizontal, the bike continued until it hit something hard and bent the
front wheel into a thick 'C' shape and adjusted the forks backwards and
bent the frame.

In the slide, all the fins on the nearside of the pot were broken off.

When the bike came to rest, it caught fire.

I ventured the opinion that it was a complete write-off, and that was
the opinion of the insurance company, who had kindly donated the
cremated remains to its owner.

It was mended...

Frame straightened, forks straightened, new front rim, wheel rebuilt,
cylinder head planished, seats recut, everything polished inside,
rebored barrel, fins welded back on barrel - yes, owner had picked them
all up - even the crankcase was welded - by an absolute wizard called
Bill Inglis.

A new tank, tyres and tubes, mudguards and a few other minor bits
stirred in, respray, and it was very difficult to see that the bike had
been damaged at all - when the cylinder head was on, that is.

Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to own it though, however well it was done.

 

Hmmmm, I'm a bit younger, so have different tastes.

I have one of my big wants, the 750SS.

I'd love another CBX750, I'd probably have a Jota, my Guzzi choice would
be an early 90s 1100 Sport Corsa. Add an AR125 as it's the bike I
drooled over when I was 16. Erm, some kind of big, old 4-pot Kawasaki in
Lawson colours and an equivalent Yamaha in the yellow / black speedblock
colours. And a Norton F1. My only 'old' bike would be an Enfield Bullet.

Just noticed that some company have built a brand new block of garages
down the road - cost £30 / month.

So long as the job stuff works out, I can see a spare garage and a
collection of shite old bikes in my future.

 

Come Over To The Dark Side.

Today:

I hitched the trailer to the car and went to Sidcup to collect the
Tenere. Drove back, and dropped it at my local dealer to get the front
tyre changed and the blowing manifold gasket renewed. Couldn't be arsed
to do it myself because...

....I'm fettling the Super Dream that I got from JackH's Dad. Changed the
oil, and then sorted out the bodged wiring to the front indicators
(really crap home-made earth connections to each unit: the circuit was
as intermittent as a Labour MP's sex life).

Oh, and someone's buggered the head of the oil filter bolt. All it needs
is a socket welded to it and it'll come out.....

Set to with Loyblox, Solvol, Back2Black, T-Cut and wax polish, and my
Christ, it's coming up nicely. Runs sweetly too.

Replaced the mounting bracket of the horn on Number One Son's Super
Dream, because it had fractured and the horn was swinging around on the
wiring to it. I only noticed because I had to move his bike, and I heard
this clonk-clonk-clonk noise which was the horn hitting the front
mudguard.

"Didn't you notice the horn was hanging in the breeze?"

"No....."

And the mounting bracket I used was stouter than the one that had
broken, so the horn only emitted a feeble buzz, and I made him wait (he
was going out on it to meet some friends) until I'd twiddled the little
adjuster screw on the horn so it sounded properly.

Replaced the blown headlight bulb on the CB125RS. Changed the oil on
same. Inspected replacement carb, and put it aside for fitment tomorrow.

Checked the oil level on the XT600, because it's going to Donald Deasy
Of This Parish tomorrow, and he's riding it back to Scotland (rather him
than me: it'll do it, no probs, but it's a helluva long way to ride a
naked dirt bike in mid-November).

Having loadsabikes is fun, but it does catch up on you now and again....

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:

In my case it's cages as well as bikes. I'm currently on my second
rented garage.

Today I was mostly fixing an annoying electrical problem on the Beemer.

My list of wants on the bike front would be Guzzi Le Mans (Only the
Mark 1), Triumph T160, XT500, GS1000, RD400, RD350LC, Ducati 450 and
the aforementioned Goldstar.

 

Guzzi 750S3, Norton Commando Roadster, Norton P11, Harley XR750, Vincent
Comet, Scott Squirrel, Neander (esp the Opel rocket version), Moto Shifty...

I remember, years ago, reading a test (prolly in Bike) of a Vincent Rapide.
It was painted Chinese Red, and it looked /superb/.

Oh, and a Guzzi V8.

 

Can't be much worse than hauling it across Germany in January.

 

Blimey! You mean there are people who get

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Heh. Very, very true.

 

Good good... apologies about the above issues you've found - Pater bought
this bike 'as is' so to speak, and didn't really use it until quite recently
when he sold the other Superdream he had, off.

So whilst oil levels etc, have been checked on a regular basis, he's not had
cause to do much else to it other than ride it now and again.

Oh, and I will ask about the indicators - the old goat never mentioned any
issues with these to me, and had I known about this, I'd have either
mentioned it in the ad or fettled it myself to ensure it was as it should be
prior to its sale.

Glad to hear its running sweetly though, and once it's all as it should be,
be nice to see some pics of it.

--
JackH

98 Honda VFR800FiW
05 Sachs Madass
03 VW Passat TDI Sport
89 Vauxhall Nova 1.3 Pearl

 

....or should that be 'forget... to finish a sentence'.

--
JackH

98 Honda VFR800FiW
05 Sachs Madass
03 VW Passat TDI Sport
89 Vauxhall Nova 1.3 Pearl

 

I never really liked them - the 750S3 or V7 Sport however...

http://www.s3750motoguzzi.co.uk/forsale/jro.jpg

http://www.allenmotorsports.com/images/motorcycles/Moto Guzzi V-7 Sport advert33.jpg

 

V7 Sport or S3 as I mentioned earlier with the addition of:

Norvin
http://www.t5net.de/weiteretriumph/norvin-picture.jpg

Panther
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Panther_100_600_cc_1936.jpg

I can't really think of anything else I really like. Possibly a Z1, 70s
750SS - of the modern stuff that is or will become lustable are the 916
and early R1.

 

Nah, no worries whatsoever. All usual stuff to be expected with a 30
year-old bike.

The indicators: someone has fitted pattern ones (identical to OE). These
have a separate earth wire, as pattern ones usually do. That should be
secured, via a loop connector, on the *inside* of the plastic housing,
so the bolt that goes through the housing and its metal earth strip into
the mounting point on the bike can crush the loop connector nicely
against the earth strip for a good contact.

Some genius had mounted the loop on the *outside* of the plastic
housing, relying on the conductivity of the bolt to make a contact with
the earthing strip inside. And (a) the bolt was rather smaller than the
hole and (b) the bolt had got a bit old and corroded, so it was only
making an intermittent contact.

The fact that *both* front indicators were not working was a Big Fat
Clue that it was an installation problem and not a flasher unit problem,
and once I'd sussed it was an earth wire issue (which I suspected right
from the start, as I've encountered problems with pattern indicator
earths before) it took just a few minutes to sort.

The oil filter bolt is more of a bugger, and you can't get Mole grips on
it because it's recessed in the finning, but welding a socket head on is
a well-known fix.

I'll be taking some pix this afternoon. It's come up really well. I
T-Cut the tank, which cleaned it up no end, as well as as much of the
frame as I could reach. I've polished the engine side casings and the
alloy footpeg hangers. The chrome looks great. You'd hardly recognise
it.

 

My list:

-H2C (in purple)
-Z900
-Jota
-KH400 (earlyish model (A3?) post S3 in Candy Emerald Green)
-H1B (orange)
-Z650B1 in red.
-XS650
-ZXR750H1 (green... owned...)
-ZXR750K1 (searching...)
-BMW K1

Think that's about it. Problem is to buy that lot in reasonable
condition would probably cost somewhere in the region of 30-50k plus you
would really want a heated garage for stuff like that (in my opinion.)
and then you'd need time to work on them and keep them running.

Hadn't realised there were *quite* so many kawasakis in the list until I
started writing it out.

Quite simply irritating that I don't have the money or the time and that
I've owned a few of these and have let them go and now they're so
expensive.

 

The message <1iqguz7.uhwghr1ujxayoN%>
from (The Older Gentleman) contains these
words:

Not nearly as quickly as their owners would have it...

The B32s were a much better bike. IMO, of course...

For me, Big Vin; Comet; Any Douglas except Dragonfly; Wooller; Velo'
Venom, Viper, MSS, KTT, KSS, MAC, MOV; BMW Rennsport; well, anything
well-made which has two wheels, really...

 

I could live with one of them.

Fantasising:

Egli Vincent
Early drum brake Morini Sport (like my mate has mouldering away in his
garage)
Suzuki Super Six

I suppose if I were to drop some of the current stable I could probably
make room and finance for one of the last two on the list.

As my mate opined yesterday. No point having a complete spare for a bike
you never ride anyway, as it is never going to be worn out.

So, a brace of Nordwests (plus a complete original brand new early
black/pink bodywork kit) anybody?


--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+