Which oil?

Mk1 was made from 1947. Mk3 from late 1948, so it would have been a Mk3
(probably...). The early MK3s' rear subframe fitted onto ears on the
bacl of the rear downtubes, so the weight of the rider was tending to
crease them.

An improvement from late Mk3 onwards had a triangulated subframe which
bolted onto the bottom back frame lugs. Those didn't break.

For some reason there wasn't A MK2

 

Oily wrote:
/snip/

and, (better

I lost a Met dibble Daimler Dart on that...

Went past the layby where he was lurking at around a ton (legal in them
far-off days) and noticed the nice chromed bell on either side of his
front bumper.

I expect he thought 'Here's a Black Shadow which can do 120 -
Heh-heh-heh! I can do 150 - let's show him what real speed is...'

So he went after me...

What our clever boy didn't know was that in everything but name it was a
Black Lightning. No fairing, no windscreen (barring the Series D hooge
speedo) to hide behind, I opened it up and clung on, being very careful
not to open my mouth.

Came up behind a pre-war Hillman Minx being driven by a pre-war elderly
woman, bang-slap in the middle of the two lanes of the dual carriageway.

I slowed down (dibble still several hundred yards behind), slipped past
the Minx at a sensible speed and openerd it up again.

Dibble flashing his lights and (probably) going /fx=Leslie Phillips/
ding-dong //fx/.

Went round the next roundabout and he's managed to pull-up the Minx...
There he stood in his widely-flared tunic, jodhpurs, leather gaiters,
peaked cap ove his nose. I waved at him - with all my fingers, honest.

And he didn't wave back.

 

Thus spake Oily () unto the assembled multitudes:

I shouldn't imagine the performance will have been improved by having been
buried for several decades...

 

Hu yuss!
My Yam AS3 125cc twin was a good match for the 250 K1-4's though it has been
ported. The RD250D that came after it was a whole new experience. The RD400
was even better still.