Hi Jonathan , i live in Tauranga, New Zealand , (down by Australia) some years ago i was a member of the local vintage car club , or historic car club as you guys call it, we had Ford Model A cars and later a 1930 Chrysler "70" sedan, on a shed visit to various guys and their collections , we visited a Mr James who was the son or grandson of the James motorcycle family , he had to or three bikes , original unrestored , great to see you have one now , i didnt realise they were imported to the States . love watching your vids ,im pretty crook fighting lung cancer so your vids take my mind off stuff, i also enjoy the vids of your boy and Noah , keep up the good work . merry christmas and a happy new year to you all, may 2019 be the best ever for you all.
Love the proportions on this bike. The large headlight, tank, chain guard, and fender all make it look very substantial. Funny how in the 1950s a 225 cc bike was considered big. Can wait to see the first start on this one.
Jonathan, that's a sweet 2 stroke. I had a '92 Honda NSR 250 crotch rocket style street legal no turn signals, oil injection, only had a tach, neutral light (green) mileage single gauge. Hi/Lo beam, horn and off/run position. I ended up finding an HRC factory used block off plate for the oil injection. In case the pump shit the bed and leaned out and trashed the motor. It wasn't meant for the street by any means with carbon fiber reeds, dual stacked Arrow exhaust and hand TIG welded Ti Doma pipe. I ran it fat for top end at 32:1 and usually on the pipe. It would eat 600's and 750' for lunch till they hit 3rd gear. They were made for the Moto GP and also made a 125 & 500.
You go Johnathan! I to buy things because I want them and because I can. Who cares what anyone else thinks. That's a sharp looking bike. Congratulations.
Welcome to 'The Club' Jonathan, as others have said this was a 'go to work' bike popular here in the UK with the much used Villiers pronounced 'Vill e ers' two-stroke engine. Look forward to the 'restoration' or at least start up of the grand old bike. atvb t ..
Remember, when you go to put that 6 volt battery into the frame, it uses a 6 v. positive (+) ground. My '67 Puch 250 was the same and It was hard for me to remember that tidbit of the "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" electrical system.
I had a look at the comment below , the comment missing is one saying that you will need a set of British Standards scanners or they mite be labeled Wintworth. To avoid stripping bolt heads. Also there are three thread Standards on old British bikes you might consider contacting Britannia motorcycles on RU-vid. He restores British motorcycle and builds trials bikes he will be able to get you pointed in the right direction for fastener ect.
Cool bike, Jonathon, reminds me of my first-a 1966(?) Sears 106cc one lung. At age 15, had loads of fun on that machine, paid $7.00 for it in 1979, cleaned the points and off I went. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year with many blessings. As always, thanks fer takin' us along...
A great find, hope you don’t put away for too long and find time to play, I would love to see the ‘first start’ video. It’s great that you are completely undaunted by the possible lack of parts availability as you can MAKE YOUR OWN! Fantastic 😀 Always admire your work.
l have the engine that came out of the beaver but its a 69 350, not much good on it as it was full of water, but l do still have it give me a shout if you can use anything off it,
Dear Mustie1. What a noble offer! Not surprising because as we all know: You're a real gentleman (with mouse nest problems some times... hihihi, please forgive me, I couldn't resist)! Very best regards.
@@keithwallington4966 thanks however still don't think that it could have been a T4 they were 250cc and made much later following on from the T2. Thanks for the reply.
Looks like an old Sears Allstate bike. I remember as a kid seeing Allstate motorcycles in the local Sears store. That ended around 1960 or so when Honda first began sending small, cheap motorcycles to the U.S.
Jonathan, nice find. I had a 48 James back in high school. My brother made a rear brake cam in metals shop so we could stop it. I'm sure you will be able to fabricate anything you can't find.
Welcome to British Whitworth threads, positive grounds, Zeinor diodes.. Had several Triumphs, and my personal favorite, a 74 Norton 850 Commando! Of course, those were British bikes. Have fun with it.
Real nice old bike! I am sure there will be parts in the UK, the old Villers two stroke engines are long life not ultra high reving like newer one,s. Will be great to see it run and ride one day in the future.
Villiers parts are readily available here in the uk no problem, and you see a lot of old british bike parts at our Autojumbles, looks like a nice clean original bike, good find.
That looks like a fun project. Had a studebaker pu when I was 10-12? years old. Drove it in the fields on the farm. A lot truck, beat up something awful but ran like a Swiss watch. Traded it for a mini bike.
What a lovely thing to get . I love two stroke bikes ! A parts CD ?? I'd have expected an owners clay tablet with that one . Pity about the kicker , but you'll get one .
Hey Jon, I am a little older than you are and I can remember growing up in the 0s and 70s when a foreign motorcycle always seemed to be a lot bigger than the they should have been for the power that they put out. But that's the way it was. And the biggest Honda at one time was a 350 cc bike and man I thought that thing was a monster. Anyway things slowly changed around when the power on the foreign bikes started getting really powerful and very fast. What you have there looks like there is a lot of German characteristics to the bike, especially the crankcase.
In 1956 I had a 125 CC James. Rigid rear, spring front, tank mounted shift. Yours looks like a "real motorcycle". Watch out for Whitworth threads. I recall the coarse pitch is same as USS except the angle is 55 deg. Every chance you get, run a USS tap through them and switch to American. Their fine pitch is often about 2 tpi finer.Be very careful not to over torque them. In those days Brit bolts were notoriously weak. Hopefully you can find the ones you might need. The Villiers was used in dozens of Brit small bikes. Someone might make replacement parts. Main bearings were standard ball. No doubt it has a three piece crank with rollers on the rod lower end. Those are fun, but you can handle it, if you have a good hyd. press. Good luck!!
Whitworth threads are very often the same pitch as UNC, the main difference is on the 1/2" size, BSW (Whitworth) is 12 tpi, UNC is 13 tpi. As Herbert correctly states BSW threads are 55 deg. unified (US) threads are 60 deg. British bikes used a variety of threads back in the day including BSC (British Standard Cycle) Invest in a 0-1" micrometer, a pitch gauge and a Machinery's Handbook. James Motorcycles were a part of the AMC (Associated MotorCycles) who also made Norton, Matchless, AJS and Francis-Barnett machines. F-B made small two strokes visually similar to the James. Here's wishing you a Happy Christmas and the best of luck from Somerset UK.
There are plenty of Villiers parts over here in the uk, they still get used a lot in vintage motocross and trials. Two of my friends use them for trials, I believe their bikes run modified Kawasaki kdx clutches. Drop me a line if I can be of any help 👍
Those engines had a coil, in mustie1s application it didn't have a reverse gear, u stopped the engine, changed the timing, then restarted it and the engine would run in the opposite direction! Reverse! Lol
Wow nice bike Jonathan. My dad had a triumph tiger 100. That had a enclosed headlamp ridge frame sprung hub. Have a great Christmas you family and friends ................................ bye 🔨🇬🇧
Sears used to market Sears Allstate motorcycles made by either Puch, Zundapp or CZ during the 50's and 60's. Your bike is a dead ringer for the largest motorcycle in the Allstate line, either a 225 or 250cc 2 stroke model. They were sold in the catalog. They were dropped when Honda started being imported.
@@jonathanw4942 some two piston jobs fired on the opposite stroke (4 stroke) BSA had one if I recall correctly. Mustie 1 had some responses fro the UK when he got his amphib Beaver re Villier Parts. Love your channel Best wishes from Australia
Nice one Jonathan ya we got 1 or 2 over here in UK. L.o.l. if you get stuck on anything. I'm not in to bikes but my sister and brother are others in my family. So if you get stuck just say in one off your videos I try sort it over here. I watch every video. Anyway. From Andy in UK
Hi Jonathon from Ireland. I r ember about 40 years ago a James Motor Motorcycle I think It was 150 cc two stroke.Any way I want to say Happy Christmas to you and yours and the young fellow with the Lathe Thank You
Looks fantastic. Will it run? Coldstart? No work shown? Great bike but a bit too much talking in this video for my kind of taste. Nevertheless: Thanks a lot for making, taping, editing, uploading and sharing.
Hey Johnathan I'd really like to see you hopefully start this old motorcycle and make rideable, not that it will ever be riden, but sometimes you might take it out
This is gonna be good when it rolls around. My older bro had a Norton,750 Commando rigid mount or something like that,maybe 650,heck it was a long time ago. I don't think he ever did get it on the road and I forget what he did with it. One good thing,when I can't remember much about it the story is alot shorter! :) Happy Holidays!
Hi Jonathan ebay uk has lots of villiers and james spares you could also check out francis barnet and excelsior motor cycles and n v t (norton villiers triumph) all shared similar parts hope this will help from an old brit biker
