Buying Your First Used Classic Motorcycle 

You just bought a lemon maybe. I bought one as well but knew it. After a total rebuild I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world.

They're hiding at my place

I've owned a B M W K75c for 15 years never let me down , but I could do with a lighter bike now , trouble is the prices are stupid money now for classics .

There’s oil leaks and then there’s oil leaks.

If it was a Norton in the 60s in the US the primary cover ALWAYS leaked oil because US distributor Berliner specified stamped primary covers vs. the forged ones first sold in the UK, as my Dominator SS 88 was. I was the envy of all the Atlas owners. It’s when a Norton leaks elsewhere that you need to worry.

Ne’er a truer word spoken! 😉

@@mtkoslowski Spoken like one who has at least experienced one of the two types of Norton primary chain covers. Mine never leaked oil.

or a old Harley 🤪

How is a 6 year old bike a classic 😂

@@thra5herxb12s A British bike that runs for 6 hours with no problems is a certified classic.

For our North American viewers, perhaps I should point out that "torch" is merely the UK equivalent of "flashlight". The writer of the previous comment is not suggesting that one set fire to bikes deemed unsuitable, or anything like that. As for "mate", this perhaps more familiar British Britishcism simply means "friend", so the commenter is not suggesting any "nookie for horsepower" tradeoff or other lurid swappage.

@@BilgemasterBill Funny, and true!

A nice bike your looking for though prices are now rising on these forgotten classics only enthusiasts previouslt bought, about 2 years ago I bought a really nice, totally original with a few faults 73 R75/5, I specifically wanted the drum brake and single clock with integral techo, therefore faults taken into consideration I paid full price for it as they were rarely appearing for sale, here in Ireland especially. As it turns out I could probably add about £1500 on to what I paid. It appears R80's are rapidly rising also, I think mainly as people have the cafe racer vision. Some can be nice. this guy made a nice job of this R75/5 tastefully done though with the toaster tank. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HcAVp3299Cw.html I dont normally buy restored bikes as I value patina, that said around the same time I purchased a mint 73 Laverda 750SF and mint 78 Moto Guzzi Le Mans 2 again forgotten classics by many and again on the rise. People are now looking for these bikes to invest in. I prefer values to stay low and affordable for the enthusiast regardless if he is a user or a collector who always hankered after a certain model and not the investor. Sorry for the long comment and good luck with your search for a great very usable bike.

I had a An R90/6 Best vehicle of any kind I ever owned I have owned Porsche and Mercedes as well

What if you have no one to go with?

I recently paced a 500 Enfield for about twenty miles with my SR500 and was pleasantly surprised at how well the Enfield performed I thought I would've flogged him but they were neck and neck

They are? maybe they blew up .

Hi Graham, thanks for your comments. Yes, this is actually a very good question to ask :)

@Bill My clutch lever would have been touching the bars long before 100 miles 😁

Couldn't agree more, British bikes were junk, hence why they stoped makeing them, who wants rebuild the engine after 2000 miles X

what if you like tinkering around in the garage ? i would bet there are people that have had no probs on rides over 100 miles , and when your old 100 miles is to far anyway . and loads of old men have killed themselves on bikes like yours trying to relive their youth , each to their own i say .

@@victorimmature each to their own you say?. Obviously you have never owned a motorcycle of any type. There’s tinkering and enjoyment, I can’t remember ever enjoying stripping the engine down every other month and paying through the nose for the privilege. Only those that don’t own a bike think that because the modern motorcycle is very powerful you are going to kill yourself. The reason for 99% of motorcycle accidents is car drivers who say they didn’t see you.

@@peterroberts3453 why did you do an engine strip every other month, in the late seventies I would ride the 400 miles back home from college at the end of term and then back to college after the holidays, first on a 1968 250 Enfield and laterly on a 1960 700 Enfield, you had to remember they were older bikes and keeping your speed down aided reliability and gave far better fuel returns. The biggest problem British bikes faced was owners that removed casings with screwdrivers, denting the jointing face and then reusing the gasket, low and behold an oil leak surprise surprise, or rebuilding the engine with "good" second hand parts and often "tuned" into the bargain often by a mate who was an expert only by dint of knowing how to put it back together after taking it apart, without to many parts left over, and never use new oil in the engine if the old stuff is available. With those levels of servicing it's a wonder they ran atall let alone were reliable, talking to people that bought them new in the fifties they never had the same problems, they were oil tight and reliable, come forward to the seventies and the new Japanese bikes were all reasonably new and were dealer serviced so no more mates and their screwdrivers, some of the Japanese companies were just divisions of far larger concerns, so didn't have to make a profit as they could be used as tax losses and were used as research as well, if all you do is make a single product you cannot compete long term with that, our designs were old and money was not spent on development, for a lot of companies that money was not there anyway, R & D is and always has been expensive (read up on how Lord and lady Docker lived and financed their lifestyles with the profits from BSA/Triumph among others). The collapse of the British bike industry is very complex and has many facets non of which on their own were enough to destroy a complete industry.

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 if this is true take a picture of the speedometer. Obviously the speedo only goes to 99999 . There isn’t ANY 65 triumph that has done Half a Million miles anywhere on the planet unless it’s had 50 complete engine rebuilds. None of my Triumphs (and I had many) did more than a few thousand miles between total rebuilds. It must have been a lovely dream you had......

I think 🤔 so

Flat spot in the front and rear rims, strange.

Bsa Thunderbolt , probably 1967 or earlier.

@@madssnabel3277 thank you :)

@@BladexEyes you are welcome