I had a '79 700S (black with gold pinstriping and gold alloy wheels) - and I had former Silk employee Graham Rhodes rebuild the engine. He told me he'd fitted the last primary chain available.. and at that point I thought it was time to sell it. Great pity as it was the finest handling bike I'd ever ridden and at 305lbs (less than a Honda 250) it proved just how right Colin Chapman's axiom had been.. "Simplify and then add lightness". Build quality was excellent too. George Silk was so close to getting everything right with this bike.
I had one in 1979, worst bike I ever had, ignition problems, tank seam leaking, footrests falling off, headgaskets, you name it. Finally the factory called me in to fix it, on way home from the factory at night I wrote the bike off as a truck was on wrong side of road.........good riddance.
A horrible piece of junk much like the Hesketh. Still, nice to see these things survived. I remember it having a lot of promise, hope and expectations heaped on it, but like many things it turned into a great big disappointment. There’s a reason they went out of business.
Worst piece of crap I've ever seen. My brother had a 76 model brand new from the factory and had nothing but ignition and cooling problems with it. You could never trust it to start in the morning to go to work. He bought a 750 Honda after that and never had any trouble with it. Started first time everytime and didn't over heat. If you want a two stroke go for an RD350 or RD500 Gamma they are both better than the silk in every way possible.
