The Bikeshite Thread

[twosmoke300]

A super city !!!!! ???

[strangeangel]

Today I did ride out to Birkenhead and purchased this magnificent steed:

 

 

[Jazoli]

Hahaha have you watched the 44teeth Budget bike battles? They are featuring one of these at the moment

I don't get them, at all, but it'd be a boring old world if we all rode C1's or normal bikes!

[Cavcraft]

48 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

Today I did ride out to Birkenhead and purchased this magnificent steed:

 

 

 

 

YES! That's fucking ace, well bought sir.

[strangeangel]

4 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Hahaha have you watched the 44teeth Budget bike battles?

 

 

No, but I will do! Cheers for the heads up ?

 

I find evolutionary dead-ends like the C1 fascinating; at least as interesting as the ones that made it.

 

[Dave_Q]

I have actually ridden a C1 briefly as it happens, when I was about 18/19 (approx y2k) I went to the NEC motorbike show with a mate.

 

They had a try a ped stand where you could test the latest plastic on a slightly too small oval in the car park.

 

Sadly for the Bimmer I went on a Gilera runner 200cc 2 stroke just before so the performance was disappointing. But actually the C1 was pretty normal to ride, it looks like it should be top heavy but isn't really.

 

It's a WOULD from me, well bought.

 

 

[LostnotFound]

That is a lovely steed indeed.

 

I love the side curtains that look like they've been half inched off some poor old boy’s mobility scooter that he's parked outside Asda. Can you see enough through them to ride with them down or are they just to keep the interior dry when parked?

 

 

[strangeangel]

10 minutes ago, LostnotFound said:

I love the side curtains that look like they've been half inched off some poor old boy’s mobility scooter that he's parked outside Asda. Can you see enough through them to ride with them down or are they just to keep the interior dry when parked?

 

 

The previous owner had them custom made by a firm that make canopies for boats etc. Quite how much they flap about in use and, as you say, stop you from seeing anything in the mirrors is something I'm going to have to find out for myself. I can take them off if I wish, as they're just fitted to the body with press studs.

 

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

4 hours ago, strangeangel said:

Today I did ride out to Birkenhead and purchased this magnificent steed:

 

 

About 18 yrs ago i borrowed a bnw c1 200cc scooter for 48 hrs to try oyt on my commute sittingbourne to london, i quite enjoyed it but styck with my Honda cb500s as the bmw was too expensive  for 200cc 

Would love 1 now to play  on.

Well bought, keep us updated on thoughts and living with it and maintenance  etc.

[Jerzy Woking]

I'll never forget one of those BMW's pulling up at the pump next to me in the petrol station on the Highway, not far short of Tower Bridge in London. It was January and bloody cold. As the scooter stopped, a foot clad in a stiletto shoe came out of the apron. A rather striking woman then proceeded to fill it up. 

I couldnt think of anything to say to her except "its cold".

Incidentally, TTT in Sudbury, Suffolk have (or until very recently, had) a very similar looking Benelli scooter in stock, although I forget the price. First (and last) one I have ever seen.

[Cavcraft]

Local ride out Sunday, met with some bikers for a peaceful demo ride down to the river. Swift ride into town followed, an Italian restaurant owner wanted a photo with some scooters outside. They didn't actually say 'no Chinese copies' though, so that's what I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would have taken the Lambretta, but it's still not fixed.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

Local ride out Sunday, met with some bikers for a peaceful demo ride down to the river. Swift ride into town followed, an Italian restaurant owner wanted a photo with some scooters outside. They didn't actually say 'no Chinese copies' though, so that's what I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would have taken the Lambretta, but it's still not fixed.

I've lost track. Which Lammy have you got, and what's wrong with it?

[Cavcraft]

5 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I've lost track. Which Lammy have you got, and what's wrong with it?

There's a reason modern automatic scooters are becoming so popular.

Just had new carb (22mm Scootopia), re-bore, new piston etc etc. Pulls a lot better than it ever did (still running it in) but when warm it struggles to tick-over. On the move it's fine, but if holding the throttle steady at (an estimated) say 2,000 revs, it just fluctuates very wildly with clutch in or in neutral. My mate thinks it might be the small (idle?) jet that's blocked. It also once weirdly dumped petrol every where after the rebuild, then refused to start but hasn't done it since.

Good job I love riding it or it'd have been long gone by now.  

[Dick Cheeseburger]

56 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

There's a reason modern automatic scooters are becoming so popular.

Just had new carb (22mm Scootopia), re-bore, new piston etc etc. Pulls a lot better than it ever did (still running it in) but when warm it struggles to tick-over. On the move it's fine, but if holding the throttle steady at (an estimated) say 2,000 revs, it just fluctuates very wildly with clutch in or in neutral. My mate thinks it might be the small (idle?) jet that's blocked. It also once weirdly dumped petrol every where after the rebuild, then refused to start but hasn't done it since.

Good job I love riding it or it'd have been long gone by now.  

Bugger. My old Imola kitted SX150 with electronic kit was always ultra reliable. I had to have the stator plate rewound at one point but had no issues apart from that. Luck of the draw I suppose?

Don't sell yours though. In theory, it's still better than money in the bank...

[Cavcraft]

10 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Bugger. My old Imola kitted SX150 with electronic kit was always ultra reliable. I had to have the stator plate rewound at one point but had no issues apart from that. Luck of the draw I suppose?

Don't sell yours though. In theory, it's still better than money in the bank...

Thanks, it's had (amongst the above) a new GP lightened fly wheel, clutch, some sort of engine casing welding and more stuff as would like to keep it, and plan to do so. It's gone back in today, specifically went to work in the van so I could drop it off and pick the MBX up, but the latter wasn't ready so they're now both at the garage.

[Jerzy Woking]

Got the Street Triple ITV'd (Spanish MOT) this evening.

Luckily one of the centres is just 10.minutes away. All they do is MOTs. Take you current ITV and Spanish "log book" to the office, pay your €23 fee, and wait your turn. I was the only one there, so i was waved straight on for the bike to be tested. 5 minutes later I had a new ITV, valid for two years.

Bit odd not chatting to the tester like I had done for years in the UK. I missed that.

 

[tobyd]

Replacing the shock on my SV as its getting a bit bumpy and vague. Looks like the original is still fitted and the bolts were pretty unimpressed at trying to be undone.

Only 4 of them to do but they put up a real fight against my lidl impact gun. The final one holding the lever arrangement onto the frame out-lasted the impact gun and needed much additional leverage. All off now though, the bearings are all utterly fucked and will be replaced when the replacement damper arrives tomorrow. Not quite sure how I'll press the new bearings in yet, or get the last one out, but there is a threaded rod plan. Or its all off to a machine shop since I discovered a bench-press is £260...

Rust never fails to disappoint...

Also, WTAF, how comes the Erhandlersersserser (machine mart? screwfix?) impact socket set features multiple deep/regular sockets for several sizes but no 14mm socket at all? There is an 11 (never used in 15 years) but no 14...

[Mike D]

I bought this Beaver Brown Beauty last night - I've been hankering for an old nobber for a while and this is the spit of my first ever field bike, although it is in far nicer condition. I've ordered some XCP rust blocker to give it a good dowsing in, i'd quite like to keep its oily rag patina. It rode the 40 miles home quite happily, I had a right grin on

 

[Jerzy Woking]

Just love the Honda 90, great memories of thrashing them around fields for hours on end.

And despite the 100's and 100's of scooters and small bikes I see here every month, I can't recall seeing a Honda 50/70/90 at all.

 

[Mike D]

The nostalgia is what swayed me to buy it, I've got so many happy memories of tanning the old thing 'down Peaksy' (the old Grimsby to Louth railway) before they ruined it by building a road on it...

 

 

Mike

[Jerzy Woking]

My parents house had the disused railway between Braintree and Dunmow behind it, which we used quite a lot. There or the Sand pits, depending where we kept the bikes we owned as a group of friends.

Now the Flitch Way walk, where motorbikes are banned. 

[Cavcraft]

Suppose it was inevitable, really...

 

The top photograph makes it look like it was collected, but actually the Supreme Leader of Glorious Mopeds (AKA @strangeangel) very kindly delivered it today.

 

Later on went to collect the little Honda and the Lambretta was ready but didn't have enough room to collect that...

 

Actually out of room now, time for a small clear out.

[andyberg]

I see the MBX has the obligatory micron/all speed. Very well done that man, you are indeed a purist 2 stroke gentleman 

[LightBulbFun]

one for the bikeshite people I think?

been trying to figure out what this is, I did not think Tomos's went back to 1929? or just good ol DVLA shenanigans? 

 

 

(as a side note, I have noticed a good amount of pre 1931 vehicles being registered today with the DVLA are motorcycles...)

[martc]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

one for the bikeshite people I think?

been trying to figure out what this is, I did not think Tomos's went back to 1929? or just good ol DVLA shenanigans? 

 

 

(as a side note, I have noticed a amount of pre 1931 vehicles being registered today with the DVLA are motorcycles...)

Looks like a DVLA cock-up. Either the vehicle name is wrong or the year of manufacture is. Tomos started in the mid 50's and went bust last year. Their peak in the UK was in the 80's, so if it is a Tomos the year of manufacture could be 1979 or 1989 (in theory it could also be '59, '69 or '99 assuming the 19 is correct).

I can't think of any motorbike made in the 1920's that had a name similar enough to Tomos for it to be mis-interpreted.

Another strange aspect is the number itself, when numbers where manually issued the 'short' ones were often reserved for motorbikes as space was at a premium - in particular the front mudguard goolie chopper. Of course this was not a rule and some old bikes did have long numbers. In fact I have just googled  ' motorcycle "1929" uk'  and there are three bikes with a BF reg on the first page. Has the DVLA issued a block of BF numbers which weren't used in 1929?

 

 

[LightBulbFun]

interesting, yeah I had a feeling it was a cockup somewhere, I did a little bit of googling and as you say Tomos looks to have started in the 50s, not 1929!

 

BFxxxx is the current age related series issued to vehicles manufactured before 1931, (BF only very briefly  got issued in period as back then BF stood for Bloody fool and people did not want that on their cars!)

I brought it up in my thread, a few days ago as you can see they are nearing the end, and I am wondering what they will issue when they run out, off the top of my head the only 2 letter 4 digit plate series not issued is WCxxxx so we might finally see that issued (although there might be some remote scottish 2 letter 4 number combos that never fully got issued, they have used these in the past but i figured they would have issued them all first before moving onto BF, however I know for example ASxxxx was issued right until December 1964, when suffix plates became mandatory on January 1st 1965, so may have unused numbers still, that would be amusing if it got issued after BF  )

 

but since only 1 pre 1931 age related plate series is currently being issued, you can track all the fresh imports and re-registrations etc via the DVLA checker 

heres another interesting one! Pre 1931 age related plate but Year of manufacture 2011! I suspect, it accidentally got registered as a 2011 motorcycle, but then someone just now in 2020 corrected the mistake and so the bike got issued a new appropriate age related plate, but the rest of the system is yet to update

 

does correctly show up on the MOT checker, with a daytime MOT which is not something you see all that often!

[Dave_Q]

Would guess the trumpet was first registered in 2011, whether that is imported or dragged out of a hedge and put on the computerized system.

Could it have been on a Q and now been put on age related?

Or imported 2011, motd on chassis number, sat since then and now registered without an MOT as not needed.

[LightBulbFun]

24 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Would guess the trumpet was first registered in 2011, whether that is imported or dragged out of a hedge and put on the computerized system.

Could it have been on a Q and now been put on age related?

Or imported 2011, motd on chassis number, sat since then and now registered without an MOT as not needed.

yeah its still "fresh" so not showing up on the ol special 3rd party tool just yet, but ill revisit it in a few days and see if I can figure out whats what

(I find vehicles MOT'ed on chassis numbers or foreign reg numbers dont show that MOT on their British registration number, but I have not had a particularly large sample size there)

[martc]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting, yeah I had a feeling it was a cockup somewhere, I did a little bit of googling and as you say Tomos looks to have started in the 50s, not 1929!

BFxxxx is the current age related series issued to vehicles manufactured before 1931, (BF only very briefly  got issued in period as back then BF stood for Bloody fool and people did not want that on their cars!)

I'm kicking myself - I should have spotted the BF reference. I started work in the early 80's and a wonderful old duffer working there was just about to retire; he'd started there in the mid 1930's and he regularly referred to the Senior Management as a 'bunch of BF's'.

It looks like the date maybe correct if BF's are issued for per 1931 it makes sense. I wonder if the DVLA scribe picks the manufacturers name from a drop down box? For bikes I think Tomos would be just above (or even directly above?)Triumph on the list and could have been selected by mistake.

[Psycho Charlie Knobcheese]

On 9/17/2020 at 7:08 PM, Cavcraft said:

Suppose it was inevitable, really...

 

The top photograph makes it look like it was collected, but actually the Supreme Leader of Glorious Mopeds (AKA @strangeangel) very kindly delivered it today.

 

Later on went to collect the little Honda and the Lambretta was ready but didn't have enough room to collect that...

 

Actually out of room now, time for a small clear out.

That looks better than they usually did 30 years ago- What a find.