Okay today we're going to talk about buying a BSA. We're going to talk about buying your
entry level bike, your first bike, to buying the bike that I would buy. So
rather than spend a lot of money on something at first if it wasn't quite for you, or you couldn't
afford it, let's start with a Bantam. Now BSA Bantam. Great little bike. 125cc up to 175cc.
You can have a lot of fun with these because they're fairly cheap to maintain.
Parts are cheap. Two-strokes. I think they're a little bit underrated really
and with modern fuels now, modern oils, you can make them burn nice and clean. They're not oily.
They don't break down on the side of road like they used to. Great little bike. Issues with
Bantams to start with. When you're buying second hand, as you know it's two-stroke, one of the main
things with two-strokes is the crankshaft seals go very hard after a period of time.
So they need to be replaced. If you find the bike it runs alright from cold, starts up, and then
it's a job to restart and it's hot and it lacks power and that sort of thing, it always pays to
check compression and make sure those crankshaft seals are in good order.
Replace them because, you know, the bikes are pretty old now.
[engine roars]
Next bike, if you're looking for a four-stroke, there's nothing wrong with a C15.
I had a C15 when I first started out. It was my uncle's bike. 250cc, straight forward,
parts again easy to get hold of, good strong bike. They've done a C15 was which was 250cc.
They've done a B40, which was like the big brother of a C15. Now the Royal Signals, the army
used those bikes and there are a lot of those in circulation. Those prices are starting to go up,
but a really good bike. You can't go far wrong with that. There were some models in the range
that weren't so good, and we're looking at like the C25. They've done a Barracuda and a Starfire.
Those engines had a slight problem with the crankshaft. They weren't such a good engine. C15,
what to check on those, what to look out for. They didn't really have any real
issues really. They were like a commute bike. Not high performance. I suppose really is
to make sure it's not a rattling engine. They were quite a good strong bottom end, but they weren't a
powerful bike. I suppose if you can find one that starts, you know, and it runs, it doesn't smoke,
it ticks over, you're halfway there really. It hasn't really got any real issues.
Nor has the B40, you know, it's much the same bike it's just a bigger version, 350cc.
They're all fairly good. As long as it's not been got at, you know, where people have had the cases
off, and they've used the wrong screwdriver, and they've hacked the screws, or they've
put allen screws in and over-tightened those and the threads are damaged. You'll know from the general
appearance of the engine in the whole bike, if the fasteners look good, it's got no visual oil leaks,
nothing's been siliconed or damaged cases, or broken fins, to avoid that sort of bike.
Look for a clean bike because there's plenty of good ones out there. A lot of bad ones.
[bike starts]
Right, now we're going to talk about your BSA twins.
As we all know we all think about like, you know, the A10, the RGS. They are expensive, and
now really those prices for a lot of people are a little bit out of reach.
I would go for something like an A50, A65 which is the unit construction 500cc and 650cc.
Underrated a few years ago, but now people are realising actually they were good.
American market, very popular. Very, very popular. The range of bikes starts with
like the Thunderbolt or the straightforward A50 500cc Shooting Star I think it was called.
Empire Star. A little bit bland maybe, but it had nice mud guards. Didn't have a rev counter. The
Thunderbolt was quite basic. But it had a little tank. Then you went to the Lightning. Now there's
lots of models with like twin clocks, and more cosmetics to it that made it more attractive.
But the engine is a good engine. It's underrated. It's a little bit bland looking. A lot of people
used to say 'oh it's the peanut engine' in comparison to the one before, the A10, because of its
shape. It has that sort of jelly mould look as people called. It's unfair to actually dismiss
it as being a poor bike because it was very good. I've got an A65 and I use that on a regular basis.
[engine starts]
All the BSA range of twins, really good. I think I've mentioned before, if an engine's taken down
always take out that sludge trap and remove it because the age of these bikes are now where the oil
has been going through. If they've had regular oil changes, great. But if they've been re-ground,
the journals, there could be swarf in there. So always pays if is taken down to take that
sludge strap out and clean it up, you know. It is an issue sometimes. A good bike I just missed
was the the old M20. The M20 was an army bike used in the 1940s, and it was M20. Because it's a side
valve and it was designed for the armed forces it's designed to be ridden hard. You know it was a
dispatch riders bike. It would be ridden on rough ground, and it would be ridden hard from, you
know, taking communications across the line sort of thing. So it had to withstand a lot of rough
treatment. So you could run that bike flat out all day long, and it wouldn't suffer. They are strong.
Not a fast bike but a good side valve, there's nothing wrong with those, they are a good bike.
[engine roars]
The bikes that tend to demand premium prices are an RGS Rocket Gold Star. You've got to
be careful with these because there's a lot of replicas out there. Because you can replicate
that machine quite easily. As we all know you can get a Road Rocket engine and stick it into a frame
and you can buy the parts, components. There's nothing wrong with a replica. There's some
really good replicas, and very hard to tell from the real thing. But the prices of these bikes,
this particular model now, are very high. You know, looking towards the £20,000 mark.
So it's a top end bike. But this is where I say, you know, don't forget the A65. Something like a
Lightning. But we've got one here. We have a Lightning Clubman which was the equivalent to
the RGS which is a very desirable bike. Another thing really when we look at these old bikes,
just don't be too taken in by anything that's been highly polished, and recently repainted because
although it might look very attractive from the outside, we don't know really what's
going on the inside. Be very... I would be more inclined to buy a bike that's been in regular use
and it's not been freshly commissioned. If it has been freshly commissioned you want
a guarantee with that bike, really. Or some sort of comeback if it's come from a dealer.
Because, like I said, I come across this all the time where something looks nice and shiny, there's
an issue with it, I start to take things apart, and I find things. That can be quite an issue.