Uk Ebike manufacturers
- Thread starter Nivag
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I never set off on those journey's without a big dose of anxiety about what would happen.I had all kinds of horrible breakdowns on the A1, from burned out valves on the A10, to a seizure of the BSA C15 - and usually at least a hundred miles from home. Bear in mind, these terrible old motorbikes were my only and much prized asset and there was no way I could afford break down insurance or any sort of professional assistance. You had some moth eaten old, rusty spanners and half a clue how the thing worked. The only help you were ever going to get was the kindness of strangers, and / or help from your mates. There were no phones that were not wired to hard infrastructure and you probably couldn't really afford to use them anyway because calling outside the locality where you were, was charged at a premium.
Talking about kindness, I received some (not that much) but I always made a point of stopping to ask any broken down traveller if they needed any help and I quite often got people going again. One of the worst was when I found a guy in an old jag with his disabled wife inside and he had a really bad petrol leak in the boot from a split hose. Fortunately the slit was right at one end and there was enough length to cut off the bad bit and reclamp it with the jubilee clips.
Talking about kindness, I received some (not that much) but I always made a point of stopping to ask any broken down traveller if they needed any help and I quite often got people going again. One of the worst was when I found a guy in an old jag with his disabled wife inside and he had a really bad petrol leak in the boot from a split hose. Fortunately the slit was right at one end and there was enough length to cut off the bad bit and reclamp it with the jubilee clips.
More coincidences. My first bike was a C15 that used to seize up regularly because it lost so much oil caused by blow-by pumping the oil out the crankcases - eventually sorted with a rebore, but then a valve guide came loose, and with my new found wealth from a holiday job on Southend Pier, I bought the Ariel VB for £10 with a broken camchain, which was fixed at a local bike shop for about £2 10s. Luckily, it was downhill from my house. As a learner, I was allowed to carry 3 friends on the Ariel, which was handy. I never did understand why it was allowed. One time, there were seven of us on the bike going to a party the other side of town, and I got stopped by the police. They made three get off and walk.
When I first got it and it wasn't running. My friends came round to see it. We pushed it to the top of my street, then rolled down about half a mile before we had to push it back. Several others joined in until there were about 6 of us on it all cheering as we rolled down the hill, until a neighbour grassed us up to the police. It wasn't taxed and insured yet, so they gave me a bit of a talking to, but let us off in the end as long as we stopped doing it.
Hooligans!!
The good old days. There was a lot good about the seventies - as long as you don't think about the fashions and the hairstyles.
The laws about sidecar outfits were very strange. As a learner, you could ride up to a 250 motor cycle then, but no pillion. The same license allowed you to ride a sidecar outfit with a big engine and carry people, but I think.... not sure.... they had to be in the side car. I didn't take the motor bike test back then. I just rode that big old beezer around with a tiny, minimalist side car on it and carried on until I bought my Morris thousand in 1973/4. I had no driving lessons in that either. A pal of mine who had a license but had never driven, sat in the Morris with me while I got accustomed to the gears and the steering wheel, and a couple of reverses around the corner, and then I just dispensed with the plates and just drove it - even driving it back from London to Newcastle. Six weeks later, I passed my test. When I arrived at the test centre, the guy looked over the car and then frowned and said, 'Where is your accompanying driver?'
I said, 'He's gone a message, he lives near here.'
'What will you do if you fail?' he said.
'I'll have to walk around to his house and get him,' I replied.
He knew and his face told all.
Anyway, he passed me and that was that.
Did the Aerial VB have a CAM chain? I never saw an old Brit bike that didn't have gear driven camshafts. Could you mean the magneto chain? My A10 had a gear driven magneto, but a chain driven dynamo on it.
Here is an aerial VB at Andy Tiernans - looks pretty mint.
Sorry, it was the timing chain that drove the magneto. I wasn't thinking. It was just a loop of chain about 6" long. A few screws to remove the cover, and all was revealed. You can see it here on a Square 4, which looks identical:Hooligans!!
The good old days. There was a lot good about the seventies - as long as you don't think about the fashions and the hairstyles.
The laws about sidecar outfits were very strange. As a learner, you could ride up to a 250 motor cycle then, but no pillion. The same license allowed you to ride a sidecar outfit with a big engine and carry people, but I think.... not sure.... they had to be in the side car. I didn't take the motor bike test back then. I just rode that big old beezer around with a tiny, minimalist side car on it and carried on until I bought my Morris thousand in 1973/4. I had no driving lessons in that either. A pal of mine who had a license but had never driven, sat in the Morris with me while I got accustomed to the gears and the steering wheel, and a couple of reverses around the corner, and then I just dispensed with the plates and just drove it - even driving it back from London to Newcastle. Six weeks later, I passed my test. When I arrived at the test centre, the guy looked over the car and then frowned and said, 'Where is your accompanying driver?'
I said, 'He's gone a message, he lives near here.'
'What will you do if you fail?' he said.
'I'll have to walk around to his house and get him,' I replied.
He knew and his face told all.
Anyway, he passed me and that was that.
Did the Aerial VB have a CAM chain? I never saw an old Brit bike that didn't have gear driven camshafts. Could you mean the magneto chain? My A10 had a gear driven magneto, but a chain driven dynamo on it.
Here is an aerial VB at Andy Tiernans - looks pretty mint.
Charlie's Shed - Ignition timing, and nearby jobs
Classic Motorcycle Restoration - Ariel Square Four, FH Huntmaster, W/NG; BSA Bantam; Steam Heritage Railway Volunteer on the North Norfolk Railway
ariel-square-four.blogspot.com
The passengers could sit wherever they wanted. There's no requirement to sit in the sidecar, though you'd always want to fill it up first for stability.
That video was cool. I'm not too sure why he was changing gear though. I don't remember doing that too much with mine.
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Those old engines were so simple to understand and do things with and you could do major strip down work with pretty minimal tools.Sorry, it was the timing chain that drove the magneto. I wasn't thinking. It was just a loop of chain about 6" long. A few screws to remove the cover, and all was revealed. You can see it here on a Square 4, which looks identical:
Charlie's Shed - Ignition timing, and nearby jobs
Classic Motorcycle Restoration - Ariel Square Four, FH Huntmaster, W/NG; BSA Bantam; Steam Heritage Railway Volunteer on the North Norfolk Railway
The passengers could sit wherever they wanted. There's no requirement to sit in the sidecar, though you'd always want to fill it up first for stability.
That video was cool. I'm not too sure why he was changing gear though. I don't remember doing that too much with mine.
I have 2 cooler king ebikes bought over the summer, but one has now failed completely and refuses to start although fully charged, and although I had asked paul, who runs the company, what happens if one of their products breaks down, he said that they never break down, and also he would, quotes 'looks after me', anyway, now they are chargingn £200 to pick up the bike which doesn't seem reasonable as the product has clearly failed within a guarantee period.
One could ride an outfit (any size engine) on a provisional licence, you did not need any passengers. I had a go on a mate's BSA A10 outfit once, I did not enjoy it.Hooligans!!
The good old days. There was a lot good about the seventies - as long as you don't think about the fashions and the hairstyles.
The laws about sidecar outfits were very strange. As a learner, you could ride up to a 250 motor cycle then, but no pillion. The same license allowed you to ride a sidecar outfit with a big engine and carry people, but I think.... not sure.... they had to be in the side car. I didn't take the motor bike test back then. I just rode that big old beezer around with a tiny, minimalist side car on it and carried on until I bought my Morris thousand in 1973/4. I had no driving lessons in that either. A pal of mine who had a license but had never driven, sat in the Morris with me while I got accustomed to the gears and the steering wheel, and a couple of reverses around the corner, and then I just dispensed with the plates and just drove it - even driving it back from London to Newcastle. Six weeks later, I passed my test. When I arrived at the test centre, the guy looked over the car and then frowned and said, 'Where is your accompanying driver?'
I said, 'He's gone a message, he lives near here.'
'What will you do if you fail?' he said.
'I'll have to walk around to his house and get him,' I replied.
He knew and his face told all.
Anyway, he passed me and that was that.
Did the Aerial VB have a CAM chain? I never saw an old Brit bike that didn't have gear driven camshafts. Could you mean the magneto chain? My A10 had a gear driven magneto, but a chain driven dynamo on it.
Here is an aerial VB at Andy Tiernans - looks pretty mint.
When I was 17, I walked into the Swindon Motor Co. with a deposit and rode out on a gold Honda CB250K4. It had a top speed of 82MPH. No lessons, no CBT, nothing. 20 quid a month. It was like, "Here's the keys, off you go."
When I eventually took my test in Portsmouth, a bloke stood on a street corner and watched me go round the block a couple of times.
I loved that bike, I wish I had it now.
(not my picture)
There is a guy in a village near here that has just bought a bike that looks almost exactly like that. It is a 175cc though. It has power way above what you would expect for an engine that size, in my opinion. It has an extremely low mileage on it - just a very few thousand miles. The guy is in pretty terrible health with COPD and collapsing veins in his legs, so he doesn't ride it. Previous to this bike, he had a really low mileage, early 1960s (I think it was 1961) BSA B40 - a sort of bigger version of the C15. That bike had one owner from new and had done just slightly over 10,000 miles. It was in nice condition. He sold it because he could not kick it over because of his health problems, though it was easy to start and I started it a few times. I actually nearly bought it for £2000, but since he would not let me ride around the block to check out the gear box, I bought a new (almost) Royal Enfield 350, with 63 miles on the clock. Some old geezer had bought it and was frightened of the weight of it (198kilos).One could ride an outfit (any size engine) on a provisional licence, you did not need any passengers. I had a go on a mate's BSA A10 outfit once, I did not enjoy it.
When I was 17, I walked into the Swindon Motor Co. with a deposit and rode out on a gold Honda CB250K4. It had a top speed of 82MPH. No lessons, no CBT, nothing. 20 quid a month. It was like, "Here's the keys, off you go."
When I eventually took my test in Portsmouth, a bloke stood on a street corner and watched me go round the block a couple of times.
I loved that bike, I wish I had it now.
(not my picture)
I got this pretty cheap at £3,500, which was a good discount on the new price and at 63 miles on the clock, the bike was really almost new.
Nice one. I think that RE350 will be a million times easier to live with than a 1961 B40...bullet dodged IMHO
Yes it is. I've not ridden it much though so that makes it even easier to live with. It has still only only covered 304 miles! I should probably just sell it.
My go to bike is a 1997, Honda 250 twin. Light as a feather, and fantastically economical and so cheap that if it gets dropped or dinged it doesn't matter. I only ride the motor bikes at silly low speeds around the country lanes hereabouts. I'm not looking to get killed or paralysed these days.
This video is a test out of a home made chest harness for my car dash cam.... Works, but not perfect. I don't like riding the busy A road shown in this video, but sometimes you have to.
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With mine (1967) the tester ducked through back street alley ways. On one bit I was riding along a a road when a parked van driver swung his rear door out in front of me. I stopped and shouted at him that "I'm doing my test" and carried on. When answering questions from the examiner back outside the test centre that same van driver came past tooted his horn and waved at the examiner and he waved back ! The examiner gave me a pink slip and I asked if I had passed. He said read that when you get home. By this time it had started to drizzle and the examiner told me to be careful as the roads would be treacherous. I left the test centre and within a quarter of a mile I had to brake and promptly slid off outside a Fireplace Specialists shop. The employees rushed out to get me and my bike to safety. I was OK just wet luckily I was wearing a helmet, but my bikes footrest was bent vertical. The shop allowed me to use their telephone to ring my dad who after inquiring if I was OK told me to take my bike to the bike shop where I had got it which was not far away, for them to sort the foot rest out which they did. Had I passed my test turned out that I had.
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So that you could puzzle over how to fix the non-existant camshaft bearings?
I had one of them too, though I don't remember riding it, and I can't remember how I got it, but I do remember advertising another bike for sale with free Honda CB250K2. The top end was completely worn out with millimeters of play in the camshaft bearings. I also had a CB350K4, which my wife rode to a rally in Holland. Now that I think of it, it was the K4 that was sold with the free K2. The step up in power from 250 to 350, makes a massive difference. The same applied to the K5 250/360, CJ250/360T, the Dreams and Super dreams 250/400. The 250s were gutless by comparison, so if ever nostalgia makes you want to get one of those bikes, get the bigger engine version. Everything is identical except the pistons/bores, carbs, drive sprocket and CDI on the later ones, so it's pretty easy to upgrade a 250.
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All ebikes work pretty much the same. We could probably have helped you to fix it if you had given more details.
Yeah, so when I say, "I wish I had it now" what I really mean is, "Stuff that for a game of soldiers." I could not ride a motorbike in winter now, although I used to, daily, until my mid-forties.
I believe all CB250s were sleeved down from 350 for the UK market.
There were a number of Hondas designed with no camshaft bearings. I had a CB250RS around 1990. I took my eldest son to Italy on it on a camping trip. They were notorious for wrecking their heads in about 20,000 miles, though only, I think, if the oil was not changed VERY frequently. The lore around this was that 1000 mile oil changes were essential. I change my two small hondas at that interval and put full synthetic in them. It comes out pretty much the same colour as it went in, but they have such a small oil capacity that it is cheap enough to do it that way. They have next to no filtering - just a sort of tea strainer mesh. On the Nighthawk that I have now seen above, you can't even get to that mesh without a major strip of the right hand cover and oil pump. total nightmare. I've never done it. change the oil at a ridiculous interval is far easier.
On our Italy trip on the CB250RS, I did two oil changes during the round trip. The bike performed perfectly. Cruised all day long at 60 for nearly 3000 miles with me and a ten year old and all our camping ear and tools.
The 'boy' now....
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I'm not sure about your one, but all the twins up to the late 70s had centrifugal oil filters that needed to be cleaned out. It's surprising how much stuff got trapped in it during the 1500 mile service interval. I often where it all came from because it looked like metal powder. Many didn't get cleaned at all.
Yes - you are right. I forgot that spinning gizmo. I have never cleaned the one in my little cg125, but I always examine the tea strainer in teh drain plug which is its only effective filter now. Since I have had mine on teh synthetic oil and thousand mile changes, there is never anything in that strainer now. There was when I got it at 10,000 miles. Bits of crap, but nothing since in six oil changes. Not a spec.
It is likely that the metal specs came from manufacturing debris and run in process. I've had two cg125s. One new in 1989. That one had bits of swarf in the filter at the first oil change and never anything else while I had it.
The centrifugal filter is designed to just pass the oil if it gets blocked I believe. I don't think it just starves the engine. Unfortunately the filter screen in my CB250 nighthawk is a pick up strainer and if that clogged, oil starvation would result and the result would be terminal. Getting at it is a real pain. I'm counting on the full synthetic to prevent sludge and cloggy deposits. The bike only cost me £650 anyway with about 11,000 miles on it. It is a great little runaround I find.
It's essential that you open up and clean the centrifugal filter. I think the interval is 3000 miles. There is always a significant amount of deposits in there. When it reaches the top of the vanes, no more filtering takes place. I've seen many like that. I reckon around 10,000 miles to fill up. Bear in mind that the oil goes through the gearbox as well as the engine, so any gear wear will end up in there.
Honda CB250K4.......
One of my old work colleagues bought one like that new after buying new 1972 A65 BSA lightning and only owning it for a week, he couldn't stand everything vibrating. Then had a BMW whose gearbox broke. Disappointed with lack of BMW reliability he then moved on to a 500 Honda four which I know he still has one to this day, along with a myriad of vintage bikes.
One of my old work colleagues bought one like that new after buying new 1972 A65 BSA lightning and only owning it for a week, he couldn't stand everything vibrating. Then had a BMW whose gearbox broke. Disappointed with lack of BMW reliability he then moved on to a 500 Honda four which I know he still has one to this day, along with a myriad of vintage bikes.
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