AJS

[RalphM]

Been resurrecting my AJS it's been sitting in the shed for 18 months so decided to get it mobile again
still bits to do but it's a rider more than a looker.

 

[bugsymike]

Been resurrecting my AJS it's been sitting in the shed for 18 months so decided to get it mobile again
still bits to do but it's a rider more than a looker.

Thanks for sharing that, I think you are being modest regarding condition, it is way better than many British bikes advertised as in "concourse" condition from dealers. It sounded sweet and goes to show you don't need high revs and multiple gears, just a nice engine with plenty of torque. I used to have a BSA 650 Road Rocket that could potter around town at 20mph in top gear and then on fast stretch in same gear show 100mph on speedo. I notice you had to do a fair bit of adjustment on the advance and retard, what was the reason?
I only had one British bike with manual advance and that was a 1955 Matchless G11 600cc Super Clubman twin with the "jampot" rear shocks similar to yours, Once started I used to fully advance timing and that was that. Though I recall with the fixed kick start (not folding ) if it did kick back the lever would gouge up your leg. It was around 1970 as a youngster and the only magneto issue I had was whilst at a scooter motor scramble I came to start to go home and only after repeated attempts did I realise the slip ring for the magneto points had dropped out into the grass due to a missing cover, bear in mind I was only 16 and costing £10 with a sidecar it was in no way in the condition of your lovely machine.
I stopped riding several years ago, the roads were not as potholed as yours but around here the idiots pulling out of side roads without looking was common place.
I have had many singles Japanese and British, but the nicest to ride was in a Triumph Trail Blazer in trials form fitted with a BSA B40 350cc engine, not fast but a great ride and twin leading shoe front brakes which worked, unlike the one on my Matchless.

 

[RalphM]

Trying to start a 500 single on full advance can be exiting to say the least, the bike spent most
of it's life in California, before being repatriated, so the tin as survived well, if you run it at full
advance at low engine speed it has a slight hunting feel and the tick over is a bit high so I back
it off a tuch, got used to ding it so don't notice, all part of the fun but at anything above 25 it
usually is on full advance.
It will pull top from around 20 mph, I also have a Royal Enfield Meteor Minor 500 1960 that
will pull from about 15mph we have the right roads for it but it's a pity about the average
speed cams that you have to put up with.

 

[bugsymike]

Trying to start a 500 single on full advance can be exiting to say the least, the bike spent most
of it's life in California, before being repatriated, so the tin as survived well, if you run it at full
advance at low engine speed it has a slight hunting feel and the tick over is a bit high so I back
it off a tuch, got used to ding it so don't notice, all part of the fun but at anything above 25 it
usually is on full advance.
It will pull top from around 20 mph, I also have a Royal Enfield Meteor Minor 500 1960 that
will pull from about 15mph we have the right roads for it but it's a pity about the average
speed cams that you have to put up with.

I agree to not starting on full advance.
The worst bike I had for kick starting was a 500 KTM water cooled two stroke motor cross bike, it was a real animal 50hp and all or nothing, a friend used to race them when they were new and it was the bike to have, unbeatable. I had visions of making it into a road bike but decided against it, although I did put a Honda Red Rocket/Elsinore 125 air cooled works motorcross on the road, it had been ported and highly tuned above original for the racing dealership, so no power low down then the rest of the time on it's back wheel, but flat out around 60mph. I advertised it for sale, but was away at the time and a young lad came and bought as a Learner bike due to the 125cc law, I never heard any more, but did question the logic.

 

[Robotstar4]

My commuter bike sat unused in the garage for a couple years after I retired so I sold it, but after a few months of looking at an empty garage I bought a 1965 D7 BSA Bantam.

I plan to use it for local pottering about and taking to shows once I've sorted out the previous owners wiring.

 

[bugsymike]

My commuter bike sat unused in the garage for a couple years after I retired so I sold it, but after a few months of looking at an empty garage I bought a 1965 D7 BSA Bantam.

View attachment 487048

I plan to use it for local pottering about and taking to shows once I've sorted out the previous owners wiring.

View attachment 487049

Certainly a good looking example of the Bantam, one of the best I have seen in along time.
As a youngster I went for what ever came along in my price bracket, often part exchanges from the local Honda dealership where a friend was the foreman, so I bought two Francis Barnetts £7 and £9 respectively and later a Triumph 21 350cc "bathtub" the forerunner of the Tiger 90 For £25 as owners part exchanged their British bikes for Honda Dreams and SuperDreams whilst "dreaming" about the CB750 just arriving in the showroom.
The FBs I liked as the Villiers engines were similar to the 9E versions we used to race Karts competitively late 60s early 70s.Sadly I took very few photos of both the cars and motorcycles I had over the years and in fairness never in "concourse" condition.
I take it the wiring spaghetti with crimped connectors by previous owner was for the battery charging rectifier, much smaller than the large plate type ones when the bikes were new.

 

[Robotstar4]

Certainly a good looking example of the Bantam, one of the best I have seen in along time.
As a youngster I went for what ever came along in my price bracket, often part exchanges from the local Honda dealership where a friend was the foreman, so I bought two Francis Barnetts £7 and £9 respectively and later a Triumph 21 350cc "bathtub" the forerunner of the Tiger 90 For £25 as owners part exchanged their British bikes for Honda Dreams and SuperDreams whilst "dreaming" about the CB750 just arriving in the showroom.
The FBs I liked as the Villiers engines were similar to the 9E versions we used to race Karts competitively late 60s early 70s.Sadly I took very few photos of both the cars and motorcycles I had over the years and in fairness never in "concourse" condition.
I take it the wiring spaghetti with crimped connectors by previous owner was for the battery charging rectifier, much smaller than the large plate type ones when the bikes were new.

I learnt to ride at the tender age off 8 on a Francis Barnett round my cousins' farm which started my life long love of bikes.
As for Villiers engines, I restore old engines and have a few Villiers, this one's a Mk.20

As for the wiring, it's a common mod to replace the old Selinium rectifier with a modern style due to lack of availability and I don't think the previous owner understood the bike is positive earth, so far I've found a couple of dead shorts to sort out.

 

[bugsymike]

I learnt to ride at the tender age off 8 on a Francis Barnett round my cousins' farm which started my life long love of bikes.
As for Villiers engines, I restore old engines and have a few Villiers, this one's a Mk.20

View attachment 487062

As for the wiring, it's a common mod to replace the old Selinium rectifier with a modern style due to lack of availability and I don't think the previous owner understood the bike is positive earth, so far I've found a couple of dead shorts to sort out.

I have a friend who collects older machinery and we got a pedestrian road roller running with a Villiers engine though it had to have the reduction drive to prevent running after the thing. He is also into the old Lister and Petter diesels, I had a 6 1/4 hp long stroke PH1 in a boat, very economical but a fair bit of vibration at certain revs.
When my children were young we used to go to Steam Rally's and what I enjoyed was some of the massive Blackstone machinery used on farms, I even saw a single cylinder Wankel stationary engine a Dutch lad had brought over, this interested me as I used to work for a Mazda dealership in the mid 70s and rebuilt a few RX3s. Though given the lack of low down torque I wondered how viable a stationary version was.