Last of the few
If we all had access to a time machine it might be a good move to scoot back to the late 1960s and buy a twin-cylinder 500. Not to bring back to the here and now, that probably wouldn’t be allowed, but simply to love and to leave to ensure that there would be a lot more 500 twins for everybody to enjoy 50 years down the line – ready for when the pool of exotic bikes slipped forever beyond the reach of Mr Everyman and riders finally came to their senses and admitted that 650 parallel twins are truly hard work to live with.
It’s an interesting thought and certainly one shared by Jim Hastilow who does his classic biking on a budget, but still wants to ride something with a bit of style and performance that doesn’t relegate him to vintage vehicle parades and tootling around country lanes on sunny, Sunday afternoons.
“Times have really changed. I once bought a BSA B31 for £150. I had a modern bike for daily transport so I guess the BSA was a hobby, pure and simple. I brought it home in two tea chests and took three years to piece it back together, not really knowing what it was until the Owners’ Club confirmed it was a very early postwar model that left the factory in 1946.
A chap from Holland contacted me – he had factory records that showed the bike had been dispatched to BSA dealers Millards in Guernsey, who, I believe, are still going. How it wound up back in the UK is anybody’s guess but it was great fun to ride – a real survivor.”
“Nowadays, finding bikes for restoration is difficult because there is so much interest, both from dealers who sell ‘barn finds’ for thousands of pounds, to a worldwide market on the internet, and from people who can afford to throw
