NO POINT OF REFERENCE
I am going to get my excuses in first; my experience of classic British bikes begins and ends with the OiF BSA Lightning I bought in 1990. When the Lightning was first registered in February 1973 I was two years old; consequently I don’t remember these bikes ‘the first time around’. So this is the only British classic I have ever ridden and I keep worrying (or possibly obsessing) that it’s not running ‘right’. I have no point of reference...
To further complicate things, real life has got in the way several times. It has taken 30-plus years of repair / restoration / modification / messing around (delete as you see fit) not to mention significant sums of money to get the bike to where it is today. Hopefully some of the following will act as a warning to the uninitiated. Everyone else should prepare to roll your eyes, snort with derision and/or stare in slack-jawed amazement at the ineptitude.
It all started when I got into bikes as a teenager back in the late 1980s. To stand out from the biking crowd I hung around with, I
