BSA D1 Bantam 1961 short ride.
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- This machine belongs to my Son and until he gets his CBT done, he can't yet ride it on the road, so he wanted me to ride it and film it for him so he can take virtual rides on it until he can. It went pretty well but it was a pity about it nipping up just before the end of that long, steep climb, other than that it ran faultlessly, although it was a long, hard pull up that hill and I almost expected it and was ready for it, pulling the clutch and shutting the throttle as quickly as I could. All seemed fine afterwards, though and there was no apparent loss of power, or unpleasant noises for the rest of the ride, so I think all is well.
The first motorcycle I had when I was 16 in the 60s was a 125cc BSA Bantam. I paid £5 for it and he also gave me a helmet and gauntlets. I loved that bike and we had many adventures together. My Bantam gave me the freedom to go where I wanted to, which was great. I paid about £2. 10 shillings for insurance and about £1 to tax it. petrol was £1 for four gallons including 2-stroke oil. Best days of my life.
I also had a D1 bantam 1950 the same age as me! Bought from the science teacher at school in approx 63. Used it to go to work on. I had three spare engines one which was a competition and used this in preference. The rear suspension was warn bushes and when you hit the rear brake the rear wheel jerked. Came of it a few times going around islands in the wet, good fun though. My mate had a James 197cc and we camped around swallow falls Wales it rained most of the week so bought a motor car as soon as I could. REG No KOE 702 I wonder where it is now!?…sold it to the daughter of a rep. I knew who was going to do it up!!! And ride it sold for about £7 Mine wasn’t as noisy as this one as I remember. Rob …….
I did my RAC/ACU test in 1971 on the same model Bantam. Memories of when all my joints worked properly.
My old Dad had one just like it, He eventually fitted a home made (but very smart) sidecar to it, and a 197 8E Villiers engine for some extra power. I remember its sounds, smells and deeply valanced mudguards! It seemed like half of Britain was riding Bantams ar one time. Great video Paul.
What a lovely little Bantam!
Thanks!
My Dad had a Bantam when I was quite small. I remember it as being grey with two separate saddles and the tank, mudguards etc looked very like yours. Jim, who lived across the street, used to get a new one every few years. He gave me a lift home from school a few times on one of the later 175cc models. It coped very well with him and a 12 year old me on the back, even though there was quite a steep hill to climb.
Fantastic Bantam, I cut my teeth on a 150 Bantam field bike, bought it for £30 in the 70's.
Great little bike...great films this weekend to.
Thanks!
I'd forgotten how huge the gap between 2nd and 3rd gear was on Bantams. I leannt to ride on an ex G.P.O. Bantam my mate and I bought for a fiver. We stripped all the legshields and mudguards off it and scrambled it around our local woods. I was about 14 at the time so it was 1968 or 69ish. It was a pig to start and we used to push it almost as much as we rode it! Now I realise the crank seals were probably shot but back then we just played with the mag and the carb and then kept pushing it for about 30 ft. before it would fire up. Kept you fit though!
Mario, I know exactly what you mean - we still have my first ever bike - a D3 swingarm Bantam with D7 engine fitted, now also belonging to my Son. Back when I first bought it in 1976 for £20, I had all the same 'fun' as you describe, with much pushing and walking involved!
Perfect bike for this habitat
He's a lucky lad right enough.
I've always had a soft spot for a D1 Bantam. 👍
That'll be a great bike for doing his licence on. I did mine via the much-missed RAC/ACU course on a C15 back in 1978. I was the only course participant on a British bike! He's a very lucky young man!
I was told o won't be able to take my licence on my Bantam as its not powerful enough. I had a licence in 1987 but had both my car and bike licences taken away after brain surgery. I repased my car test in 1989 and now about to do my CBT and then bike test in the spring all being well.
@@marksawyer3876 seriously? I was actually planning on doing my test on a D1 because I love them but I'll have to look into that
@@dietznutz1 how did you go with your test ….? Did you do it a Bantam ?
@@steveosshenanigans no, way too slow, I bought a us import 74" kawasaki g4
Got to love those old close ratio boxes! LOL.
Had a B175 in 1979! Great fun buzzing around on it!
Nice Bantam! That bike seems to run out really well. In my early desert racing days the standard 2-stroke mix ratio was 16:1 to 20:1, run the spark plug warm enough to stay clean. Lots of time spent powering up sand washes on 110F days and no seizures, but those pistons were all "high-silicon" too. Maybe castor bean oil might yield some extra lubrication at 30:1-40:1 mix ratios with low smoke, but decarbonizing becomes an important ritual. Thanks again for that Bantam video, they run a lot stronger than I thought they did. -ACR -
God bless you for keeping this thing running Paul. I suppose that, in the day, these might have had a place for a 5 or 10 mile commute to work. Very economical, of course. I can’t imagine a trip of a hundred miles on it though. Then again, these thoughts are from a guy who’s first bike was an A10.
In 1955 my Dad rode his D1 Bantam from Tunbridge Wells in Kent to Looe in Cornwall. He was wanting to see his girlfriend at the time who went on to be his wife, my mum.
@@marksawyer3876 Good on him. Surely a significant motivator. She must have lost all doubt about his commitment after that.👍
Will you be MY Father too, Mr. Henshaw? Seriously though, that's gotta be the coolest learner bike in Wales, and with proper old timey Chronometric half moon speedo goodness! Hell, I'd just as happily ride that fine old thing as my own Bullet 500, which actually ain't a hell if a lot faster. I adore 2-strokes. And particularly for a new rider that fine Bantam possesses several manifest virtues. Utmost may be its distinctive sound. That throbbing 2-stroke has such a uniquely insistent timbre, perhaps reminiscent of a dive-bombing WWII Stuka in fullpower descent, when compared to common ho-hum whispery motors nowadays that villagers and wildlife will far more quickly acknowledge it, and have plenty of advance warning of your hurtling kid's approach and so be afforded plenty of time to hurl themselves into the hedgerows. Just make sure the brakes and tires are tip-top, and promise us you'll burn a little sweet smelling Castor Oil in the thing for old time's sake now and again. I didn't really gather what the issue may have been that stalled you coming up that rather steepish hill with what I thought was the motor flailing just a bit too vigorously, but I'm sure it's fine.
Thanks, Bill. I think the stoppage was just a heat seizure, but it had a greater chance of survival from crawling up that hill in first gear when it happened, than if it might have been going flat out in top gear. All seems well with it, in any case!
Nice old D1 Bantam my first bike purchased as a box of bits literally a frame with wheels in it and a ruddy great box tied on the seat pushed it 9 miles to get it home to rebuild it
My first bike was one of those 53 years ago. It ran like that one and never made it there and back. You almost didn't. It's two years now since you posted this so I hope your son has more fun with it than I did with mine.
Sounds like an MZ TS125 I had years ago, excellent fun, enjoy the little beeza.
Thanks 👍
Brilliant. for my first bike I had a D5 Bantam 175 with the same front end and swing arm rear. Oh! yes and Wipac electrics ! such joy! I think it engine was a German design which the British nicked at the end of WW2.
DKW RT125!
That was a very enjoyable ride, and 45mph is fast enough when you cant see around the bends.
Great ride, Paul. I have quite a fondness for old 2 strokes. Next year I hope to license my newly acquired 1964 Kawasaki B8 125cc. It will be great to have a usable 2 stroke in my possession once again.
well at least your taking it out for a run : )
My first ride on a Bantam. A close ratio 6 speed would be fun. Thanks Paul.
YES ENJOYABLE RIDE JUST LIKE MY FIRST BIKE A BSA BANTAM D1 WHICH I BOUGHT BACK IN THE SIXTYS FOR £5
Love old two strokes.
There's some great old east European and Russian two strokes over here still. I know of two sitting in a village near me just waiting for some TLC.
If you can get your hands on one of those old ugly duckling East German MZ TS250s, once the favored mount of price-conscious UK learners (in the '70s they cost just £400 brand new), you'd do well. If you could get past their almost bizarrely eccentric styling, they were and are formidable and above all dead reliable rides. The various Soviet 4-stroke Beemer clones (Dnieper, Cossack, Ural), not so much. They're more a fettler's pastime. Sadly, not many of the MZs made it to our shores here in the Colonies. In contrast to the UK, where used ones could once be had for a couple of rounds at the pub, in the States they've always been sort of "rare collectibles".
Takes me back. Gear train seems a tad noisy (perhaps it's chain 'thrash'). I never had a Bantam - my first bike was a 250 Honda then later a C15. Tried a friend's "Speed Twin" once. Wow, the difference in power ! However, the smaller bikes have a charm all of their own. I'd really like a Bantam Trials bike now...
It really moves very well. Mine is so so slow((
It sounds just like my old Bond Minicar which had a 197cc Villiers engine.
I worked in a newsagent (selling tobacco, porn and tooth decay products) every school holiday and weekend to buy my first bikes at 15, & 16. D1/3 125cc, 150cc and D7 ? 175cc Naturally my father kicked me out as soon as school finished and then had his favourite son sell them. So gone or not I’m not forgetting nor forgiving either of them. What a contrast, I’m so glad for your son, it restores my faith, well up to the bit where you killed it on the hill ha ha.
Is he studying engineering ? They used to have a club to race these, and bits marketed at them (Todd heads,wal Philips fuel injectors etc) maybe still do. Thanks for the lovely ride.
Thanks and sorry you were treated badly, that is sad. My Son is studying architecture. Bantams are still very actively raced in the UK.
@@paulhenshaw4514That’s great, I hope he enjoys it. Did Clough-Ellis at Portmerion inspire him ?
I was quite shocked the last time I saw a d1, the owner valued it around £2k and that was several years ago, but it was a minter with the cockerel, the small cylinder head and the green paint, I paid £12.50 for my first bike a running but not road worthy d3 (I was too young for a licence) and then £45 for the all there and mot’d d7 175cc. That’s about 1974/5.
Every time I watch your videos I feel tempted to get a bike again. Thanks very much.
@@mygreatbigfoot1679 Thanks. My Son has seen Portmerion, but he was very young then, so I doubt it. He is just very interested in old vehicles, buildings, furniture, etc.
I used to do an open university course in design. There was a lot of that sort of thing covered in there, kettle and chair design,. But also exhortations to design by imagining all the infinite possibilities which has it’s place but not sadly in the grim realities of my world.eg black plastic tat, the chapter on house building they consider orientation of rooms against the compass and as if, as I’m someone living in a south facing bedroom I thought this is blooming marvellous. I’ve never seen anything but the same layout each side of the road.
Regrettably I dropped it. I saw the A framed bicycle they used on the video (when the BBC would air the OU, to the people, the OU also sent vhs tapes) and I recognised where it had been filmed. Coming home from night school, I was waiting in Brighton railway station and I said to myself ;”Oh my there’s that A frame bicycle from the Design course.” Then it dawned on me the thing was probably being pushed by the designer and that’s why I’d never seen one except here in a BR station twenty miles away from it’s photo in the OU Design course, ‘cos no one else had bought one probably. I’d given up pretty early but I’d designed my own bicycle lights (ubiquitous Ever Ready actually had design awards for self-disassembling and self-cutting-out lights, there’s money for you) from simply reusing plastic drinks bottles and a few switches and connected to a jell battery and also led light cell powered light for the wheels. I found it is one thing to design something and quite another to register, get a patent or a copy-write, I hope your son finds out about this. The Duracell company i had hoped OU would help me approach brought out a black plastic version that I have only seen on one bike and I thought “Black is it ? Best not-a -colour for a safety light ? I’m convinced when it comes to design an Italian film Rogopag ruclips.net/video/wv3_ly8r02M/видео.html (the last segment around 1:24:00 says it all ) made in the sixties said it all, manufacturers covertly manufactured discontent with their designed products on purpose while promising that their new products will impart satisfaction in order to keep their workers incentivised to fulfil their desire to pursue the dream of one fine day obtaining the perfect product, which they must never receive no matter how many times they upgrade and which of course they never finish the hp payments on, and so, the result achieved, better the treadmill than workers in revolt.
And that’s another good reason your films are a big hit with me, serviceable machines and minimal cheap, black, fragile, ugly plastic crap.
Fabulous, I hopefuy picking up my 1954 Bantam this week. Mine was my dad's and I last rode it 34 years ago. Is the conversion to 150cc straightforward. And what are the differences with the Todd heads? Thanks for posting this.
Hi Mark, this one was 'converted' by the fitment of a 150 cc engine, I don't know if 125 / 150 top ends are interchangeable or not - the 175 will not fit on a 150 though. The Todd heads give a huge increase in compression and have a squish band, both of which liven things up a good bit.
@@paulhenshaw4514 thank you Paul. I have fond memories of my dad talking about Todd racing engines.i think he also spoke about piston packing. We went on to build and race supercharged 750cc Triumph morgo engines running on Nitro. I'm tempted to look into two stroke tuning now.
I loved your video.
@@marksawyer3876 Thank you!
Wow what a change in ratios between gears …but I guess that’s to achieve a cruising speed that’s acceptable …from what is a very low powered engine.
Hi Paul l had a D7 bantam in 1974 bought it as a box of bits for £25 the frame had the wheels on l pushed it from Camborne to Stithians my mother carried the rest on her Vespa scooter , got it back together went to see Martin Jennings in Troon for an mot ,Martin said l let father mot the old bike he came out to do the test you done nice job to that boy but your brakes need some adjustment he did them for me gave me a certificate. Do you like British bikes I’ve got some here I’ll show you he went to one of his out buildings there was a row of machine’s under white sheets what do you think I’ve got here he said l didn’t have a clue the sheets came off it was a row Vincents black shadows seven of them then he went on to talk about there history. Martin and his father where good to the youngsters . Happy days
Nice story, thanks for sharing that, Colin!
Will the four speed gearbox from the later bantams fit these early engines ? There seems to be a huge gap between first and second.
I am not sure if the 4 speeder will fit or not - something in the mists tells me no, not without major surgery, if at all. There is also a huge gap from 2nd gear to top!
@@paulhenshaw4514 I was looking online, it can be done. But it takes a lot of machining and welding. The easier route is to just put the whole later engine into the d1 frame. It must fit ?
I have the same bike, but mine is 1956 D1.
yea it didn't like that hill seized up didn't it, so what oil to petrol mixture should it be 20/1 . . .
maybe raise the carb needle another notch too . .
We had a Todd high compression head fitted, which got it a bit hot and bothered on that hill. We had raised the needle already and the petrol / oil mix was 25:1. 20:1 could actually make it run hotter, as the fuel / air ratio would be weaker as a result of there being more oil in the fuel. strange, but true.
Are you sure its a 150?
The D1 I had ( same colour) was a 125.
Paid £2 10/- for it
Yes, it has a D3 engine fitted. This one cost slightly more than yours!
I winced when it seized, and you 'half expected' it! Edit- it was "not surprising" shouldn't really do that no matter what the strain.(well not in Welsh temperatures). I'd like a top end dismantled diagnostic video please as there are a few causes to consider, and your lad has probably suggested the same
'Half expected it', well, it is a 2 stroke after all and they can have such tendencies. That was a long, hard pull to be fair. I have had machines tighten like that before from time to time, with no harm done. If it happened going flat out in top, there would probably have been lots of damage, but it was in first, so not much momentum to do real harm - it stopped instantly. It ran fine afterwards, with no loss of power or compression, but we will probably take a look in there at some point, to make sure all is well.
Thanks for the reply, at least it didnt hole the piston! Spec ulating, without knowing the engines history, perhaps the Todd head which may have different squish shape or/and higher compression just tipped the balance of a slightly tight bore job or the ring end gap hasn't allowed enough room for heat expansion. Anyway l enjoy your videos
@@bananabrooks3836 Thank you!
D3 Bantam Major?
D1 with D3 engine.
@@paulhenshaw4514: How nostalgic! Like countless other lads, I spent my sixteenth birthday wobbling down the road on a D1 Bantam. It was an early Fifties model, with the Lucas coil ignition and rifle butt silencer. I learned to solder keeping the ignition and light switch working. The Cuban Missile Crisis was on at the time, making me wonder whether the world would still be there for me to take my test.
Needs more gears
These had only three speeds, the last175 models had four.
Hallo , Paul deze dame is niet meer de jongste . Deze Lady wil er niet zo fors er aan genomen worden , ge doet dat ook niet met jou vrouw (lol).