Bring back happy memories of my younger years in West Cumbria A super part of the world for motorcycling We used to find these machines in barns sheds and garages AlsoBSA C11 C11 g C12 250 machines get them going and ride them Insurance and Tax was a fiver Happy days
this one was rusting away in a load of crates at the bottom of a spiral staircase in a mates flat covered in rubbish, been there decades, amazingly reliable machine, I have been running it trouble free for 10 years now, even had it on the motorway numerous times😄
Cracking little Bessie there matey. You ride it like you stole it 😂. The engine sounds very quiet and the tickover says it all. Its amazing how many folk kick their pluck out trying to start bikes then they wont tickover… well done .
@@GeneralMe100 Thanks Gen Me, I messed around for years with the C15's but couldn't get them to run as good as yours. Yes this B31 is very reliable and great to ride.
My grandpas friend has a bsa rocket gold star clubman it’s mental 60mph in 1st gear I’m scared of it 😂 I’ve got a royal Enfield bullet 350 absolutely love it tell you what though without knee pads on the tank you’d need knee replacements after 6 months the vibration is mental 😂😂
In the early eighties I owned a 1959 C15 reg NHL 481, it was a post office red colour. I could never get it to run properly so I sold it cheap as seen for £65. The buyer later told me that the carburettor was oval and a replacement carb cured it's poor running problem. The C15 was stolen a few months after I'd sold it, the owner assumed that it had been stolen for it's original tin wear.
I owned a 1963 SS80 (sports version of C15), back in the day. Very proud of it, until a Honda CB92 (125cc) came along side me and blew me away. 🤦🏻 God, it was so embarrassing.
I never could stand jap bikes, had a piece of crap Z750 and wallowing GS850, hadn't lived until I got my 1964 Triumph Thunderbird, I also had an SS80 when I was in my teens, its what prompted me to build this bike, its not as quick as my old SS80, but still does about 70mph and accelerates beautifully for a 250 single, but what it does outstandingly well is its reliability, I havent had to do a thing to it in the entire 8 years its been on the road, nothing would have ever tempted me to ride an old press steel buzzing bean can on wheels like a CB92, I would have been embarrassed as a young rocker to be seen on it and it certainly would not have kept up with my SS80 or got you layed, Jap bikes not only look all generic and pathetic, but they don't invoke any kind of passion, you won't find any jap crotch rocket drawing a crowd like old British Iron at the bike meet, the modern ones are even worse, ''ride modes'' not a chance would I ride a motorcycle without a direct connection to my being, might as well drive a car.
@GeneralMe100 😂 My SS80 was bloody annoying. 1. The mushroom distributer that stuck up above the engine casings, (what a stupid place for it - it totally destroyed the esthetics of the engine) had the ha it of rotating at high speed (65mph) and self adjusting the timing. 2. The centre stand was badly designed an kept on clattering the frame as I went along. Solutions: I used to reach down and rotate the distributer whilst going along until the engine sounded as if it was running sweetly again. I took the centre stand off & bought a side stand.
@@MySteaming lol... none of that is by design, if the points mushroom spun its because the clamp had been over tightened and the thrread stripped, it needed a new clamp, the issue of course is the clamp is fitted inside the inner gearbox case, so its like an hours work to do one, the useful thing about the mushroom if the clamp is ok is it doesn't need an oil seal behind the points cam and its easier to set the points and change condensor etc, although mine has the mushroom I fitted a boyer electronic ignition in there, it didn't change anything in the bikes performance or reliability but I picked one up cheap so I fitted it, likewise the center stand is not badly designed or mine would clatter against the frame, its just your stand return spring had worn out or it had the wrong one which is quite common, as people stick anything on that works, these bikes get bodged in a way people would never do to other vehicles they own on the grounds of the ''work on them yourself'' mantra, yet they wouldn't work on their new jap bike, if they did, their jap bike would also piss oil, break down and have issues in the same way, I'm a time served mechanic, my C15 has zero issues and zero oil leaks, in fact none of my vintage bikes have any issues that could be considered by design.
@GeneralMe100 One more issue I forgot. Kick Start Pawl failure... It was a continual issue throughout the life of the Bike. I used to replace them on a regular basis. I eventually bought them half a dozen at a time & also used to get the damaged ones welded at work & the 'edge' re-ground on them. Swinging Arms Bush replaced also... Of course, brake shoes were also changed at intervals. So I knew quite a bit around my SS80.
@GeneralMe100 As I recall, the distributor retaining collar inside the engine casino was made of aluminium (although my memory may serve me wrong) & the long threaded bolt was steel. A very bad idea to mix aluminium & steel fastenings. An electrolytic action takes place between the two metals. If the retaining collar was made from aluminium, a steel thread insert should have been deployed in the aluminium collar. Maybe Thread Inserts hadn't been invented in 1959, I don't know! But I do know that they've been used extensively in the Aeropspace Industry for many decades. The 1964 Hillman Imp had a war time Coventry Climax fire pump engine. It was made of Aluminium & WITHOUT Thread Inserts being deployed. Loads of threads got stripped in the engine block with botched maintenance & repairs...
That was so heart warming. Riders these days don't know what they are missing. I had a '71 B50ss GoldStar 500 and it was awesome.😊
Bring back happy memories of my younger years in West Cumbria A super part of the world for motorcycling We used to find these machines in barns sheds and garages AlsoBSA C11 C11 g C12 250 machines get them going and ride them Insurance and Tax was a fiver Happy days
this one was rusting away in a load of crates at the bottom of a spiral staircase in a mates flat covered in rubbish, been there decades, amazingly reliable machine, I have been running it trouble free for 10 years now, even had it on the motorway numerous times😄
Remember them well. Like most BSA's the C15 was a gem.
sounds good
Cracking little Bessie there matey. You ride it like you stole it 😂. The engine sounds very quiet and the tickover says it all. Its amazing how many folk kick their pluck out trying to start bikes then they wont tickover… well done .
shes such a nice bike to ride, even though I have other much larger bikes she still sees plenty of road time, handles as well as she goes.
Nice to see a C15 running right and actually ticks over.
Its only when a bike is how it should be it can be judged, love your B31
@@GeneralMe100 Thanks Gen Me, I messed around for years with the C15's but couldn't get them to run as good as yours. Yes this B31 is very reliable and great to ride.
My grandpas friend has a bsa rocket gold star clubman it’s mental 60mph in 1st gear I’m scared of it 😂 I’ve got a royal Enfield bullet 350 absolutely love it tell you what though without knee pads on the tank you’d need knee replacements after 6 months the vibration is mental 😂😂
Great video.
That is a well set up C15. It accelerates so much better than mine. Lovely idle. It's a looker, too
thanks, I really enjoy riding this bike, imagine what a great run we could do on the pair of them 😊
Those C15's sound lovely, nice deep exhaust note .
love riding this little bike about
I had a one in 62 when I passed my test all I can say is that I didn’t miss it
wasn't a good one then, same year as mine, mines absolutely lovely to ride.
Yellow!
They never came out of the factory in that colour.
nope, but it came out of my factory that colour
In the early eighties I owned a 1959 C15 reg NHL 481, it was a post office red colour. I could never get it to run properly so I sold it cheap as seen for £65. The buyer later told me that the carburettor was oval and a replacement carb cured it's poor running problem. The C15 was stolen a few months after I'd sold it, the owner assumed that it had been stolen for it's original tin wear.
Its often simple fixes like that :)
I owned a 1963 SS80 (sports version of C15), back in the day.
Very proud of it, until a Honda CB92 (125cc) came along side me and blew me away. 🤦🏻
God, it was so embarrassing.
I never could stand jap bikes, had a piece of crap Z750 and wallowing GS850, hadn't lived until I got my 1964 Triumph Thunderbird, I also had an SS80 when I was in my teens, its what prompted me to build this bike, its not as quick as my old SS80, but still does about 70mph and accelerates beautifully for a 250 single, but what it does outstandingly well is its reliability, I havent had to do a thing to it in the entire 8 years its been on the road, nothing would have ever tempted me to ride an old press steel buzzing bean can on wheels like a CB92, I would have been embarrassed as a young rocker to be seen on it and it certainly would not have kept up with my SS80 or got you layed, Jap bikes not only look all generic and pathetic, but they don't invoke any kind of passion, you won't find any jap crotch rocket drawing a crowd like old British Iron at the bike meet, the modern ones are even worse, ''ride modes'' not a chance would I ride a motorcycle without a direct connection to my being, might as well drive a car.
@GeneralMe100 😂
My SS80 was bloody annoying.
1. The mushroom distributer that stuck up above the engine casings, (what a stupid place for it - it totally destroyed the esthetics of the engine) had the ha it of rotating at high speed (65mph) and self adjusting the timing.
2. The centre stand was badly designed an kept on clattering the frame as I went along.
Solutions:
I used to reach down and rotate the distributer whilst going along until the engine sounded as if it was running sweetly again.
I took the centre stand off & bought a side stand.
@@MySteaming lol... none of that is by design, if the points mushroom spun its because the clamp had been over tightened and the thrread stripped, it needed a new clamp, the issue of course is the clamp is fitted inside the inner gearbox case, so its like an hours work to do one, the useful thing about the mushroom if the clamp is ok is it doesn't need an oil seal behind the points cam and its easier to set the points and change condensor etc, although mine has the mushroom I fitted a boyer electronic ignition in there, it didn't change anything in the bikes performance or reliability but I picked one up cheap so I fitted it, likewise the center stand is not badly designed or mine would clatter against the frame, its just your stand return spring had worn out or it had the wrong one which is quite common, as people stick anything on that works, these bikes get bodged in a way people would never do to other vehicles they own on the grounds of the ''work on them yourself'' mantra, yet they wouldn't work on their new jap bike, if they did, their jap bike would also piss oil, break down and have issues in the same way, I'm a time served mechanic, my C15 has zero issues and zero oil leaks, in fact none of my vintage bikes have any issues that could be considered by design.
@GeneralMe100 One more issue I forgot.
Kick Start Pawl failure...
It was a continual issue throughout the life of the Bike.
I used to replace them on a regular basis.
I eventually bought them half a dozen at a time & also used to get the damaged ones welded at work & the 'edge' re-ground on them.
Swinging Arms Bush replaced also...
Of course, brake shoes were also changed at intervals.
So I knew quite a bit around my SS80.
@GeneralMe100 As I recall, the distributor retaining collar inside the engine casino was made of aluminium (although my memory may serve me wrong) & the long threaded bolt was steel.
A very bad idea to mix aluminium & steel fastenings.
An electrolytic action takes place between the two metals.
If the retaining collar was made from aluminium, a steel thread insert should have been deployed in the aluminium collar.
Maybe Thread Inserts hadn't been invented in 1959, I don't know!
But I do know that they've been used extensively in the Aeropspace Industry for many decades.
The 1964 Hillman Imp had a war time Coventry Climax fire pump engine.
It was made of Aluminium & WITHOUT Thread Inserts being deployed.
Loads of threads got stripped in the engine block with botched maintenance & repairs...