Next Bike

[Barnsey]

Dear All,

Having very much enjoyed fixing up my C50 I am looking towards my next bike to do. I would welcome ideas.

What I like about my C50:

1) Small enough and light enough that I can put it in my cabin to work on.
2) Excellent parts availability
3) Very simple and everything is very accessible
4) As a project it is small enough that it doesn't have to dominate my life, I can do a couple of hours work on a Sunday morning and then close the door on it.

I am not so keen on:
1) A little slow for keeping up with the traffic, but not a major issue.
2) Prices are getting a bit silly for what it is in my humble opinion.

Bikes I have considered are:
Honda S90, C200, CT100, BSA Bantam, Royal Enfield Bullet.

And tinkering is important to me, as much as riding.

Regards,
Ian

[Capitano]

That's a good list, given your sentiment.

Good luck.

[Barnsey]

I might add Honda SR 650 / Dominator to the list.

[bikerbaker]

I might add Honda SR 650 / Dominator to the list.

A good mate has one as his everyday bike. He has the choice of more modern and older bikes but prefers it since he did a top end rebuild a few years ago. He had a hip replacement this year too and finds it the easiest to manage.

[Barnsey]

It sounds like quite a good option then. I might also add the Enfield Himalayan, although they probably aren't old enough to become a potential project.

[Earnest Thrasher]

If you like tinkering, any of the small Hondas. If you fancy an Enfield, based on many, many years of ownership, and huge mileages, go for a late unmolested 350 Bullet. I've had both 500 efi bikes, and a Himalayan. Once Enfield have their supply chain sorted out, then I would only consider them, otherwise, a good old iron barrel 350 Bullet, and a box of spanners would be my choice.

[Barnsey]

Interesting.... So, how is the 350 better than the 500? I confess that I had thought of the 350 but only in as much as I could have fun upgrading it to 500 spec. I also thought to go for a 1990s bike with carbs and drum brakes, for the tinkering, but others may disagree.

Oh! and by the way, I already have quite a few spanners, not in a box, but like a flock of ducks across my cabin wall.

[Newtsalad]

C200 is a very nice bike, and the prices aren't ridiculous yet. However the exhaust system is rare and difficult to source. But can be fabricated with some skill from other exhausts.

[Barnsey]

I saw one sell on EBay a couple of days ago which would have been a perfect project. Annoyingly I am not in a position to put in a serious bid yet. I doen't mean that I can't do the research though.

[wightegi]

The south coast bikers facebook group have a few bike for sale and look at wightbay 10 minutes away by hovercraft.