Peter Brown

VENDOR’S TALE:

I bought this bike eight years ago from a guy who’d supposedly restored it. The frame looked as if it had been painted with an under seal brush so it all had to come apart and be redone. Someone had also used industrial stainless steel fasteners with the wrong sized heads so that needed sorting. The motor wasn’t bad but I changed the seals as a matter of course. It came with a new barrel so I fitted that as well just to be sure. It fired up fine but was a pig to get into neutral and despite everything I did still refused to play ball. I took the clutch apart and fitted new plates and spring; after that it was just perfect. Turned out the steel plates were warped and this was what was causing the issues. I run a motorcycle restoration business and the main aim of getting the bike sorted was so I had something to display on my stand at the October 2016 Stafford show. I could have sold it several times over: that weekend it went to a 78-yearold collector for £3000. The early models are the ones in demand.