The next project

 Now that I have finished the 1961 Royal Enfield Crusader restoration and got some decent "confidence miles" built up under her tyres (380 at the time I'm writing this, including our recent Isle of Man adventure), thoughts turned to what the next restoration project should be. I have a loose agreement with Gail that I can have 2 bikes on the road at any one time and one "in the shed" 😆

I do like riding bikes, particularly where an adventure is involved, rather than just an aimless local run out, but I really love that very different aspect of the hobby, which is bringing a sad relic back to life!

Many bikes have passed through the Shearer Home for Lost Causes over the years, mostly Japanese, but also British and (a long time ago) French. The Crusader restoration was my first "old" British bike and there have been aspects of that that I have really liked: the simplicity of the old design; the sturdiness with which everything was built and, now that it's running, the noise; sweet handling and the feeling that I'll be able to fix (or temporarily bodge!) most things at the roadside if anything goes wrong (touch wood!).

But there are also aspects that have been less appealing. The seeming mish mash of imperial fixings; the relatively poor performance from brakes and suspension etc. The jury is out on whether I'll get used to the gear change and rear brakes being on the "wrong" side from what I'm used to.

Having said all of that, I was really drawn to the idea of one of the smaller British twins as a next project - 350 / 500 Triumph, BSA or Royal Enfields for example. Most of that draw is from the sound of the 360 degree twin exhaust note - very evocative of a certain era. When I started looking around though, even quite rough examples of those were commanding prices of £2-3,000. That's just too much for what I am prepared to spend on a hobby.

I have always been quite attracted to the idea of a Moto Guzzi, but probably considered them to be a bit too "exotic" (aka expensive) for my means through most of my riding career. But I was taken by the idea of the small block Guzzis after watching a YouTube video comparing the V50 with the, similar format but quite radically different, Honda CX500. One of the things I did notice was that the exhaust note on the Guzzi was really distinctive in a similar but different way to the old British bikes.

A little more research showed that the prices for both project bikes and also spares was considerably cheaper than the British bikes; there is a thriving user group and plenty of specialist suppliers.

Shortly afterwards, I came across a bike on Facebook Marketplace, not an hour away from me. This was a 1981 V50 mark II, that the "previous, previous" owner had done a pretty rough "hipster cafe racer" conversion on. Incidentally, this modern cafe racer thing is nothing like what I remember as cafe racers! 

Cafe Racer

Not a Cafe Racer

Anyway, I digress! The guy selling it had bought it to further modify, so that it would fit in the back of his motorhome! After checking that it ran well (allegedly - we'll find out!), he'd stripped it down. Then he got a spare frame, which he'd butchered a bit before losing interest and buying a small trail bike to go in the motorhome instead.

The "previous, previous" owner had actually spent quite a lot of money on the bike and had some decent stuff done, which I reckoned actually totalled up to more than the asking price. I went to see it and after checking everything over, in particular that the engine was free and all the gears engaged, agreed a 25% reduction on the price and came home with it in the boot of the car!