Britbike forum Forums British motorcycles in general British motorcycles in general $1000 Brit Bike

Not sure if there are any fellow members here, but New England TOMCC is holding a competition this upcoming summer and the gist is a weekend of riding on a bike that costs $1000 or less and has a displacement of 80-500cc, with a points system for country of manufacture, reliability, hours spent under repair, etc.

I want to try do it on a Brit bike, specifically a Triumph but I also feel like there are some cheap BSA singles out there. Does anyone have any tips on specific models that might be a little overlooked and thus a bit cheaper? Hoping to find something on the low at the York Swap, so far craigslist hasn’t yielded anything worth inquiring about.

I haven't seen any britbikes for less than $1500 - and I'm actively looking right now - the cheapest one I found was a Victor of questionable provenance on eBay for $850. However, I have seen many, many, Honda CM400As (many) for about 500 bucks all over the place on craigslist. Watch out - 2 speed semi-automatic coming through!

the hawks were reasonable. dunnoabout the A but the othrr two were okay.. disc or drum, electronic ignition, Honda quality.

whats not to like?

Even the A's are pretty reliable - they're just the 400 with a weird semi-auto transmission - they have a torque converter, and you can still get some rebuild parts for it. Hey, if the bike was good enough for Prince...

If you're going to stay within the spirit of the event and not end up getting a "buddy" deal........IMO you're going to be hard pressed to find a weekend worthy Brit for under $1000.

I'm assuming that "cost" includes the purchase price and what you have to pay to it to get it on the road ?

Not an impossible task but probably going to boil down to luck finding something in that price range that's Brit.

Triumph TR25W.......probably your best bet???????

Good luck

It’s $1000 to purchase a bike and an additional $500 allowance to get it roadworthy. I feel like the $500 repair cost gives me a little leeway.

You're hard pressed to find a running TR25W at ANY price...

Steve, that's because they were JUNK to begin with.

Okay......that's much better. $1500 is enough to find a runner....,....at least one that would last a weekend.

Just found a 69 BSA starfire for $900 about 3 hours north of me, waiting on pictures, although I’m pretty unfamiliar with the model. Gordon I know you take yours on fairly long rides

Yes sir......I put my 1967 C25 together for a Moto Giro USA bike.......that's a weekend with lots of riding and I did 4. Last trip I took on it was........ 250 miles one way. Bike did fine and I actually rode on I-40 through Asheville, NC during one part of it.

A little buzzy compared to the B44.......but on the flat they'll keep up with them.

You should be able to pull this off......69 had a good front brake and the 250 unit single is a pretty simple engine to work on. Can't wait to see the photos and follow along.

Not sure if it'll help (or would be considered cheating).......but I have lots of good used parts for them...... well within your budget ( I'd be happy to be a sponsor) Peter Quick would be my first choice when looking for bits......AND his site BSA UNIT SINGLES has workshop, parts and owners manual....all free and downloadable.

Thanks for the tips on the BSA singles site and very much appreciate the parts offer Gordon! I’ll keep you posted on progress with the potential 69. Even if that one falls through I think a B25 might be the right avenue to pursue

Pretty sure this one has a B44 engine in it but you get the idea......most of it is a 1969 B25. The B25's top end comes off without having to take the engine out of the frame.

The Triumph TR25W is pretty much the same bike......or can be made into the same bike.

No luck with the link Steve, can you share a screenshot of the post so I can look on FB?

So what? You buy the bike on Friday and have to have it running for a ride on Sunday?

You have to commit to the ride by January 15th 2023 and have until August to secure a bike / get it street worthy.

You could spend a lot of money in 5-6 months

But IMO $1500 is doable. I mean you're not making a cross country trip are you??? Any idea how far you have to ride it? Guess it needs to pass some kind of state inspection to get tagged? Assuming you're riding on public roads?

Interesting idea......I like it.

In my opinion it looks like the organizer is trying to get us hoarder/collectors off our butts and get some of those bikes running.

There's one last basket case Goldie lurking in my yard that cost me way less than $1500.00. It's a sure winner if they award bonus points for the most time spent under repairs.

Even better if they give points for buying it way too many years ago.

I paid $300 for my Velo. Paid Geoff Dodkin $600 to do the bottom end, and had about $500 in other odds and ends to get it on the road. Of course that was in the 80's.

Ed from NJ

Simon from NETOMCC sent the rules and points system around, should clear up any questions (certainly did for me).

$1000 Bike Challenge

Points system

Sorry about the link Vincent... for some reason I, alone, can open it here, but this has happened before... apparently Farcebook likes me more than y'all other folks. And I'm way too cyber-inept to do anything further with this, so best I can tell you is what I posted is too far away from you to be of interest as far as purchase. Was just a sale of a 69 Starfire project for $800 in California.

Best of luck with your purchase (hold out for a 441!).

Well, I guess not after all. It's a documentation headache. They want proof of purchase price, and as a swap meet buyer, I've got very little of that. Do you suppose they would accept a very detailed account of how and where each part was purchased? Surprisingly, I do remember a lot of that.

But, I do think I have a $50.00 bill of sale for a TR25W frame that's leaning against the side yard fence. And $150.00 B44EA swap meet engine that'll drop right in. That makes it a bass ackwards TriBSA.

The VIN number would qualify it for the 10 Triumph bonus points.

Sounds like they might award points for cleverness too. It's almost enough to make me want to move out of California.

Stuart, I only joined TOMCC earlier in the year, mostly for access to the dating services to verify the legitimacy of my TT project, but my guess is they’re going to take people at their word re documentation. I could certainly get a friend to give me a deal on a 500 Triumph and get some bill of sale together for the weekend, but that’s just bad for riding juju. I’m sure your bitsa would go over fine though.

I would love to take part in an event like this, but I won't likely be anywhere near at the time.

But the only way you're going to make everybody honest in an event like this is to make it a "claiming" event where all competitors machines must be able to be purchased for a price; ie $1500 or possibly a bit more. Then no documentation is even needed!

However, I am in the same boat as Stuart in that I have parts from many different vendors, but very little documentation. But, as I am in the process of building a B44 VS frame into which will go a TR25W motor, my build is on even though I may not get there.

Tom