BSA A65 Thunderbolt and Royal Enfield Constellation take 15 mile ride together.

The owner of the Constellation came to collect his machine today, and wanted to take what turned out to be his first ride on it before loading it into the van for a long journey home. The ride was certainly not uneventful, and our 29 minutes the camera can do in one hit was up before we reached home, thanks to that stall at the junction with the A482. Another stall at the A40 crossing, after the camera had stopped, led to my lending the A65 to the owner so I could push and freewheel the R.E. back to base. However, while freewheeling, I put it into gear, let out the clutch and it started, so I rode it back the short distance to base, where a swap of spark plugs seemed to sort the problem and the owner was able to start it while hot several times in succession.
In case anyone might be interested, the BSA ran fine, still no sign of any misfiring!

[@ChasDean-d8y]

Hi Paul. Just as a matter of interest, I've had serious misfiring and random, intermittent stoppages on my bike, initially caused by the ammeter. Once the bike had rested for a few minutes, it was all go again. For a while. After that was fixed, no worries for a few thousand until the ignition switch died, with varying indications from serious misfiring to complete failure. The only thing that's proved robust enough is a simple, cheap rocker switch I put on the bars. New Lucas - internal fail. New aftermarket - wire broke off. Repaired aftermarket - blew fuses and died. Rocker switch cruises on, unconcerned. I hate misfires!

[@norsehall309]

G'day Paul, always great too ride with a mate especially when your a Motorcycle mechanic, went for a ride yesterday on my 1960 Super Rocket and on the return leg right exhaust start blowing smoke, so that machine is on the bike lift, I'm sure it a loose valve guide, O well good thing l know what I'm doing, cheers mate ride safe, Neil 🤠.

[@track1219]

Nice scenery, good sounds!

[@martinowl]

Two great looking bikes. The RE looks really tidy.👍

[@williamnethercott4364]

Handy that the roads were quiet for your customer getting used to his new bike. Also a fine it of customer care! That BSA is still singing.

[@garryhorton9105]

Nice change Paul with another bike in the camera lens and the beezer is running superbly 👍🏼nice work😊

[@paulhenshaw4514]

Thanks 👍

[@-old-school-motorcyclesltd]

Great to see two bikes out the Enfield looked a beauty. The owner seems a little unsure about his machine but you soon sorted it great.. heh your BSA A65 looks brilliant out in the country lanes.. great colour aswell

[@paulhenshaw4514]

Thanks 👍

[@andrewlengert2558]

I sold my super meteor in the late eighties, got despondent when decent spares seemed to dry up,needed two new std. Pistons, could only get crap Italian pistons from peter Hepworth, he only had 2nd overs, so had a rebore, holed one piston, (they were shite too soft) rang him up, he said he'd only got std size! W°°°°° R. Managed to get a hepolite piston ran ok then sold it. Wish I kept it now etc etc etc

[@adammedyna2365]

Very defensing riding of a new RE owner ( I'm not surprised ), but this could be a root of his problem with stalling a bike. Another thing is to remember about ignition timing control and pushing it back when slowing / idling. But both bike looked and sound great.

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

Come on people hit the like button 🔘 it doesn't hurt. If you watch 🎯 hit it.

[@anthonycarty9433]

Always do .

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

@@anthonycarty9433 l wish everyone would hit the button 🔘.

[@hermangibbs8163]

Nice ride as always. Thanks !

[@maskedavenger2578]

The wild ones 👍

[@SLED649]

Good ride!👍

[@paulhenshaw4514]

Thanks 👍

[@erik_dk842]

Why was he looking down at the engine all the time? The BSA sounds really good

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

What's a trip w/o your doggie buddy saying Hello? 😂

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

The black licence plate looks so much better than the new ones.l was so disappointed l thought that they would double up the 350 pre unit like the old company did. I liked the Rickman Intercepter because it was my favorite color orange 🍊🧡. Iwish l bought a Norton Hi- Rider because it looked so cool 😎 and it was orange 🧡🍊 too. I like the fact that British motorcycles shift on the Right side,it adds to their character.

[@alansivkoff282]

Actually up until the influx of Japanese bikes, most motorcycles were right hand shift.

[@frankmarkovcijr5459]

@@alansivkoff282 That's why the government mandated left hand shift. Even Sportsters had to go to left hand shift. They were right hand shift to be in line with the British motorcycles. Ducati had shift on whatever side was mandated by whatever country it was going to. I hate the government regulations on today's motorcycles. Where ever your shift is you learn it . Part of the charm of a British motorcycles is shifting on the right side. It's part of their character.

[@markmenzies4218]

Mabey back off the mixture screw a wee bit on the Enfield. might start better when it's hot. set slightly rich?

[@jerryhatley5004]

Fun ride….what is the top speed for each bike?

[@paulhenshaw4514]

Probably about 110 mph for the RE and about 105 mph for the BSA.

[@SapoPeta-c6x]

Seems like the average speed is around 45mph. Got myself an a65l and never got to make it go over 80mph. Is that normal? Thanks in advance and sorry for the poor English

[@paulhenshaw4514]

It is possible your A65 had very low gearing, as did one I worked on. changing the gearbox sprocket for a larger one made a big improvement.

[@SapoPeta-c6x]

Thanks a lot for the kind reply​@@paulhenshaw4514

[@ricbarnes6272]

Two beautiful examples of olde british crap singing on down the road. Vunderbar. Pay no attention to those people who get their kicks running down other peoples' happy spots, imagine the very lack of enjoyment these people don't have in their lives, very sad for them. The olde b'ser sounds pretty smooth eh!, thanks for your videos, i watch pretty well all of them & i've ownwed & loved some olde british crap in my younger times, it used to be over here in canada that if you rode a triumph, norton , bsa, you really were king of the road. Ric, ontario canada, 76 yrs young & i have 2 bikes which i ride nearly every day, a few times in winter just to thumb my nose at the cold. Now we're starting our riding season & of course our gasoline has just now gone thro' the roof thanks to our illustrious pair of tyrants, justine & his faithful dog chrystia. Ride on, stay free & to hell with them all.

[@brieneaton8578]

As another 76 year old Canuck , I agree. HONK HONK !

[@chrisb4504]

You need to take some chicken out with you and give it to the dog then he’ll always be your best friend

[@roythearcher]

If theres one advantage of having had Japanese bikes, it's the standardisation of controls. All the bikes I've ever owned which were Japanese had gears, from whichever manufacturer, which were one down and the rest, be it 5 or 6 speed, were up. There was no guesswork of which way the lever had to go in order to get a gear!...

[@paulhenshaw4514]

Try an early Kawasaki 500 Triple, with neutral at the bottom and five up, or a Bridgestone 4/6 speed box where you keep going from 1st, up to 4th, then next up, back to 1st again ...

[@amelierenoncule]

Is WALES a member of the EU ? This I ask, because I heard a disturbing report of a proposal to outlaw 'classic ' motorbikes ! ---Safety Issues & Concerns--

[@rover100bunson]

i enjoyed watching that load of crap going down the road

[@gordonsuddery4635]

Nice one Paul how did the owner get on with the A65 while you showed him how it's done ❤️💭🤔💪👍😉😀😁🏁🏍️🛺🐑🇵🇭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿