Here's the 1954 BSA B-31 on a camping trip to the coast. This photo was taken Oct 5 by HH. With a rider 68 years old and a bike 63 years old, they did quite well.
Everytime he rides one of his motorcycles (which is not everyday, but nearly) he says that particular bike is running beautifully, better than ever. The enthusiasm is without restraint. He claims that whoever rebuilt it was brilliant. He bought it on eBay and had it shipped from New Zealand
That was a long time ago. He's sold the other BSA, a 650 Lightning, because it' not that different from his 650 Triumph Tiger. Now he has a little more room in the shop. He keeps talking of selling other motorcycles, but I think people have to actually give him good offers, like the kind he can't refuse. That's how he sold the Lightning, not that he meant to. It just happened.
Anyway, back to this trip, which he says he'll do again next year, he was a little cold, and there wasn't enough daylight, and the ground was too hard, and it hurt just to get up in the morning, though he didn't sleep much. It was too dark to do anything other than stay in the sleeping bag and wait for dawn.
On the way home, he was zipping up a hill and the bike was running strong, until it wasn't. He limped home and fixed it and says an intake valve was too tight, though he'd thought it was a clogged fuel line, and he changed the fuel filter. Anyway, he fixed it after it got him home. (Hooray B-31). Now he says it's better than ever.
