Rolling back the years – BSA, Honda & Moto Guzzi at Broxton.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about meeting a guy called Ian who was on his pretty impressive Triumph TR6 and who I had met when I stopped at the Broxton Butty Van (get directions here) located behind the Edgerton Arms in Broxton. When I wrote that post I referenced the iconic 1960’s Honda advert – ‘you meet the nicest people on a Honda’.

When I had met with Ian we had left with an intention to meet up again for a coffee and Ian would bring along his newly completed restoration of  BSA 650 with Lighting engine. For my part I turned up on my Moto Guzzi V7.

Bringing life to the Honda advert and proving that it really is true that you meet the nicest people on a Honda a guy called Dave turned up on his incredibly impressive Honda CB 750. I’ve had my Moto Guzzi 12 years but it transpired that Dave has owned his CB750 for some 50 years!

What’s in this post

Apart from a few words there are four sets of pictures in this post. The first has pictures of Dave’s remarkable CB750 and the second set feature Ian’s impressive BSA 650 build.

Picture set three features my Moto Guzzi and the fourth and final set are a few pictures run through a couple of software filters for a bit of fun and to bring a 1950s Agfa film style to them.

Rain threatened to stop play

I had arranged to make the 50 mile or so journey on the Moto Guzzi and meet up around 10:30. The weather around 6:00 was grey and rainy.  I’m long since past the point of wanting to actively choose to ride in the rain so messaged Ian to say best to review our plans a little later. Happily by around 8:30 or so the sun was out, the roads were dry and a pleasant day seemed in prospect.

Coffee and chat

We had a decent coffee, a good catch up and an enjoyable chat. Ian is undoubtedly a clever and skilled bike builder.

Ian and Dave enjoyed a ‘technical chat’ that easily outstripped my knowledge but nevertheless it was a chat I was happy to be a part of.

We chatted about bikes we had owned and places we had travelled to – we even ventured onto photography, touched on astronomy and Ian told me of an interesting wildlife photo opportunity… but that’s for another day (and another blog)

 

It was whilst chatting over coffee that an immaculate and seriously impressive Honda 750 turned up. The rider introduced himself as Dave and joined us for coffee and general bike chat. I’m no expert on the Honda 750 but I do know that the CB750 (launched in 1969) was an absolute game changer for the motorcycle industry.

The Honda was quicker and faster than most of the competition from other manufacturers, a production bike with a four cylinder engine and the first with disc brakes – along with the description of superbike.

The introduction of this model meant Honda could really expand their position in the American motorcycle market.

Incredible sales success

The bike sold quickly, much quicker than Honda had anticipated and the factory struggled to keep up with demand. Early plans were aimed at selling about 1,500 units a year. It didn’t take long to up that figure to 3,000  …. a month!

An interesting point is that because the original plan had been to knock out only about 1,500 units a year the crankcases were initially manufactured using the sand casting technique. Rapid sales meant that this labour intensive process wasn’t viable which in turn saw the factory tool up for mass production.

By the time they moved away from sand casting and to a cheaper and more efficient manufacturing process around 7,000 ‘sand-cast’ 750s had been made. It’s these models that often command the best prices from collectors.

You can read plenty more about the Honda CB70 at this Wikipedia link or this link at the SOHC/4 Owners Club

Picture set one – Honda 750

Have a look at the pictures below – this bike has done over 180,000 miles. Click any image to open the pictures set to click or scroll through

BSA 650

The first time Ian and I had met he was riding a pretty impressive 1971 Triumph TR6 that he had worked on and restored. This time out Ian was riding a magnificent looking BSA 650 Bobber with the lighting engine. I don’t know enough about the marque to talk in any detail about the BSA bikes but I do know (and as you might reasonably expect) there were different variants of the model.

The differences included engines (Thunderbolt, Lightning), there was different carburation – single on the Thunderbolt, twin on the Lightning and different braking systems were used during the production lifecycle.

Dunce corner

I don’t want to offend BSA experts, BSA specialists, BSA lovers and those whose mastery of the marque puts me in a place that is even darker than being in the shade so I won’t attempt to say much more about the model.

There really is an absolute wealth of information online including the Wikipedia entry on the BSA Twins at this link. The British Classic Motorcycles site is interesting and with more information than you can shake a stick at.

Picture set two – BSA 650 (lightning engine)

Although I don’t have Ian’s mechanical skills and general bike building expertise I can still appreciate a job well done – and his 650 Bobber is a gem.

Easy on the eye

Whether it’s the hardtail that sets the bike off, the white seat, the magnificent chain tensioner, the beautiful large finned exhaust clamps, the oil tank or a raft of other details – this bike just works.

It was pretty evident as well from the looks and comments from one or two others that this bike is easy on the eye. Oh and it sounds fantastic as well.

Have a look at the bike in the pictures below. Click any image to open the picture set to click or scroll through.

Picture set three – Moto Guzzi

There is plenty of information and pictures from over the years of my Moto Guzzi on this blog- including this picture post from 2021.

A straight copy and paste (in italics below) from the autoevolution web site about the V7 Cafe Classic states that:

In 2009, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer launched the Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Classic, a slightly different motorcycle than the base model that packed the same technical, visual, and performance specifications as the 2008 Cafe Classic model.

The Moto Guzzi V7 Classic was a retro-looking motorcycle presented at the 2007 Milan Motorcycle Show as a proposal for the vintage-style motorcycle market.

The bike was based on the Breva 750 model and featured limited chassis and engine variations. Compared to the base model, the Cafe Classic version had the same shape, the same Lagnano Green livery as the V7 Sport version, a seat with an integrated tail, and a raised dual-exhaust system.

Standard features

The bike packed standard features in the visual department, such as wire-spoke wheels, a dual exhaust system, side-mounted rear shocks, a one-piece dual seat, a low handlebar, and a round headlight up front with instruments mounted on top.

Underneath the tank

Underneath its fuel tank, the engineers fitted the 2009 Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Classic with a 744cc four-stroke V-twin air-cooled engine with a Weber-Marelli fuel injection system in charge, boasting 49 hp at 6,800 rpm and 57 Nm (42 lb-ft) torque at 3,600 rpm. The braking performance was achieved by a 320 mm floating disc on the front coupled to a four-piston caliper and a 260 mm disc on the rear wheel tied to a single-piston caliper.

Click any image to open the pictures set to click or scroll through

Picture set four – old school?

I’ll finish off this post with a little messing about with the photo software – using two filters a 1950’s style filter and an Agfa film style filter. Clicking on any image will open the picture set to click or scroll through