What to buy?

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Hi Graham

This is a reasonable question but difficult to answer without seeing the bikes. I can understand that reducing depreciation is a reasonable objective but probably not the best criteria when buying a bike to ride. Everything else being equal an original bike may have a higher value but set against that a single Mikuni Carb will make the bike easier to live with. A restored bike is not always what it seems when you get inside but a bike that has been stored for 5 years may also have its problems, it will in any case need commissioning. Carefully check as best you can and if you buy either buy the one that you like best

Without seeing them it is hard to answer, but from the queries I get each day and the photos I get sent, I would not trust one over the other mechanically. I get to see a lot of bodges and most are dangerous. On the flip side there are lot out there now with lots of money to spend and they like restored as they don't have the skills to do it themselves but have money to pay others to do it for them. A UK bike with 2 owners sounds like a more secure option and you have a two year window to get it to a condition that is liked by others. 

Ignoring the investment angle....  and what you have loosely described the US bike, if looking right and working well is probably an instant rider,,,,  Unless it's for sale for other reasons????

 To bring it back down to standard condition is a quantified thing...  paint and carbs.

  A 5 year inactive unquantified resto can be a money pit and then you will probably want to  upgrade to Mikunis anyway.

Jon

I am immediately wary of shiny restored bikes. So often underneath the gloss the mechanics are untouched or, worse, bodged. A lot of people are competent to sort out the cosmetics, not many are mechanically competent.

These bikes are old and who knows how many incompetent owners they have had?

Look very carefully before buying. 

Restored US imports... Very often with little or no miles since the 'restore' are a very big red flag to me. They have been bought to 'restore' as cheap as possible and sell on for a vast profit. There are too many 'restorers' that are nothing of the sort, experts at covering over problems and skipping, ignoring faults that are expensive to correct. The results of some of these people can border on criminality.   Photos of the bikes would help to see exactly what condition they are in.

Recent thread on Access Norton of very good looking restored but no miles US import, question was what is that rattling noise inside my primary case when my chain is the correct tension ?

As PS says there is money to be made in restoring US bikes but they require corners to be cut or there is no profit,

…having fallen for buying something that was shiny in the past.  I know something about bikes but having someone with you that knows Commandos can save a lot of heartache and expense.  As Gordon points out, bikes can look good but be a mechanical nightmare or worse.  When I buy now I assume the worst and price the opportunity accordingly!  

Regards to all

Richard

Hi there,

I would like to comment this as well. I didn`t buy a retored bike from GB nor from the US. It was in the December issue of "Old Bike Mart" in 2020 just before the Brexit, when I found a suitable advert of 2 or 3 Commandos from England. A Commando was my dream since and it was nearly the last chance to get one from GB. Commandos are not cheap to buy in Germany and even the english advert was not a bargain. Sure it was cheaper as in Germany, but it had to be shipped to Germany. Covid started a this time into highest level and it was not allowed to pass the Channel. Phone  calls, emails and more phonecalls were done and at last after my friend Peter Rosenthal made a trip to the seller, who lives about 50 mls away, to check the bike and had given his Okay, I bought it. The bike was fine so far, but there are always things one does not like. I like to have have good looking bikes as well as tuning the bike with useful acessoires.

To list a few things, I stripped the wheels, polished the hubs, bought new rims and spokes and rebuild the wheels by my own. New tyres were fitted, because the old ones showed there age, although the profile was top. The rims had more or less rusted, which could not be polished away..ACNW headsteady from Holland Norton Works, a single "Mikuni", a primary beltdrive, Barnett Clutch and many more small parts were changed. Aluminium parts were polished and a steel tank was fitted, although the glasfiber tank was still okay. Sure a few things could have done their job a few years longer, but an old bike without my own note, not mine.

Therefore the  engine was rebuilt, the isolastic was done, but the original Norton speedo and tacho were aftermarket.The speedo didn`t work too long and so I bought a genuine one. Even the tacho, although still working had to part with the bike.

Now, after visiting the big Mannheim autojumble, where I`d bought a pair of side panniers, I`d made a pair of racks suitable for them.

Result until now is,that I have a reliable bike via telephone and pictures, relying on what Peter said. I have been doing the NOC Czech Rally this year, the German CBBC (Classic British Bike Club) in the week before Czech event, trips around where we live, all longer than 60 mls.

I have already booked the Solstice Rallye next year and decide to go as well to Sweden for the NOC Rally.

I still have the bills of the new parts but didn`t add the sum. Probably I could have bought the bike "around the corner", but may be it didn`t give me the pleasure of working on the bike.

Additionally I will tell you that the left cylinder suddenly smoked. I detached the cylinderhead and fitted new piston rings, and valve caps, which probably were responsable for the smoking. New guides and valves were also fitted. Vapor blasting the cylinder head was another job and after 4 or 5 days all was fine again.I was nearly sure that the valves and guides were fine, but I changed them because I was not quite sure if the smoking would be over with the other jobs done. I would save additional work, if the other jobs were not successful.

I even could have spent more money into other perfect looking advertisements in GB, but this would not have been, what I really wanted.

Regards Uwe