In times long gone..

Ash

Oh Yes....
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Memories indeed. My friend had a 250 Desmo in ‘74. Cost him around £620.when jap 250’s cost around £480. I had a MZ 250 cost £330 (de lux model with indicators). His big cousin ,who to us 17yr. Olds ,was a sort of “OGRI “ character had Rickman Honda which he traded in for a new Ducati 900ss. Mind boggling expense at the time( and now!).
 
I bought a new 250 Mk3 in '75; one of the last ones with the high bars. It didn't perform very well. I eventually had it strobed to find that the ignition timing was retarded from the factory and probably not checked at PDI. There was swarf in the oil from the first oil change and it ate its main bearings before 6K miles.

A year later I rode it from Edinburgh down to Manchester and then to Mick Walker's in Wisbech. I had notions of finding a 450 engine to put in it. Walker's had no interest in anything to do with the singles at that point. However, they did manage to find a rev counter in stock to replace the one that the needle had fallen off, sometime after it started to go backwards on the way down.

For a 250 single it was surprisingly quick and it held its own with two-stoke 250 Japanese bikes and some larger capacity ones. It was hard work on longer journeys, having to rev it like mad and hold it WFO to make any kind of good progress. It was incredibly frugal though; returning c. 75 mpg in the process. I eventually sold it and bought a MK3 Norton Commando. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
 


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