5 Classic British Motorcycles with small engines (Sub 250)

This time we take a look at the kind of machines that people used to get to work on during the Classic era

This time it’s five classic British bikes with engines of under 250 CC’s for many years in Great Britain it was a tax advantage to have an engine of less than 200 CC’s which is why AAL would sleep down its 2 stroke during the mid-60s in an effort to boost sales and vila’s postwar would not produce an engine over 197 ccc’s for a number of

Years and so here are five classic sub 250 motorbikes the VSA vantom 175 the original rt125 based BSA Bantam was introduced in 1948 as the rigid rear end D1 model but realizing they on to a good thing in 1953 they introduced the D3 major with its 150cc engine in 1955

Would’ see the first 175cc version of the engine in the D5 this model was actually only produced for a year and was replaced by the D7 super which had a swinging arm frame and this would remain until 1966 in the introduction of the d10 which as the name suggest produced

Around 10 horsepower but problematically still only had a three-speed gearbox this would be remedied just 2 years later with the introduction of the d144 with a 13 horsepower engine and at last four speeds now to gain the extra power on the D14 that’ increased compression both in the crank case and

Also at the top end this could make the machine surprisingly difficult to start for such a small bike although it did give it excellent performance of around 65 mph but even this was not the ultimate version this came in the form of the B1 75 also available as a Bushman

Model this featured a revised bottom end as well as a new cylinder head with Central plug and a greater squish area making for more efficient running overall the b175 was a match in performance terms to the D14 but was smoother and easier to live with and

Perhaps a nice way for the bantom to battle out the Triumph Tiger CU for many years the tiger cub was the only single cylinder machine in the Triumph range had been a 350 for a short period postwar this had quickly been phased out in favor of the 3T parallel

Twin the TCH was a development of the earlier Terrier model which just had a 150cc engine this had been produced between 1953 in 1956 with a 200cc cob following in 54 just a year after the terrier because try realize fairly quickly the engine was just that bit too

Small over the years the CB came in many forms but throughout the engine was a unit construction overhead valve motor of 199 CC’s with a boring stroke of 63x 64 the standard C made 10 horsepower at 6,000 RPM claimed in fact only 2 horsepower more than the earlier Terrier

But enough for a top speed of around 65 mph thanks to the four-speed gearbox a feature found on surprisingly few smaller Machines of that time time initially the CB used the terrier plunger frame chassis this was upgraded in 1957 to a full swinging arm job a further development was the moving of

The points to a mountain behind the cylinder now this looks rather like a distributor but of course it isn’t there is only the one cylinder after all 1961 would be a very significant year for the cob it would see the introduction of the trials model and a scrambles model a

Bike really intended for the US market this dispensed with a AEL around the headlamp and used a more conventional setup but also featured a 9:1 compression ratio on the Piston replacing the old 7 to1 job on the original model and this would raise power from 10 horsepower to 14.5 at 65

Would see further upgrades with a beefed up bottom end and a folding Kickstart on the sports and competition Cubs and a new front fork which had actually previously been used on the Bonville models but this was probably a high point for the Cub because BSA group were

Moving away from the production of small bikes last tiger CBS would share much of its running gear and sh with the BSA bantom before tigero production was stopped completely in 1968 the aial cult 200 now aiel had been one of the great pioneers of the early British motorcycle

Industry the company being founded by James Starley in 1870 and they would follow with their first motorcycle in 1902 now a key figure in the aial story is of course Val pagee and he designed a 250c overhead valve sport sporty engine in the late 20s which was used right up

Until the early 30s and form the basis for the first Colt models however the Colt 250 did not return at the end of World War II however 1951 aiel was sold to the BSA group so in 1954 it was decided to produce a new Aral Colt but

This time is a 200cc bike based on the C12 250 BSA the new Colt had an overhead valve 197cc engine with a BN stroke of 60x 70 compression ratio was a fairly modest 7.5 to1 and overall power wasn’t exactly spectacular the top speed was around 62 mph and there was a fourspeed

Gearbox the cult was a nice neatly sted little bike however few changes were ever made to the bike CU after just 5 years in production it was replaced by the leader and arrow models in 1959 the Ambassador three star special Ambassador an interesting choice of name coning up as it does glam an

Intrigue maybe even PR rochet chocolate but not necessarily a name that you would immediately think to use for small village commu bar now the Ambassador Motorcycle company was founded in 1947 by one Kon now to describe Kon as a colorful character is a masterpiece of English understatement and definitely a

Subject worth covering in Greater detail at some point later and frear special used a Villas 197cc engine initially this was a non-unit engine other the later models would of course employ the unit construction Motors in the 1960s however whichever engines used is of course a single cylinder piston

Ported air cooled two-stroke unit earli models would have plunge suspension while later would have proper swinging arm suspension and a four-speed rather than three-speed gearbox performance was not surprisingly modest with a top speed somewhere between 55 and 60 M on hour to cruise at around 45 prodution of the

Freestyle special would survive the sale of the company 1962 but would end just two seasons later the Francis bnet fmer Francis Barnet was founded by one Gordon Francis and his father-in-law ala Bennis their early machines pioneered the use of a simple bolt up frame which was very rapid to construct and of

Course extremely easy to repair various engines were fitted from Blackburn and of course most significantly Vil two and the company would be largely synonymous with the use of vill Two Strokes well until they were taken over by AMC who in the late 50s forced them to abandon the Vila engines in favor of

An all new PTI design unit I won’t go into the full PTI engine Saga here but the former was the last all new Francis Barnet motorcycle when it was released in 1962 and it C it does use a 150cc version of that Piti engine this was

Mounted into a spine frame which was all new new and a new suspension system at the front which would be familiar to any Honda 50 CB owner but of course the most obvious feature is that wraparound Bodywork which goes around the seat around the real tank which is mounted

Underneath and all the way around the front headlamp it’s clearly inspired by the aerial arrow and I think gives the machine a nice modern fresh appearance and the L long engine gave the bike a very low center of gravity so moving it around was very easy and it was quite

Nimble too unfortun the Piti engine was not powerful performance was pretty modest and the timing of the bike’s release couldn’t have been worse with parent company AMC going out business Just 4 years later so whatever bikes or collections of bikes would you like to see as

Feature maybe you got a bike we can use for a test R either way get in touch below to hope you enjoyed the video if you did don’t forget to like And subscribe and of course thank you very much for watching