classic motorcycle forum

Well, no more parts missing than the average stripped down chook chaser and as far as a “comp” engine goes, it still has the bog standard Villiers carb on it. I suspect the Tilbrook head is the sum total of the ‘comp’ tuning.
Parts are dead easy, everything for the engine is available off the shelf, the headlight is a generic VEC /Miller jobbie, a Bantam saddle and tail light assembly will drop straight on and mudguards are available from WA. And of course the exhaust system as shown on the Powerhouse example is straight James ML readily available of eBay. Parts are absolutely no problem.
Painting, plating and tyres, etc, are a different story. The cost involved are little different from doing the same on much more fancied machinery. Just because it’s a lightweight doesn’t reduce labour prices.
Good luck to the seller, he tells a good story but its still just a noisy chook chaser as it stands.

That would be a bit of fun as an old-school dirt bike, but pretty optimistic pricing. Expensive to restore from there.

Interesting about the "Tilbrook" head - not something I know a lot about, but Tilbrook built lots of replacement parts so might be true. I've had a look through my Tilbrook stuff and can't confirm that the head comes from them.

Nice to see clear photos of the engine and frame numbers. Combined with the features, confirms c1948 build.

Cheers

Leon

Ariel? Cost-benefit analysis?
You'll be saying that they used torque wrenches next..

It would be interesting to know if this was factory or a subsequent owner ?
Compare notes with other owners/restorers.

Norton Commandos have a few stray extra wires - for police use.
Never mind that those also have an extra harness anyway.

"I'm just pondering the wisdom of splitting the crank up to check the big-end bearings..."

Yes it's a tricky one, perhaps depending on what you want to do with the bike. If you do pull it apart keep in mind that it is tricky to get it back together and running dead true. If you've not done it before best left to an expert? I've done it lots of times, and most often it's gone ok. Only once did it defeat me entirely (i.e. no better than a couple of thou run-out on the shafts after trying everything I know) and I had to pass it on to the expert who used appropriate (unknown to me) magic to get it running just so.

The epoxy is interesting. Often cases an an engine can be quite porous to oil and painting the inside with something (glyptal, expoxy of some kind) can keep the outside clean. Hopefully there's no major corrosion being covered up.

Leon

Yeah - I think I may have a contact with someone locally who runs a Cooper 500 car, so hopefully will have experience (or knows someone else) in doing that job.    Even though the bike is only a road-bike, and is running low compression (9:1 and petrol as opposed to 15:1 on dope), I'd like it to be "as good as I can get it".  Ideally I want to get into the cycle of "ride in summer / maintain in winter", however the learning experience of my first full strip down is taking longer than I had expected, mainly due to the unexpectedly poor condition of some components, and the lack of time I'm getting in the workshop.