should i try and start my motor

[black boots]

hi people I have bought a 67 bsa a65 thunderbolt with lightning heads I stoped riding bikes in 67 at age 18 anyway the question is after unknown storage yrs should I start the motor please advise thanks

[john.k]

As it is very easy to remove the head,I would do that and check the valve and bore condition.If you dont want to do that,then take out the sparkplugs,squirt oil in,refill the tank with clean oil,and crank the motor until oil appears in the top end,and returns to the oiltank.Check for spark[new battery?].Refill the gearbox and primary,put some gas in the tank[minimum amount]and see if the carby floods.If it holds fuel correctly,try to start the motor.I reckon the clutch would be stuck though.Regards John.

[bikerbob]

I have  a1963 A65 which I bought dismantled a few years ago although the engine was all in one piece.  As I did not know how long the the bike had been off the road I decided to completely dismantle the engine and I am glad I did as these old bikes have thing called a sludge trap in the crankshaft which collects the sludge, but if it has not run for some years this sludge goes hard and can really cut off or diminsh the supply of oil to the engine in my case the sludge trap was nearly completely blocked off with hardened sludge. So if that was my bike and did not know the history I would completely dismantle the engine you can do a lot of damage starting a bike that has stood for some time, but you do hear  of people that start bikes that have stood idle for some time without problems but do you want to take the gamble.