I agree with all of what you say Trekker, it may have been better if the rules could have been held tighter to harness the originality of the old bikes. I’ve only been trialling for just over a year so I’m a newbie.
The first bike I looked at was very true to what a pre65 is intended to be, it was a lovely little James very original, but the guy selling it said how he’d borrowed it to ride in the Scottish because his own fully modified Greeves was out of action, but he also said that by the time he’d got to the top of the pipeline his arms had completely gone, and he couldn’t finish, he said that if he’d had the more modern forks like on his Greeves he would have been fine.
The other issue is that original frames are getting knackered and engine parts are getting worn out, so those guys dedicate to keeping pre65’s running are building new frames, forks and engine parts like cranks and crankcases barrels and g/boxes and it seems to be quite natural for these engineers who build the replacement parts to tweak frame angles and engines etc to remove the flaws in the 1950’s designs.
However as you say all of this comes at a cost and you are bang-on when you say just the parts required to put a top-end Bantam together will cost around £6,500, and that’s without any labour. The cost of a well prepared Cub, Bantam, Greeves etc is eye watering, you look at a tiny little bike that’s got nothing on it and you wonder how could if possibly cost so much money.
Thankfully there are still plenty of old guys out there riding on a budget with similar to original bikes and getting good results but more importantly they’re having a hell of a lot of fun.
For me I wanted to start my new project with the lightest possible frame on the market as I want to keep the weight of the new bike down to an absolute bare minimum, I’m 67 years old next week and by the time I’ve built my new bike I’ll be 68, it’s inevitable that I’ll get older and weaker as the years roll on so if I’m still here and riding in my 70’s a lighter bike can only be a good thing.
My James has a Drayton frame which is an excellent frame but it’s fabricated in standard tubing making it about twice the weight of the DRR frame which is made in very thin walled high tensile T45.
If you enjoy quality engineering, the DDR frame is a thing of great beauty and building my bike over the next 12 months will be an absolute joy, although my wallet may not think so..
I’m still looking for a Bantam D14/4 motor in any condition.