INCOMING!
CEEFER CONTROVERSY
In RC180, Frank Melling was deliciously rude about the C15, even the sporty version. My memories are different, though maybe rose petals tint my glasses. Mine was the final fling of the C15 as BSA desperately offloaded stock when they brought in the C25 Barracuda 250 with its new frame, square-barrelled engine and bigger wheels. So they tarted up the C15’s tank, took the egg-shaped chrome headlamp from the Bantam Sports and gave it the name ‘Sportsman’. They even added the flip-up back dual seat to stop the excited pillion falling off as acceleration known only to astronauts kicked in. So what was it like? Was it porridge with added grey? Well, mine took me from 24,000 miles to 47,000 before I passed it on. The DVLA show that it had an MoT until 2016 so someone has it still. In my time it got through two rectifiers, its stator collapsed near Le Mans, it got through a small end bearing, two sets of swinging arm bushes despite my every 300 miles greasing, a snapped kickstart lever and several tumbles – one by an ex-girlfriend who still gets snappish at the mention… Otherwise it was very forgiving and always bent back into shape. Performance? In truth it was similar to Honda’s auntie bike, the CD175, with added rattles and thumps. Still, it took me on regular trips for work to France and Italy. Indeed in Italy no Italian ever seemed to commute by bike in winter. (Must they all have used la mamma’s car?) It nipped up in the Juras on a trip to Geneva running foolishly on Fiat branded 30W oil and I got towed to a nearby town by a kind stranger on a Ducati GT750. It hit 100mph on the clock with me chin on headlight and grinning after I’d upped the gearing on the autostrada to Genoa with a giant tailwind. It took two of us from Milan to Inverness.
In short, there was some spice in the porridge of BSA’s last C15 thanks to the beefing up of the big end bearing and close ratio gearbox and that up-a-size carburettor which BSA added. The sportsman’s mount? In the egg-and-spoon race, maybe.
Charles Esdale, member 1038
Interesting article on the BSA C15. Yes, they were horrible, my first one was built from a tea chest of bits but a later C15T was not a bad ride.
Gerry Duffett, member
What is the point of Melling banging on about how awful a C15 is/was? He hates British bikes. I met him 25-plus years ago and he was giving the same opinion then. He’s
