Rooster booster

BSA’s iconic lightweight is making the kind of money now that would have had them choking into their pints in Lickey Ash back in the day.

In 1948 a D1 when new cost just £60, and even in 1970 the final 175 only set you back £134. For nice examples today the £3000 ceiling is routinely breached, which may well help explain why fully restored Bantams are increasingly the norm.

So it’s quite refreshing, for those of us who once used the later Bantams as everyday working transport, to come upon a fully-patinated example in regular use. Step forward Len Page, former garage owner and my fellow M-Series enthusiast, who for the shopping uses this unrestored 1970 B175 Bantam. Despite a relatively low mileage, at around 14,000 when he got it, the Bantam had had seven previous owners, conforming to its archetype as first bike then sold on to get something bigger. Len takes up the tale:

Twenty-two years and counting

“I purchased the bike in 2000 from a man in Witney, after having sold my D7 to fellow local Bantamite Sarah Brown, who’d fallen in love with it and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She subsequently took it on tours of New Zealand and California. I missed that D7 so much that I felt the need to replace it.

“The B175 was and is totally original in paint and other respects, with bore and piston still standard. I have used it most