My B.S.A. Lightning.

I bought the Lightning in 1996 . I had not even passed my test but I thought it looked like a real bike. I knew nothing about bikes ,but I was about to start my learning.When I rode the bike for the first time I had only ridden a Yamaha 125 ,and I just thought OMG! It was so loud and it was like a 2 wheel tractor.From the start there were problems, wires shorting in the headlamp and new rectifier needed.These were very small problems but in my ignorance they were huge.

These teething problems, which I now see as only to be expected from a bike nearly 25 years old, made me very nervous.

Timing side bushes got reground ,the bike had done pretty well running on 2p.s.i for about a year....ooohhhh that's what the red light means.Many people had admired the Beesa always along the lines of" it's a classic....... you need to look after that". I agreed at first then I got fed up with this sort of attitude. There are many talented people out their who restore bikes to their former glory but I'm not one of them. As a symbolic act of making the bike mine I hand sprayed the petrol tank matt black and put the silver outlines of my families handprints on too. The guy who sorted out the engine gave me the best bit of advice yet ."Don't fiddle with it for the sake of it, just change the oil every 1000 miles and ride it".It turns out the Beesa oil filtration system is a joke, so due to lots of short trips to work I change the oil every 500 miles and so far the engine has been fine. Now it looks like it's time to sell it .





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