Featured Speed Twin Limitations

I think you've bought the wrong bike. You say the bike is "more than capable of fast full lean cornering" A bikes cornering capability is a combination of factors, a major one being ground clearance. The Street Scrambler is the same (probably worse) and grounds out long before my ZZR would, a bike some 50 kg heavier but I can put up with it and ride accordingly because it pushes so many other buttons for me. I could also take the SS off road and moan about how crap it is compared to my FE570 but I know that so what's the point?

 

Might be worth getting the suspension done so it sits higher in the stroke... Be careful with the gear lever. My old dirt track bike could knock itself out gear at the apex of a grippy track... Not a desirable outcome

 

Didn't realise hero blobs were a consumable item! Maybe suspension upgrades could help with ground clearance?

 

In what sense is an air/oil cooled T100 a “classic”? I’m curious because I’ve got one, and a Meriden Triumph it ain’t!

 

Surely some modern Triumphs fit the bill of being a classic just on their valuation alone. I've seen several good condition 865cc Triumphs recently sold for more than they cost when brand new.
I can't see that happening with any of the 1200cc water cooled range until the only new bikes for sale are those with batteries.

 

There was a time when the notion of paying more than £20 for a BSA Bantam, or £50 for a C15 would provoke mirth..

 

Well inflation means £30 in 1965 is worth about £300 now - what you might pay for a clunker now.

 

I bought a running Bantam for £25, and a running C15 for £50 in my student days in the mid-1970s. A non-running, or apparently worn-out bike had zero value.

You won’t get an example of either for £300 now, the V5 alone will fetch more.

 

My Dad bought me a new C15 in late 1960.
I was £165 (If I remember right) and he got £6 off that for paying cash.
These days I think they prefer you to have credit.
Ken.

 

Having no credit rating I always buy everything 'cash' although I do tend to use a Switch Card for larger transactions because for some unknown reason, people tend to get a bit freaky whenever you dump a large pile of [unmarked] notes down on the counter.

 

Yep cash used to be king. You could alway negotiate a better deal with it. Not these days though

 

I got paid cash for my old Saab 93 - when I tried to use the £3750.00 in notes as part deposit for the new car, the salesman had no idea what to do.
A mate once tried to put a £10,000.00 deposit on a new BMW in cash - they were one step away from calling plod!

 

Dealers/retailers are shite scared of money laundering issues now days, along with the benefit of commission on finance deals. They don't want cash.

 

My local ditchpump store won’t take more than 2K cash, and that usually includes off of a debit card too.
Ken.
PS. But, they wouldn’t let me take a new bike away for £1,999.

 

It's all relative, man. My H-D Iron 1200 can scrape pegs when I'm turning at a stop light. The Speed Twin is like a full on sport bike by comparison.

 

Before anything else, I do love my speed twin. However I do find the poor clearance and scraping hero blobs very off-putting. I also found the bikes limitations on a track day. By the way, it was still great fun and the bike was quicker than I thought. I surprised a few others on their supersport bikes. I replaced the shocks with hagons which made a massive difference, but now thinking I should have put longer shocks on to give more clearance. In the end I'll keep the speed twin on the road and buy a track bike.