The Fanny Barnett 197 was an excellent ride to work iron engined Villiers single that served many commuters well with the minimum of upkeep and unlike Japanese tiddlers it had plenty of room for two fat English bottoms!
I've never been a fan of the Bantam but if I had to choose one it would be the 175 which can at least stand up to daily ride to work tasks though its still pretty gutless and typifies the BSA indifference to two stroke improvements they had given to them after WW2 using DKW's engineering which was much better than our own.
BSA's whole attitude became lack lustre after the managing director stole the profits to fund his yachting trips and parties preferring to live a high life to the detriment of his company. They had the talent to fight back against the Japanese invasion and ironically Kawasaki's engineers took their initial cues from the A7/A10 range.
The small enthusiast bike builders as mentioned above and not forgetting Greeves as another example of what could be done with a Villiers engine, struggled to survive but like everyone else succumbed to the Mini which was probably the single biggest enemy of ride to work bikes.
Who (except me) was going to buy a 700cc combo (Enfield Super Meteor) when just a few quid more got you a car? Even I succumbed to the call of a Ford 100E Anglia van shaggin' wagon until I eventually got fed up with the gutless motor, pathetic windscreen wipers and 2 candle power headlights that dimmed if you used the heater!
Anyway the bikes were scoring me more birds than that van ever did but thats a story for another time involving a girl from one of Englands exclusive boarding schools and Tim the engine driver who was a mate of mine and seduced said young lady in the back whilst I and my girlfriend drove home trying to ignore the sounds of lust.
I was lucky with my choice of girlfriends who actually like motorcycles and were willing participants in some great camping trips and even stuck by me after a couple of breakdowns in the night when it poured with rain and she held the torch for me whilst I disembowelled the beast by the roadside and finally got her running.
Those were the days! I've really had some wonderful riding experiences from madcap full bore racing Phil on the motorway lane splitting between two artics and riding full tilt across the hills of Bath, on grass, wet grass, sliding all over the shop on our Suzuki 250's and managing not to kill ourselves despite our fathers predictions.
I'm paying for all that now of course since my skeleton served me notice that enough was enough.
I'm very thankful to you Fred for reigniting all these memories!
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