Description
Very Original , mechanically excellent and well looked after 1951 ES2 .
Selling on behalf of a friend's Dad who can no longer ride . He was an extremely capable mechanical and model engineer who's had the bike for about 50 years + and is probably only the 2nd or 3rd owner ?.
I'm guessing the mileage is genuine as everything seems to be original ( apart from the silencer ? ) and there is no noticeable wear in any bearing, bush, lever, suspension or sliding component .
The bike hadn't been used for about 10 years i'm guessing ? , so I was asked to go through a "re-commissioning" job on it , which was a joy to work on . No mangled threads or graunched flats , no micky mouse chinese bits or amateur bodges , everything is pretty original along with a nice (slightly scruffy if i'm honest ), practial patina , it's obvious it was well looked after but cosmetics were not important .
However , it's cleaned up quite nicely , the tank has some external surface rust so the decals have started to flake off but it's totally sound and solid, as are the mudguards and toolbox and the other odd bit of tinware . It's far too nice to restore and loose it's originality . I've tidied-up and replaced about half of the wiring , got the mag , dynamo and regulator working nicely , flushed out the tanks , sorted the petrol taps, adjusted everything , cleaned the carburettor , replaced all the oils and generally gone through everything . It starts 1st kick now , hot or cold , the clutch is lovely , as is the beautiful lay-down gearbox, the forks have super smooth action as they should do and surprisingly the plungers seem to work well too ! . Mechanically it's extremely quiet and it handles really nicely , wheel rims are original and have a small amount of pitting but nothing serious , i've only done about 10 miles on it but would happily go a few hundred on it . Seats are original Lycett items, original Lucas headlamp and Wipac rear , centre and prop stands, brakes are excellent, steering and damper work well . If it was mine I would change the Burgess silencer but everything else I wouldn't touch , it's so "just right" . Tyres are good , V5 . Wish i could have it myself but don't have the space .
