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indexTrying to clear some space in my garage, I entered my BSA D14/4 Bantam in the March auction at Shepton Mallett. When I received the catalogue for he sale, I saw that lot 51 was a Puch MS50D "only 97 miles from new in 1973" so I thought in might be worth a look. Because of the low mileage, it may have a high reserve price but it was several lots after the sale of my Bantam so I would at least know if I had room for it if the Bantam sold - which it did. When the Puch got down to £50 before anybody put in a bid for it, I thought I had better. I ended up paying a bit more than that for it, but still less than I expected. I think the seller might have got a bit more for it if he'd taken the time to clean and polish the bike though; it looked a lot better for a couple of hours work. The actual recorded mileage was 128; apparently the seller had ridden it home from its original owner, who had been taken ill a few days after buying the bike. What I don't know is the time difference between these two events. The bike obviously hadn't been ridden for some time before the sale as the fuel tank was dry, indeed the tap was missing, which I did not notice until I got the Puch home. As everything appeared to be in working order, I squirted a bit of oil in the plug hole and borrowed the petrol tank off my mower. Given some fresh petroil, it started without too much trouble. I raided my stores and found a new tap but I had to make an adapter with the M16 thread of the tank at one end and the ¼" BSP of the tap at the other. Once round with the oil can and a check of the tyres and I set off for a test ride. I achieved a top speed of a magnificent 22mph!
On getting home I checked my library and found an original sales brochure. It gave the top speed as approx 34mph so, obviously, something was not right. I had not paid much attention to running in as I assumed at the time that the MS50 had a chrome-plated bore the same as my Maxi, so would require only minimal running-in. I found out later - on the way home from a meeting of a local club - that it wasn't when it nipped up. This is probably why it's fan-cooled.
As the plug & points were checked OK, the fault had to be the carb. I took this off to find the jet choked with sediment, so I cleaned all this out and tried again. The bike sounded much better next time I fired it up and ran to an indicated 40mph. I duly took it to my friendly MoT tester who took a look at the bike, got me to start it to try the lights, and wrote out the MoT. It's now done a grand total of 203 miles; it really is a joy to ride a bike that hasn't got everything worn out!
I wondered if the 22mph top speed I got on my first test run explains why the second owner only rode it 31 miles. Did he assume that is all the top speed was supposed to be? After it nipped up with 175 miles on, I took the head and barrel off and eased the high spots off the piston. I mixed up some 25:1 mix instead of the 40:1 I use for the Maxi and did another 25 miles trying not to exceed 30mph and keeping the load to a minimum. With the bike came the service book; it will soon be time for the 300mile free service. Should I take it back to the original selling dealer for its first service?
I also have the original handbook and lubrication instructions and even the original toolkit, although I had to spring open the toolbox as I am missing the key for it. The question is: should I sell it or keep it? I won't find another 'old' bike with only 200 miles on it.
As an aside, there was another MS50 in the auction but it was almost beyond restoration and had a reserve price of over £50 - twice what it was worth. Also, it was listed in the catalogue as a Maxi. Had they researched it by looking at the picture in a recent edition of the Classic Motor Cycle where a picture of an MS50 was captioned as a Maxi? They should know better. I've looked at one or two 'Maxis' only to find that they were something else; I recently heard of a Maxi Sport that was a sprung 'S', not a Sport at all!
First published, August 1998