Simple to work on, reasonably reliable if you keep on top of servicing and any small niggles that appear through time. Light and manoeverable, good handling. Good fuel consumption, cheap spares and cheap insurance. Its a living legend, wherever you go people will always stop and stare at it, with the "wish I had never sold mine" quote.

I bought this bike after owning a Suzuki GS550 in 1987.
I wanted something simple to run and maintain.

I paid £550 for it with 18,000 miles on the clock.
Its currently worth best part of GBP3000, and I get offers for it nearly everytime I ride it.
Its the best investment I have ever made!

It has since done 150,000 miles with very little going wrong.
New clutch every 60,000 miles, easy to fit with engine in situ.
Engine oil change every 2000 miles - I run it Castrol GTX
Gearbox oil, grease points etc once a year.
I fitted new pistons and overbored the barrells 0.020" after the first 100,000 miles, and took the engine apart for the hell of it, taking the opportunity to clear out all the oilways.
New coils fitted at the same time, not because they were needed but because I had them in the garage.

I fitted an aftermarket oil filter set at 100,000, but took it off again as the oil seemed to get just as dirty, but engine oil pressure lagged on start-up which can't be good.

Original Triumph silencers were poor on chromework and have been replaced with Norton cones which sound better and last longer.

I holed the centre of a piston on holiday in France ( due to my own ineptitude setting the timing on the L in Lucas rather than the timing mark), took the rocker and barrel off, removed the piston and took it to a local workshop where it was welded. I dressed the piston with a file, cleaned and refitted it.
Having retimed the engine I continued with a two week holiday with no further problems.

Indeed it was a further 10,000 miles before I put a new piston in!.

If you want a motorcycle but nothing too new or expensive, thats easy to maintain and fun to ride, and won't lose any value.

Buy one today!