"Crimes against Collectables"

W.R.Buchanan wrote: Eggy:  I had a  1966 Matchless Typhoon 600cc single when I was 18 years old in 1968.  Paid $350 for it and sold it a year later for $500.  The bike was complete and the only mod was a disgusting Green metal flake paint job and a Bates Megaphone.   I painted it black and replaced the Bates mega phone with a proper megaphone that would literally blow your ears out. The stock pipe was long gone.    Got numerous noise tickets and would just reinstall the Bates pipe and get it signed off, and then go back to the real megaphone. I was well known by the cops in my town.   That bike would easily bring $15K here now.  The Typhoons were a little more rare than the G50's over here but neither one was something you saw every day.   Most ended up at Ascot on the half mile track racing BSA Gold Stars. Or in the desert racing Hare and Hound.  They were highly modified by that time. By 1970 both were obsolete as the tuners had figured out how to make Triumph 500 Twins go faster, and 650 TR6's ruled the desert.  The Jap bikes took over by 1972 and the English bikes faded into history.   Randy

Happy days Randy, just loved the " Matchbox and Ajay " singles, as a 16 year old with £250 to buy my first real bike I passed on a Matchless G80CS (also metalflake green) and a Velocette Thruxton both priced out of reach at £325 but bought a 1967 Bonneville for £225. Many years later I found in a chicken shed a 1957 Matchless G3L CS ex factory short stroke scrambler restored it and sold it on for £1400 ( paid £90 for it) now worth 14k. Crystal ball would have been nice 50 years ago

Max, I have to say that your posting on that honestly made me physically ill.... I hate such destruction of history. I guess that's why I pick up these orphans that other dingbats have stripped down.... It's an attempt to right a wrong. I just wish people could be convinced to stop it. I see the same thing with vehicles. I also work on old trucks (utes down under) and we see the same happen with them. People part out running vehicles simply because their pocketbooks get bigger from the parts than from selling the truck. Sad stuff!