Frank Melling certainly woke up a lot of people! Some agree with him, others not so much. And the usual assortment of delight

In RC180, Frank Melling was deliciously rude about the C15, even the sporty version. My memories are different, though maybe rose petals tint my glasses. Mine was the final fling of the C15 as BSA desperately offloaded stock when they brought in the C25 Barracuda 250 with its new frame, squarebarrelled engine and bigger wheels. So they tarted up the C15’s tank, took the egg-shaped chrome headlamp from the Bantam Sports and gave it the name ‘Sportsman’. They even added the flip-up back dual seat to stop the excited pillion falling off as acceleration known only to astronauts kicked in.

So what was it like? Was it porridge with added grey? Well, mine took me from 24,000 miles to 47,000 before I passed it on. The DVLA show that it had an MoT until 2016 so someone has it still. In my time it got through two rectifiers, its stator collapsed near Le Mans, it got through a small end bearing, two sets of swinging arm bushes despite my every 300 miles greasing, a snapped kickstart lever and several tumbles – one by an ex-girlfriend who still gets snappish at the mention… Otherwise it was very forgiving and always bent back into shape.

Performance? In truth it was similar to Honda’s auntie bike, the CD175, with added rattles and thumps. Still, it took me on regular trips for work to France and Italy. Indeed in Italy no Italian ever seemed to commute by bike in winter. (Must they all have used la mamma’s car?) It nipped up in the Juras on a trip to Geneva running foolishly on Fiat branded 30W oil and I got towed to a nearby town by a kind stranger on a Ducati GT750. It hit 100mph on the clock with me chin on headlight and grinning after I’d upped the gearing on the autostrada to Genoa with a giant tailwind. It took two of us from Milan to Inverness.

In short, there was some spice in the porridge of BSA’s last C15 thanks to the beefing up of the big end bearing and close ratio gearbox and that up-a-size carburettor which BSA added. The sportsman’s mount? In the egg-and-spoon race, maybe. Charles Esdale, member 1038

Interesting article on the BSA C15. Yes, they were horrible, my first one was built from a tea chest of bits but a later C15T was not a bad ride. Gerry Duffett, member

What is the point of Melling banging on about how awful a C15 is/was? He hates British bikes. I met him 25-plus years ago and he was giving the same opinion then. He’s a one trick pony, and will make thousands of readers avoid small BSAs. He has nothing further to say, please keep him away from my favourite magazine.

If you want someone who has something relevant to say, try Gordon G May or someone else who has used an ancient bike properly. Ged Baines, member

Frank’s entitled to his view (which I may or may not agree with), just as you are (and ditto). The important priority for an editor is to provide a wide range of views and variety in the subjects. Frank doesn’t in fact ‘hate British bikes’, as you put it. He campaigned with some success on BSA singles and Triumph twins, back when we were all rather younger, and even today thrashes around on a Manx Norton of some kind. FrankW

‘In Praise Of The C15’: That was a headline from a Classic Mechanics edition in days of yore. I’d yearned for a classic mount, except they were ‘old motorbikes’ then. However when climbing up the ladder from the bottom rung, my cloth had to be cut accordingly. Larger machines were relatively expensive, even then. My Ceefer came from Shepperton but was no movie star. It was chucked in the back of my clapped-out Astra and unceremoniously whisked off to the west country. The fastest it had ever travelled in its life, I suspect.

Frank Melling has had the undoubted privilege to ride and own all sorts of wonderful machinery. Many, like me, have not. However via 447 VHX I learned so much. I hadn’t a clue when I pulled it to bits, but little by little I learned. I learned about rebuilding Monoblocs, and wiring, soldering, seats and paint preparation and bottom ends (strengthened) and top ends and so on and so on. An unpaid apprenticeship if you like. The start of a very wonderful journey which made me many friends and many happy times.

Frank should understand there really are many like me who either look back fondly at

their 16 year-old self or in later life entered our hobby as best (cheapest!) as they could. Often via baby Beezers or Fanny Bees or what have you.

Yes I know that C15s are the butt of many jokes and sneers. They are regarded by many as ‘rubbish’ as per the article. However to a whole gang of us the 250 Star was a way in to a lifelong passion. A door which might have remained firmly closed had the Bonneville been the only motorcycle on the planet.

About to go on the bench is a 1964 B40, the best of the C15 stretches in my view. It’s time to exercise those (basic) skills learned all that time ago. Happy days. Simon Piant, member 1842

While I wouldn’t presume to question Mr Melling’s knowledge of the British motorcycle industry or its products, I feel I must add a few positive comments on BSA’s C15 in the complete absence of any in the entire six pages of his article, apart from reporting they could be tuned to go‘ludicrously quickly’ (read on).

I commence my defence using two of the feature’s captions: ‘The SS80 stayed in production until 1965’, and ‘The final bikes were possibly the best’. If it is accepted that the C15’s replacement was the C25, which is credited as being introduced in 1967, there appears something of a lacuna in this BSA machine’s reported date line. While the C15 is shown as still produced in 1966 I suggest its then more powerful replacement was the Sportsman, also introduced that year. A pretty bike with proper brackets supporting a chrome headlight to match its sporty chrome mudguards, equipped with a hump-backed go-faster dual seat and ball-ended levers. Enjoying a steel crank, ball/roller bottom end with much improved lubrication, clutch and gearbox, this was surely the equal of any other conventional traditionally designed British 250 single of the time.

Such a beast was my first motorcycle, purchased five days after my 16th birthday from Gray’s of Wolverhampton for £145-19s or, as advertised, 139 guineas, as all the best pedigrees are priced. A 1966 three year-old model, LDH 166D remains the newest bike I have ever owned. Perhaps also something of a record, within a very short time I was obliged to take a three month sabbatical from riding it at the insistence of the Local Petty Sessions Division – obviously, a gross miscarriage of justice only slightly affected by my guilty plea and an incorrect-from-purchase front brake cable.

The enforced break was put to good use however, with the savings from my paper round financing a superb gas flowed polished / ported head with new enlarged valves and guides, expensive S&W valve springs, a 10:1 compression piston, and swept-back exhaust pipe all courtesy of Gander & Gray. To this was added one of the newly introduced Dunstall Decibel silencers, topped off by an infamous 1 1/8” Wal Phillips ‘fuel injector’. I even improved the lighting with a small Cibie headlamp unit.

The revised bike went like stink, which was the only way to ride it, as with my relatively inexperienced mechanicing skills the ‘fuel injector’ was an all-or-nothing device defying fine tuning.

The SS80 and Sportsman were credited on paper with 20bhp at 7250rpm, while the C25, 25bhp at 8250 with claims of 55mph in second and 72 in third. As a 16 year-old with limited mechanical sympathy, those figures were a challenge that on my bike’s standard gearing were often equalled if not exceeded according to my speedometer readings. This led me to write a number of times to BSA, who for some reason suggested I should fit a rev counter to prevent my engine blowing-up.

Over the years I have ridden a number of C25 derivatives and none approached the rev-ability, smoothness or power of my supreme Ceefa. However, having got me through an ACU riding course and my ministry test, despite the cost lavished, it was returned to Gray’s within the year in part exchange for a 1961 TR6R Trophy XUJ157, making me the proverbial 16 year-old on a 650.

But that, as they say is another matter. Phil Rich, Member 12595

Lots of people wrote in spirited defence of the C15; thanks to all of you. I was entertained to note that while some of the Ceefer’s stalwart supports still own BSA singles, they tended to be later developments – like the Starfire or my B25SS, or more often the B40 or B44. We didn’t hear much from people who own and ride a C15 today. Strange, that… Rowena