I rode off with a manic grin wider than Rozzi the Prozzi behind the bus shelter on a Saturday night. I kept rigidly to the running in schedule which meant keeping the revs sensible and under 40mpbh in top gear. Once this chore was completed I could really wind the power on and was pleasantly surprised - it zoomed up to 70mph and happily sat there. This was very useful when burning off flash cars.
Acceleration was helped by the low mass of only 245lbs and the bike sounded just like a scrambler, with lots of farting and popping on the overrun and screamed like a banshee under hard acceleration. In order to make it really fly, second gear had to be pushed to the limit, as the gap between second and third was too large to pick up the power at sensible speeds. Top was engaged at around 55mph, power flattened out at 70mph. It was also quite fun on the rough save that the gearing wasn’t much use.
An indication of the caning the bike received was that it rarely did better than 40mpg! With the small petrol tank it only had a range of 60 miles! Petrol and oil had to be mixed, although the fuel cap contained a measuring cup on its underside so this was not too much of a chore. I was stopped several times by the police for no apparent reason and fell off a few times. On one occasion I took a right-hand country bend too fast and the back end went its own way on a patch of gravel.
The farmer who pulled up behind me advised that I should ‘burn. that bloody thing, if I was you, boy.’ Handling was generally reasonable, the stock tyres dubious and the brakes good. Reliability was pretty good, too - the only problem in six years of ownership was the big end welding itself to the crank. The local dealer wrote off to the manufacturers, who sent a free replacement as they reckoned that it shouldn’t happen to their engines!
The bike was updated in ‘71 with a new tank shape that totally spoilt the lines, although the engine remained the same. It was soon discontinued, only the 175 Pathfinder remained which had quite a following in trail bike circles. Overall, a jolly good introduction to biking and certainly worth searching out the odd hack that might still be around.
Andy Liley