BEK  592C	Gary's 1965  D7 175c.c.  known as "Billy"	BEK  592C
	A short primer into Billy's history

The bike came to me as a gift from a favourite Uncle, he gave me the bike as I approached 16 years old. It was for me to learn to ride as a 1st motorbike. He had owned it just to use one day a month when he had to ride into the city on work business. When he bought it,  it had done less than 2,500 miles.... He gave it to me with 3,472 mile on the odometer. I used the bike for about 9 months after I "passed my drivers licence", after which the bike was just parked in the back of my mothers garage gathering dust. For 6  years it lay idle in my mothers garage under boxes and other domestic paraphernalia. The chrome went dull, the paint faded and the piston seized. 

Sadly I have no photographs of the first 8 years I owned the bike, as some of my old photographs vanished in a house move :(

We pick up the story in 1975...

1975 I moved to a house with a garage and gave the trusty old friend a rebuild. The bike made a few "guest appearances" but was mainly used as a tool for friends to use when taking their driving tests - The examiners loved it as a traditional motor-cycle and I'm sure were quietly lenient with the novice riders. 
1981 Disaster struck - While driving, the drive side mains collapsed and totaled the generator too. A ropey 2nd hand engine was fitted and it was used for commuting for a short period. It was then moved back to my mothers garage. I then moved to a house with no garaging for 12 years - again the bike gathered dust. Lots! of dust, and again it seized.

1994 I acquired 2 wrecks of Bantams for pennies and literally swapped a whole motor over. But I wasn't happy with the 'new' engine, compounded with it dying for no reason 2 weeks later - never to spark again... So it was thrown to the back of my garage... (It turns out that the flywheel had sheared its woodruff key on the crankshaft)
2002 Determined effort, and a couple of days cleaning and its looking fine, showing signs of age, but hey its 38 years old :). I juggled the engine parts from 3 engines and behold! It runs. There's still the two niggling faults in the engine that's fitted, but its rideable. I'm now in the throes of stripping all the engines I have lying around to get the best gearbox assembly into the original engine cases. When that is done - the engine in the bike now will donate its crankshaft....

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