advice old British motorcycle

Thanks for that Nigel, I will check the tyres. This one came from Leeds. The seller had accepted £1860, but when I arrived to collect it he told me about the oil issue and also a tappet rattle, then said give me £1500, there were spares with it, oil, and a cover. It has the duck bill in the catch can and he had lead the pipe in the air box down to the botton so as to not foul the air filter This idea worked, but both breather pipes had a slug of emulsified oil that was blocking them ! I have come to the conclusion that the rattle, which is intermitent, comes and goes is possibly an eccentric or out of round bush rotating, so your comments on this are very interesting. Having not ridden a bike for over 50 years it is probably not the best machine to re learn on but having spent my life in engineering in all it's forms keeping it going should present me with no real problems. Many thanks, Noel

JS, have I seen that bike in North Wales, pudding Basen helmet ?

Just seen this thread, sorry for the late advice.

£5k should get you a nice 500 single: BSA B33, Matchless G80, Ariel VH, all quite nice to ride. Perhaps stretch the budget slightly for a Velocette if you want something more interesting.

If you want something nippier I would look for an Ariel, BSA or Matchless/AJS twin as they are better value than Triumphs.

Good luck in your search, I run a 69 Triumph T120, a couple of Matchless singles from the mid 50s and a 72 BMW R75/5, they are great fun.