Puch on you

I bet there are still a lot of those in sheds and garages, they might be interesting to collect. Almost any bike looks pretty neat when restored.

It seems that ther are more Sears Allstates made by Puch than their are Puchs imported into the UK, as here they are very rare. The cost of them here and their seat height may counted against them being sold in large numbers, but having just found 175 SVS in a wooden wendy house where it had been for 20 years testifies to the build and material quality. A similar BSA Bantam would have been in very poor state. Parts are available nearly 100% from Austria, and the prices compared to My Norton Comanndo parts ( which seem to have gone up recently ) make these a worthwhile restoration. I would add an image but struggling to do so at the moment.

Some of the other bikes out there are just as much fun to restore but don't kill you for parts like the Nortons. I did run Nortons only for most of my motorcycle riding but I just got off my Chang with its $15 pistons after a pretty cool, but good, ride. On Hondas the parts are expensive but they fit and you don't need many.
i also like going out to the garage and deciding what would be fun to ride for what I'm doing today.

Cookie, It's lucky the CJ parts are cheap, because they certainly seem to chew through a lot of them. One of my chums runs a bike shop here in Hong Kong and has quite a few clients with them, there are always one or two in the shop, they have frequent problems and the quality of replacement parts is generally quite poor. He has found that the older 6volt side-valve models are less problematic than the later ones. I know you have a couple of these, hopefully your own mechanical ability helps you to keep them serviceable.

Once you sort them out and change the electrical parts for American or Japanese spec stuff they are pretty reliable. Cables are also poor quality. A number of BMW bits fit but those are pricey.
On CJs the older the better for most parts, the military spec stuff is just that. Since the factory closed a lot of Chinese domestic stuff we get here is rubbish. Later low number bikes are also rubbish.

Jim Bryant is a former formula car driver from New Hampshire and has a shop over there and understands quality. He fits mostly BMW engines but will build anything you want to whatever standard you want. I get most critical parts though him as he understands what I need.

The funny part is I am getting more reliable parts for my CJs than for my Norton. kind of a dismal situation since when I first rode Nortons everything pretty much fit first time with no fiddling.

Here's the photo of one I found recently in a wendy house after 20 years, a Puch 175 SVS - the sports model with 2 carbs. Registration records survive, and with good spares availability will have it on the road in no time. Cables from Venhill will be fitted as I have found these to be well made. Also, any UK owners of these Puch split singles are welcome to get in touch, as I'm interested to know just how many survive in the UK - I knew of a 250 and that's it.