Here's another example of taking good care before you commit to buy on eBay.

I paid full value for this one - I wasn't cheated by any means, but neither did I get a particular bargain. 

It was worth it to me, as I'd wanted either a C-15 250 model, or the B-40 350 model as a good representative of a Brittish bike suitable for a demo project.

The B-40 is rarer on this side of the pond. That, coupled with the larger engine and a couple of other features that set it apart from its little brother sold me on it.

While almost all the parts are here, there are a few hard-to-find items that need rustling up, and there is major work needed in the running gear to make this bike safe for the streets.

If you were a motorcyclist in the '60's this bike will undoubtedly bring back some memories.

In the mid-to-late '60's, my whole family was into off-road motorcycles.  My dad rode the C-15 version;   His brother-in-law rode a newer B44, known as the 441cc Victor model.  My mom rode a newer 250 BSA as did her sister, my brother had a 175 BSA Bantam, and I had a 500 Triumph, which I later traded for a 250 Greeves.  We obviously tended to favor the Brit Iron.  (My cousin still rides, but she prefers her Harley chopper.   You do your best, but some kids will still stray from the path despite your best efforts. <sigh>)

As I look back over all the bikes I can remember owning (something like 40, offhand) it seems at least a third were Brittish, and the rest mostly Japanese, with a scattering of Spanish, Italian and one lonely German/English hybrid - a 1974 ISDT Rickman Metisse Zundapp.

Of all my Brit bikes, only 2 weren't BSAs.

The little 'mushroom' behind the cylinder is a distributor-like platform for the points. This was done away with for the 1965 models, and so makes an easy identifier for roughly estimating the age of a unit-single BSA engine.

This distributor has a broken-off screw in the points cam.  Repairing it is going to be a fun project. (Not)

There are modern electronic ignition/lighting packages made for most post '65 Brit bikes, but

to the best of my knowledge, the older mushroom-distributor models are pretty much stuck with the standard Lucas (a.k.a. 'Prince of Darkness') ignition and lighting systems. 

All joking aside, Lucas parts, when properly set up and maintained, are up to the task, and really don't deserve their bad rep.