I owned the BSA 500 1941 version motorcycle used in World War II from about 1967 until about 1985

I stored it at my father's place in the desert which was above Yucca Valley up on Yucca Mesa on the way to Landers. This likely was one of the most reliable motorcycles I ever owned in that no matter the temperature (from 115 down to about zero) I could get this thing to start up pretty quickly which likely was important during world war II.

It had no battery at all only a magneto. So, you could either kick start it and hope it didn't throw you over the handlebars if it backfired or if you weren't feeling dangerous enough you could run with it and pop it into 2nd gear and it would start up right away. You could also drive it at night with a sort of dim (compared to now) headlight run off the magneto but the only suspension in the rear were the springs in the seat. So, if you were going to hit something hard and didn't want to injure your spine you had to raise up by holding the handlebars up on the pegs so you didn't injure your back when hitting anything hard under your motorcycle. However, it could go just about anywhere even though it was pretty heavy. It worked great up to about 60 mph the one I had so you could theoretically cruise about 45 to 60 miles per hour all day long and it would be reliable doing this too. It was air cooled also.

But, like I said even without a battery I could usually start this thing up and ride away on it even if I had been living somewhere else for a year or two,  600 miles away within the first five minutes of trying to start it up. So, it was a remarkable bike in this way even though kick starting it it threw me over the handlebars more than once back then. If you are starting an old kick starter like this you have to start it not with a stiff leg. In other words you have to have your right knee bent a little in case it backfires and throws you over the handlebars. Though it had some kind of front suspension there was no real suspension in the back of the bike except for the springs of your seat.

This picture most clearly resembles my old World War II motorcycle from 1967 to 1985: The biggest
difference is that mine had a head light rather than a blacked out one to avoid being strafed by planes at night.

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Strafing - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafing

Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term can be ...

‎Description · ‎History · ‎World War II · ‎Post-1945