A BSA called Marge

Like most of us I learnt most of the practical side of motorbike and car maintenance from my father. His usual comment if one of my cars or bikes didn’t start was “have you checked you’ve got compression, fuel and a spark.” It was good advice but I’m not sure he practised it to well himself as I can remember several occasions when the car he was working on caught fire – I guess too much fuel and a spark at exactly the wrong moment. My BSA B31-2 came with good compression, but not much else. I always plug all the orifices in an engine when I’m working on it, to stop ingress of any dirt and importantly that small nut that pings off in a random direction and can surprisingly easily go down the spark plug hole. We’ve had that happen, thank goodness for magnetic screwdrivers. As this engine didn’t have pushrods it was very easy to turn over my hand and that alone would blow the plug out of the spark plug hole – a good sign from the outset. The carburettor for this model should be ...

I thought I would start with a photo of what the bike looked like yesterday, just so you can be confident my story is going somewhere. Although sadly but not unsurprisingly we heard that it looks like Le Puy de Notre Dame is not going ahead in 2020. Nevertheless, the possibility of getting Marge ready for the event has given the whole project impetus, and I feel I’m in touching distance of having a usable pre-war bike. In last week’s article I described how I discovered the fundamental reason for the odd appearance of the BSA B31-2 and rectified it by adding 72mm spacer tubes into the rear subframe chain-stays. By the way, if anyone has a suggestion of which model the original subframe may have been fitted to I would be pleased to hear – a Sloper perhaps? I didn’t complete the welding at this stage since I knew I would have to attach some lugs for the rear engine plate mounting and wanted to reinforce the stays with sleeves. Although I had a “normal” looking bike, and coul...

Buying a motorcycle is a voyage of discovery and it’s unlikely that in the cold light of dawn, on closer inspection, the condition of your purchase is anywhere near as good as you thought – although I have to say when I bought my Ducati 748 (or my yellow mid-life crisis as my wife likes to call it) after a quick once with some cleaning products it came up a treat. As far as the BSA was concerned I never expected too much from the original advert on eBay but knew very well that once I’d driven up to Sheffield it would almost certainly be coming back in the van with me. As mentioned earlier the crank felt solid and turned over OK, but I did notice that the exposed valves were not operating. All the way home I had this nagging doubt as to whether there were actually any components in the engine. The Good Fortunately, when I removed the cover, the timing gears, the cams and even the tappets were present and correct, all that was missing in fact were the pushrods. Not only tha...

I’ve never actually considered myself a “BSA” enthusiast, although I own a C15 converted to a C15T for green lane riding, nor do I normally give my bikes a name, except when the b**tards won’t start. However, as I was in the process of buying the B31-2 on eBay, that difficult time when you’ve actually bought it, but have yet to tell your wife or partner, I was doing some on-line research into the model. I happened across more than one article and many photos of Marjorie Cottle, one of Britain’s best-known motorcyclists in the 1920’s and ‘30s and actually a “works” rider. Giving my bike a female persona did actually help smooth things over for a while, although that’s been wearing a bit thin these days as I’m spending a lot of time in my workshop, only emerging to collect “another present for Marge” from the postman or courier. Marjorie mainly competed in Trials events, and in the 1927 ISDT picked up a Silver Vase. Good old Wikipedia records her as competing in this event every ye...

As I’ve said after a couple of years volunteering with the Motorcycle Team, I was coming round to the idea that my next project should be a pre-war bike, and as a result of the early 2019 ventures that it should be loosely based on a racer. Having ridden some of the bikes at Brooklands I decided that a 1930’s Overhead Valve, single would be the best option. It would most likely be within the range of 250cc to 500cc, and of course within my nominal budget. I would have loved a Norton Model 19 or an ES2 but these are much sought after by classic racers and are at the upper end of the price range. I was very attracted to an Ariel Red Hunter at Netley Marsh – partly because my father had one – and if I’d been a bit braver at the auction, and had the necessary purchasing approval, would have picked that up.  In the meantime Perry was feeding me plenty of adverts on eBay, and eventually this 1932 BSA B31-2 came up. I was able to call the seller, who turned out to have been a lumina...