Chapter 2. The Acquisition (not the Sting)

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 luminary in the VMCC. He was very upfront and honest about the bike – as indeed it turned out. It was definitely “what you see is what you get” deal, i.e. there was a frame, that didn’t look quite right, homemade girder forks, no gearbox or clutch, nor any tin-ware.

Having attempted to buy bikes through eBay before, only once being successful with my BSA C15, I was pretty sure that the price would go above my limit – especially as the bike had the original buff logbook, itself worth quite a bit. Anyway, come the day, and the hour, and the minutes and those last few agonising seconds, I emerged the winner from a very small field of bidders. The seller was up in Sheffield and quite OK with me paying in cash when I picked it up. I work part time running courses on Gas Turbines and was due to be up in Newark doing one the next week, so I drove up in a rental van the day before. The seller's place was an Aladdin’s cave of bikes, mostly pre-war. He has a virtual production line in restored classics. The pick of the bunch was a pre-war Triumph Speed Twin, that looked as though it hadn’t been touched since it came of the track in 1939. He thought he would ask £12,000 for it – but I did see it on one site for less than that.

Propped against another wall was my little BSA. The good bits were that the engine looked newly rebuilt, rotated and the crank felt pretty solid, the frame number was per the logbook, although it had been originally supplied as a Side Valve (BSA B31-1) and… well that’s it really. I endured (no offence Rob) a couple of hours hearing about the goings-on in the VMCC, got a fiver knocked off for paying in cash, hiked it into the rental van and headed for Newark. Those handlebars didn’t last long by the way.

The bike came with some paperwork in addition to the logbook. This included some forms partly completed by a previous owner to get the bike registered. Google is a wonderful resource and typing in the guy’s name and “BSA” revealed an article in a VMCC mag related to one of their branches. I wrote to the branch secretary and asked if this owner would mind me contacting him, which he agreed to. The bike had been through several owners in the last few years all reaching the same conclusion that it is near impossible to get parts – specifically the tin-ware. This is itself didn’t concern me too much as I would probably dispense with many items such as the mudguards, toolboxes and chain guard.

I got lucky though, even before I had left Newark. Before picking the BSA up I had been looking online for any parts that could fill in the gaps. Top of the list was a gearbox, and possibly a set of girders. I had studied the few images of this model available so knew roughly what I was looking for, and there almost by magic was exactly the right gearbox. I had been planning to buy an Albion or Burman box – this bike was always going to be a special. Rather than risk losing the chance of acquiring this part I clicked “buy it now” and it was on its way to Epsom. It was advertised as "parts only", and "damaged", which was how it arrived – i.e. a box of bits. This following pic was after I’d spent a genuinely enjoyable couple of hours sorting out which gear was which and installing them onto the shafts. The ‘box had suffered a major failure in the kickstart mechanism, the ratchet pinion was missing and there was a chunk taken out of the cover where the spring located. It was all made slightly worse in that to take it apart they had used a cold chisel and club hammer by the look of it. However, the shafts, gears and dogs, selector, etc, were all good and I ended the week feeling very confident that I would have a runner.

Next time….. why a BSA called Marge