A BSA called Marge

  Having got my 1932 BSA B31-2 to the point where I had the engine running, and had completed a few laps of my back garden, I took the opportunity to bring it into Brooklands, where I could run it for slightly longer without trying the patience of my neighbours, and check the carburettor settings. I had planned for one of the maintenance days, with not too many people around, but with the recent poor weather it ended up being last Thursday. With the Brooklands demo bikes set-up ready to go, I wheeled the BSA over, with the sole intention of running it up after our morning session and adjusting the air-slide. It fired up pretty easily on the new starter and before I knew it someone was bringing my helmet and gloves over. Not really needing a second invitation I set off and did a few unofficial laps of the start-finish straight. I realised that I had previously been setting the air-slide per my Norton, but when I’d got it fully open the little bike ran well with about 2/3 of the av...

When I started this blog I had no real idea how long it would run, partly because I was unsure how long the build of my BSA B31-2 would take, but mainly that it was impossible to tell when Brooklands would open again. I decided in any case to keep it going at least to the latter occasion. As I write this I can say that the Marge is essentially complete, albeit with a fairly healthy “punch” list of items to take care of. Also I have now completed more than a week’s worth of Brooklands visits, one day as a gardener, an induction day, the public opening day on 2 nd August, Sunday helping out with the demonstration runs and today on the maintenance crew. I know it will take quite a while before we can all get together as the Motor Cycle Team on the same day, but let’s hope it’s not too far away. The last week’s build has been quite frantic in some ways, with some jobs going really well and others taking much longer than expected. I spent quite a while designing and fabricating a clamp...