Hello,
I am looking at a WM20 - frame number 96094. It has a 1945 registration, but from what I can tell from the listing it should be a 1943. Can someone please assist and tell me when it was produced? Any other info would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Mikael

Hi Mikael

Your bike appears to be from contract S1048

Frame no wm20 81818 to 96817 - a total of 15,000 machines

Dates
24.09.42 to 3.11.43

Census no commenced at 5115218 to 5130217

This I got from the Orchard & Madden book -

Hope it helps you

email (option): Jonnyob1@googlemail.com

You tank number would have been C5129494. I can email you some war time photos of BSA's with tank numbers close to your BSA.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

Or it may have missed all the action and langusihed in a warehouse till sold surplus, as a new bike in 45.
I have a 43 model, matching engine & frame numbers ar the dead give away as the OZ army serviced all the engines out of the bike thus the numbers never matched after the first major service.

email (option): wariron@tpg,com,au

G'day Trevor,
It's an interesting point about matching numbers on Australian WDM20s.
Having a look at the frame numbers page there seems to be an over representation of Australian matching numbers bikes built in '41 and '42 also, out of the 57 showing for these two years, 31 are Australian. Would we think that these were also kept in storage?

PS. Will you be at the All Brit next weekend?

email (option): spacemonkeym@gmail.com

I guess this one was sold as surplus in 45 as well. It is in civilian paint - all black with some silver to the side of the tank. The bike was imported to Sweden in 1983 but the records doesn't tell of anything before this.

Mikael

Yep,
No military force is cheaper than the Aussies.
We ran WM20 till 1966.
The last batch of NOS crated Wm20's turned up in a Qld government warehouse and hit the market around 2005.
There was a couple of WLA's in the same auction went for astronomical prices.
Bikes that were ordered during WW II through the British Minestry did not get paid for till they went into service, so if they never got used we never had to pay for them. Thus they got stuck in warehouses, just in case.
Bikes ordered directly had to be paid for.
A little known fact was the UK never paid one penny for any goods sent to WW II and we made a lot of the kit that UK soldiers took into battle, so we did not pay for the bikes.

Excess military stock was auctioned off asap to pay down the war debts so there were a lot of WM20's thrown to the public for £ 10.00.00. This was less than the cost of a 4Hp stationary engine so farmers in particular bought them by the dozens for saw benches, pumps , walk behind tillers ,slashers, etc. Some even rode them.
There were at last 3 companies that sold mobile power equipment with a WM20 providing the power.
The most notorious were the swing saws used to cut millions of sleepers exported to Europe & the UK let alone for local rail expansions. Every now & then you will see them on Aussie Evilbay , no dynamo and a lever up to 1 foot long on the valve lifter.

BSA actually made a tele fork conversion so their local distributor could buy up excess bikes give them a quick coat of paint & a set of telescopic forks and sell them at a competative price.
My bike has an Empire Star tank & wheels, period fitted to civilianize it ( cost 10s for tank & 2s6p each wheel ).
Every now & then I see a long frame M20 fitted with teles at a rally.

The used bike market has never been particularly big down here and we have the highest rate of home ownership with large ( by European standards ) blocks of land so the old Beesa got pushed into the back shed when dad got his new bike ( for the kids to ride when there old enough ) where they laid for decades.
Pillar houses were the norm here as well so the empty space under the floor was another resting place and it was not uncommon to end up with the bike bricked in when the house was bricked over.

We have the largest amount of vintage & veteran motorcycles in the world and there is a big export market.

email (option): wariron@tpg,com,au

Although the later war contract cards include less detail, the card for S1048 indicates that delivery of the 15000 was planned at 2000 per month commencing May 1943 and the following contract (S2603) at 2400 per month commencing December 1943.

Yours is late in the contract so a November / December 1943 production date is likely.

Incidentally, this is the last of the contracts that was originally placed for WB30s and then amended....and S2603 onwards had 3.25 tyres.