Hello Chaps

Can you shed some light on this please. In registering my friend Bo's 1945 WM20 he's rebuilding on Henks data sheet and realising mine wasn't on the list 'Pike' I sent Henk my WM20's details.

1942
Frame WM20 53388
Engine number WM20 71170
Contract was C11101?
C number is C4636976? which is whats on the tank currently.

When I first acquired it, I was led to believe that this was it, with the correct C number and Contract number. On emailing Henk, he seems to suggest that this maybe incorrect and it may even be an exRAF WM20, which would totally add icing to my cake due to Familiy history in the RAF.

Below a page from the BSA factory records with my BSA in it. So it left the factory 08-09-1942 and it went to the Ministry of Supply in London. (The road reg OJC 673 I'm told is a North Welsh one?)

No side car lugs on it now, there is a strange braket with a hole in though, but Henk has the feeling that I have a RAF BSA made under contract C10655. He says here is an extra number with my frame number, 5549 this could be the registration number for a RAF motorcycle.




Best pics I have to hand sorry, but if you look behind the seat post you can see the 'lug'maybe the others were ground off?





So over to you as be nice to know once and for all...Thanks

email (option): kit247@hotmail.com

Hi Kit

The lug on the frame below the seat spring is for the early short prop stand.

I seem to remember that someone else on the forum had an RAF contract M20 without sidecar lugs, was it Mick?

There are lots of M20s in the BSA ledgers that have extra numbers which haven't been explained yet but that says something about Sidecars at the top, maybe its a chassis or body number for the sidecar?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Thanks Rob..forgive me not knowing but I've never really looked at a combination or sidecar lugs on another.

email (option): kit247@hotmail.com

Hi Kit. Contract 10655 was for 200 M20 motorcycle combinations for the RAF, which were ordered in May 41 and delivered in small amounts up to Jan 44. I don't know what documentation is available to indicate that some were delivered without sidecars or even the sidecar lugged frames.

Here's one from that very contract that I owned for a short time (twice). There are lugs at, front down tube....at top of saddle tube....and on N/S by wheel spindle. I'm sure there would be witness if any of those lugs have been removed. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron, did your combination have the side stand lug?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Yes indeed it did Rob. So still designed to be used as a solo too. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Thanks Ron

Henk and I were discussing a surviving M20 the other day which had a full set of sidecar lugs and also had the prop stand lug, but in this case it appeared to have the rear lug on both sides so its probably not an AM contract machine from the same contract as this one and remains a mystery.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

I thought the rear lugs both sides is post war? The frame number of mine is WM20 53246. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I'm not at all specialised in BSAs, although I have a keen interest in any of the BEF's motorcycles but my gen. rather stops there.

However, Orchard & Madden list allocate the 200 machines to C10655 as Ron says.

It might be interesting if Henk can check if the MoS destination only applies to 200. By this time in the war, the Ministry of Supply had taken over purchasing of vehicles from the Air Ministry as well as the Army.

Have we ever seen images of a solo M20 in RAF service ? There were solo Nortons early on, later only outfits I think. They seem to have switched to OHV 350s as solo machines (mainly Ariels and WD/COs)

Hi Rik

Yes there are several wartime pictures of solo RAF M20s without sidecar lugs and with 19inch wheels.

Ron's former outfit above looks like it would benefit from a stronger fork spring, which is something that's been worrying me about my M20 GPO combination.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

I've just been comparing the RAF parts list with a standard list, and it does give a different part number for the fork spring and the wheels. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com