Pulled the old tyre off the rear wheel the other day and it appears that the rear wheel was rebuilt at some stage with a German???? rim.
It's stamped "KRONPRINZ=SICHERHEITSFFIG". Is anyone familiar with these rims? This would have been a repair that was done while the bike was still in military service.
Although not familiar with this make it seems unlikely to me that military workshops would not have had access to genuine spare parts, however had the machine passed into civilian ownership anything is possible.
Richard
It will actually say 'Kronprinz Sicherheitsfelge' - Crown Prince is the make - Safety Rim was their trade-mark.
Standard fitment on many German motorcycles through the 1950s...
British Army vehicles were sent to German Auxiliary workshops but as Richard says, it would be strange if they did not have access to sufficient stocks of OE spares.
The answer may be that a Squaddie had a prang visiting an out of bounds brothel and had the bike repaired locally to cover it all up !
Thanks for the info. I thought it was odd that it wasn't a OE spare as well. According to the key cards this bike wasn't released till Feb 1970. It had a WD tyre, WD tube, WD tyre clamp and is still painted post war green like the rest of the bike......
Thanks for the info. I thought it was odd that it wasn't a OE spare as well. According to the key cards this bike wasn't released till Feb 1970. It had a WD tyre, WD tube, WD tyre clamp and is still painted post war green like the rest of the bike......
1970 was 47 years ago.
What makes you think the bike has to be the same now as it was when it was demobbed ?
If you bought it in 1970 then your were either an enthusiast or a tight wad.
If you were the latter then auctions of surplus parts would be your first choice for parts.
I still have some brand spanking new never used 1966 BSA B40GA parts and it is 2017.
I gave some to a friend to complete his ride to work civilian B40 and they all have a broad arrow stamped into them
Back in 1982 when one of the stores was being cleaned out there were hundreds of brand spanking new tyres on offer.
However as they had not been wrapped we did not bid on them but some of the dealers were pushing hard to get a pallet or two of them.
I hear what you are saying Trevor....... I could have included a few more details in my last post after re-reading it.
I got the bike off a retired navy vet who purchased it in 1981. He put the rego on hold and pushed it into one of his bike filled sheds and there it sat until I got my hands on it 4ish years ago. He had got it off another bike collecting friend of his who had had it since the early 70's sitting in one of his sheds.
The bike has a "lot" number stencilled on the top of the tank which I'm assuming is an auction number???? As well as "drive on the right" stencilled in red. Both guards have tyre preasure stencils. It is matching frame, engine and contract plate and has the post war military number plate. There is the faint outline of a census number under the coat of post war green (can't quite make it out).
The paint job was obviously done before any off the stencil work. As far as I can tell the only missing parts were the bash plate (since found) and the Vokes air filter.
Seems it's pretty un-molested making me think this was a wheel repair done while still in service.
