Here's my newly acquired 3HW...
Please comment!















Kostas

email (option): ferrarakias@hotmail.com

Hi Kostas, nice complete project.

Could you post a close up of the contract plate please.

Rob

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

email (option): ferrarakias@hotmail.com

What do you make of the markings Rob ? The only trace of an RASC '78' that I could find in Hodges & Taylor is an Armoured Brigade Company RASC on the 1941 MEF listings.

The bike is too new to have arrived in Greece before it fell - which makes me think perhaps 2nd Armoured Brigade who went there from Italy in 1944 and I believe were disbanded there in 1946.

It looks as if there is an earlier, better-painted census number underneath - maybe the tank was swapped at some point while in service ?

Thank you Kostas, the type face is very similar to my BSA M20 contract plate for C13290.

Rik, I agree the red green diagonal is reminiscent of a RASC marking, I will study it some more.

Rob

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

A real time piece Kostas. Lucky Chap! I calculate the census number to be C887174 which looks like what is on the tank?

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Exactly how you'd like to find them! Very nice Kostas!

Which springs were used in these Lycett pillion seats? I guess they didn't use rubber bands? Any chance of some extra pictures?

Cheers,
Jan

email (option): wd.register(at)gmail.com

Very cool looking bike

email (option): ferrarakias@hotmail.com

Doesn't pay to use Photobucket Kostas. The link you sent me didn't work either. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Can view photos on my mobile but not on here,a very nice original condition find,probably early Meriden build fitted with webb girders but still has the aluminium chain cases,there should be a build date on the frame lug under the saddle with month and year,have got a spare engine not far off from yours,3HW 41116 which was probably built a week before your engine,are you going to restore or leave original?

Bikes found like this used to be restored to a level where they look better then when they left the factory (!)
But nowadays there are more and more people who feel bikes should be kept in this condition and just make everything work properly. Nothing more.
It makes sense, but there is a lot of rust here....
Fortunatly you have a good climate Kostas.

email (option): ferrarakias@hotmail.com

I'd restore it...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Me too! You know you like things pristine Kostas and it can be re-sprayed the same colour and copy the original markings.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

The markings are only original once and are slightly open to interpretation. The fuel tank and mudguards are probbaly evidence of how 23rd Armoured Brigade moved from Italy to Greece.

In my opinion, there is a lot to be said for perhaps obtaining alternative tank and guards for a restoration and preserving the originals.

I agree with Rik the 78 on RASC diagonal red green is probably one of the two RASC Companies of an Armoured Division somewhere in the middle east.

But underneath that is a much more intriguing number which could be this machines first appointment. It also has a diagonal split which almost definitely means RASC at this period, with the split crossing the "5" which would make this the middle or one of the middle numbers if perhaps there was a white bar top or bottom, but what is the number?

?25?
125?
25?
25??

Or is the diagonal split on the "5" evidence of a third set of markings with this original number being on black?

Rob

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