The picture of the War Office twins on the landing page shows 1936 or later models which were supplied to the RAF. Although the J12 was no longer in the civilian catalogue, the RAF ordered War Office twins as late as 1937. The gearbox is the enclosed positive stop type (effectively the predecessor of the M20 gearbox but then top to bottom instead of horizontal), which makes it 1936 or later.
Henk would you happen to have a bigger image size of this picture?

email (option): leonhop3_at_planet_dot_nl

Another very much staged publicity shot
Looks like at least 2 sets of twins riding twins

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Henk,
where is that picture ?
Can you show it to all of us ?

Your right Trevor, the guy on the left and the right are the same guy from the waist up but mirrored. Clever bit of work but why do that, nice BSAs though cracking pre war twins. Must have been very expensive bikes to build.

email (option): t.j.walker@btinternat.com

The photo was very damaged at the right hand side guy and I copied the top-half of the left hand guy to the other side. The right hand guy legs are original, I was wondering if anybody would notice and you did :yum:

Henk :sunglasses:

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

You'll be putting Santa in a Big 4 next Henk:relaxed: Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Henk, I've tidied it ip for you a bit - got rid of that respirator on the wrong shoulder and put the cap badge on the correct side. I've given him a period RAF 'tach too...:wink:

Well done Rik :relaxed:

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

That's it, ace picture Rik, but still cracking pre war BSA's. You never see these about, what a well built nice looking twins these were.

email (option): t.j.walker@btinternat.com

They must nearly all have gone in the smelter I think...and they did have reliability problems. 12th Lancers were filmed with them during the phoney war period but they had been replaced before the fighting started...I can find no record of what happened to them...I doubt local sale in France so presumably back-loaded to the UK. They don't appear in pre-war dealer adverts...A bit of an oddity, an old-fashioned 500cc v-twin..

These bikes seem to have the early type frontfork, like the 1934 J11 (?)
Wich was a bit smaller, maybe to save weight ?

Leon ?

It appears that a lot of them ended up in the western desert.

Rob

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

I believe the forks are standard middle weight, used for the 350 and 500 singles. The M20 fork came in 1936. Leon will correct me.

This is my dad's 1936 engine from France, D15.109 , outside looks tatty but has never run. With oil-pressure button and cast-iron pistons. Maybe send to France as spare unit with the bikes??





Any info on this engine more than welcome, as any leads to a frame for it!!

BR Michiel

email (option): m.wijbenga@hotmail.com

Nice engine. No B.S.A. written on the rocker covers.
I know others had a E prefix.

Michiel, I have nothing on the WO twins - a silly omission on my part as it wouldn't have taken much effort to photograph the ledgers back when the VMCC allowed it. Would the BSA OC be able to confirm whether it was despatched as part of a complete machine ?

As I mentioned, the bikes certainly went to France, but presumably only with units that had been mechanised very early on...This horrible colourised image is taken from a Pathé news film showing 12th Lancers during the phoney war.

Thanks Rik, I will contact the BSA OC.

Mike, think the rockercovers are homemade which would explain the lack of the BSA inscription.

BR Michiel

There was a dedicated BSA V twin group on Yahoo groups a while back.
I was on it but dropped it a few tears ago when the BSA club dropped our 4 yahoo groups because of changed made to the operation ( improvements ? ) made it next to impossible for any one without a MCE 4 or above to use them.
Thus I closed my Yahoo account .
They were a good bunch of people, really helpful and there were a few that clubbed together to get stuff made, like girder springs .
Might be worth your while chasing them up.
A good few were in France.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Michiel,
try Jules Dassen from the dutch BSA club.
He has information about these bikes.