Hello everybody, I’ve been a regular visitor to this forum for a few months now, posted a few things and learned a lot from the information which passes by. This forum is very addictive to me and I will be posting more in the future so I would like to tell something about me.
I am 36 years old, live in the north of Holland and have been keen on motorcycles since the day I discovered my fathers M20 in the shed, which is now 20 years ago. It was standing there for years and we only had to change the points, put some oil and petrol in and there it went. We both were immediately infected and still are. We travel to Netley March and Beaulieu every year for the last 10/12 years. One of the best weekends of the year. In the meantime I restored a few motorcycles, started with a 1951 C11 which I still have, then came a 1947 Norton ES2, a Russian-army copy BSA-sloper TIZ-AM600 (discussed on this forum also), and a 1932 350cc Blue Star. Sold all three bikes during the years because I discovered I like the English heavyweight, girder-forked, motorcycle the most.
Recently completed a 1940 WM21 which also came out of my fathers shed. It did not have a tank and wrong forks but gladly they came from a Triumph Tiger 90/speedtwin ... It had not an original framenumber and I restored the bike to civilian trim because it had, what I thought, all the prewar civilian bike features: Sidecar lugs, pillion footrests, forged rearstand, srew cap on oiltank, etc. But thanks to this forum I found out it is more likely that it is a former Dutch army bike. Anyway, it is a very fine bike, I was even lucky enough to find a balloon tank with an instrument panel which was solid enough to rechrome, which looks very nice. As you can see on the picture it is in need of a longer forkspring which I will fit someday.
Now busy with an original Dutch-army 1939 KM21 I bought a few months ago. It came without the wheels, forks and handlebar and is worn out so I will have a lot of questions in the future, counting on you and be very thankful with your help…
Regards, Michiel
Hi Michiel, The bike is looking really nice. As you say a panel tank good enough to chrome (or any panel tank!)is indeed a lucky find.
It would be interesting to see some photos of your Dutch Army bike as the restoration progresses...Ian
Yes, more pictures of both bikes please....
email (option): stinkypete80@hotmail.com
Thanks for the interest, Here are a few more pictures. The one without the wheels is the KM21 and has been discussed on this forum earlier, I will post some more pictures during the restoration.
Also a picture of the Russian built Sloper which I restored and sold. As my interest in military bikes grow's I wonder if I did right selling that bike.... . Maybe someone knows where is now, I've still got a spare bottom end which is for sale. Actually we bought it as a BSA, only to discover it had fine-metric bolts everywhere and there were no BSA stamps/trademarks. But it is a very large, sturdy and rough built motorcycle. I think they copied the forks and wheels from the G14 because they are much heavier than the BSA sloper. It had no dynamo and I heard it was in the manual to recharge between the battles ....
Regards, Michiel
still looking for one of those tanks as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!
email (option): chris.astinbarker@btinternet.com