Here's a couple of strange questions:
Are the tank mounted c numbers decals or hand painted? My brush hand isn't the steadiest so I'm hoping stickers of some colour and font will suit.

Also, my new paint doesn't seem to like petrol and having seen a few pics of webbing around the filler, I'm wondering if this is why?

most were sign written some with stencils it probaly the type of paint you are using that is reacting with the petrol i think you would have trouble with sticker and petrol my local sign writer did 2 C numbers and 2 div signs for £25 a few years back again i think there is a petrol resistant laquer that you can put on

Contact these guys for a selection of easy to use stencils. www.axholmesigns.co.uk/

The webbing you refer too, is actually a badge of honour for those of us in the 'Ring Piece Club'
Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hi Ron,

Nice pic of the tank and handlebars.

Can I talk you into sending me a few more of them. I'm interested in the switch shown by the left hand grip and in all the control levers.

Thanks,

Robb

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

How does one become a member of the "Ring Piece" club?
I could use one too, I think one of the pics from the Owl's Head show had one on his tank.
Vince

Ron Pier

Contact these guys for a selection of easy to use stencils. www.axholmesigns.co.uk/

The webbing you refer too, is actually a badge of honour for those of us in the 'Ring Piece Club'
Ron

email (option): vinver@ns.sympatico-ca

I'm not making any rash statements but I think there should be a debate on font styles...Ian

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

Rob the combined horn/dip switch is a fairly modern item, available from most motorcycle shops I think. I hope to replace it with the correct items one day. The levers are the BSA pre war set up. I'll send you pictures.
Vinc. To become a member of the ring Piece Club. You simply cut a perfect circle from an old webbing back pack or similar, and get your wife/girl friend/gay lover, to sew the edge with blanket stitching on an electric sewing machine
Ian. Yes font styles are available in different designs by Axholme and can be copied from original photos.
Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ta for the info Roger & Ron.
I think I'll cut my tank webbing into a square as initiation into the Ring Piece Club could prove painful - even with a sprung saddle!

Lee you are quite in order with that! The webbing ring you see on some of our bikes is an adaption from a war time photo that Ian found where a DR had cut a rough square from a piece of canvas. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I consider Rons font style to be incorrect..(sorry Ron). The style that has been used is 'Stencil Font' or 'Stencil Bold Font'. This was a variation of the English 'Clarendon Font'and was introduced in America in 1937.
Of course you can put what you like on the tank and a degree of 'artistic license' is often applied. However, as it may be copied, for the sake of accuracy I think it is worth mentioning...Ian

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

Yes Ian, I never claimed my font style to be correct. As I stated in a previous post in this thread. Axholme signs can produce any font you want, including copies from original photos. My tank was painted a long time ago by my sign writer which includes complicated div patches, and before I knew the correct information. I have no intention to change it until I have to. Ron

PS. The font style on my tank is referd to by Axholme as "Times New Roman" whatever that means?

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

hi,i think i must be a member of the ring piece club,when visiting a ship a few years ago,i was taken below to see the golden rivet,the last one to be placed during building,when i bent down too look i got a ring sting,is this the same?cheers rick

email (option): richardholt@rocketmail.com

Ha Ha..We had the 'golden rivet' in the factory I worked in when I was an apprentice...when (at the tender age of 15 1/2) you were told to go to the stores and ask the storeman for a 'Golden Rivet' he would unzip and whack his todger on the counter. Rather embaressing at that age!!...Ron..if you want to check it out google 'stencil bold font images'...you will find it there. Times New Roman is a much plainer style....Ian

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

I might just go for that Gothic font next time. It will go with my black lippy. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

You could always have gold leaf and go for the officers uniform.. ..Ian

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

When did the white c number in the black box with white border appear?

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

Pre and very early war for a short period. No doubt Rik can give dates. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron, and then only on the near side!!
(left side for our "foreign" visitors.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

I wish that I could give dates Ron but there doesn't seem to have been a definite cut-off date and it varied between manufacturers.

I can find no images of wartime contract M20s bearing the black background. BSA seem to have applied the numbers to the newly-vacant number plates initially, followed shortly afterwards by small numbers with the 'C' above applied direct on the tank colour.

Nortons strangely seem to have discontinued the square during 1939 only to begin again for a few months in early 1940.

There are a few photographs which suggest that at this time, the black square was applied in the factory and the Ordnance signwriters applied the white edging and numbering.

Knowing Norton's chaotic 'last in, first out' stores system, it may just be that they used a few hundred fuel tanks that had been lurking in the back of the stores for a year or so.

Basically, you'd need pre-war or photographic evidence from a 1939/40 contract in order to use it convincingly....and as Lex says, on the nearside only (other than that there are one or two odd photographs of (RASC ?) Triumphs that seem to display on two sides.

That figures! I knew about the one side thing. Then promptly displayed the wrong side. I'm quite used to the criticism now though. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I'm not criticising, Ron. I'm deeply jealous of any bike with the barrel and head on !

Hi Ron,
I think I'll initiate myself into the Ring Piece club, looks pretty simple to fabricate and the initiatian ritual seems to be straightforward.
As for the font, I was actually playing on Microsoft Word the other day for the same purpose, and found the font known as Arial Black in size 144 seems to be pretty close to some original wartime pictures in my books, though there does seem to be a lot of variations though, and some artistic license would not be inappropriate, probably most c-numbers have been repainted sometime in their life anyway.
Vince

email (option): vinver@ns.sympatico.ca

My sentiments entirely Vincent. My M20 is actually 1940 and is clearly not correct for it's year. For various reasons, I have chosen to depict the bike as a much later war rebuild. Not least because of the usefulness of the panniers. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Did the M20 have any other stickers from the factory such as "Oil Level" on the oil tank, tyre pressure on mud guards, etc?

In all honesty Lee. I think the only decal applied at the factory were the tank transfers (available in water slide).
Anything else is artistic licence. I do have a piled arms transfer on my headstock and tool box and a 'minimum oil level' on my oil tank. But i wish I hadn't instaled the oil level and tool box transfers. I'll just paint a white line on the oil tank next time. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com