There is an ex-RAF BSA v twin on ebay at the moment, according to the owner only 6 survive.
The front fork seems m20 to me...?
Mind you, the seller probably knows a few things about prices
The forks on the 500 V Twins changed in 1935 to the ones almost identical to M20, before that they had slightly different geometry that caused the wheelbase to change when forks compressed, the 33/34 type forks are recognised by having a wingnut instead of a damper knob.
The fork blades on the J models I've noticed did have an obvious difference in that the headlight mounting lugs on the top were a larger diameter brazed lug. I can't say for definite from that picture what size the lugs are.
Lots of nice hard to get parts on it like that oil tank with the exhaust cutaway & the proper speedo mount shown seperate.
but the seller has made one mistake/misprint saying that the rear drum is from a 1938 J12 as they stopped making them in 36 ; )
There's actually a J34-11 engine on ebay also item 201102927375.
... i hate leaving wrong info (even if few people read my stuff) my previous post says "headlight mounting lugs" but that line should read "Speedo bracket mounting lugs".
Hi Cycle Fred,
you're right about the forks changing in 1935, but should'nt it be a Deluxe fork then for 1935, with the top yoke in rubbers ?
I,m not sure...
This bike has the 1934 engine, with first model gearbox and the early heads without inlet-covers and without oil feed to the heads.
I suppose this bike needs the earlier (smaller) forks with small friction plates on both side of the fork and with the two bolts for the speedometer on the top yoke, in front (to fit the speedo bracket you mentioned)
Again, i,m not sure, so maybe you or someone can tell.
Yes i meant the fork blades really but yes my 35 J12 has the rubber yoke & so did the 36 model but 1933/34 & Military models were not rubber top yoke
I always say the first gearbox was the hand change cover as those V Twins turned up about 1933 before the (bit of an afterthought bolt - on external foot change mechanism) was fitted.
A chap I know has several of those military ones.
Officially the J12 was not in the catalogue in 1937 and 1938 but the despatch records show as special batch with prefixes H15 being produced in 1937 for the RAF and the last Scotland yard bikes were despatched late 1937 and early 1938!
These forks are not correct for 1934. The forks are a different shape as Fred rightly explained. The friction plates on the forks are round and have a small eyelet for the lamp brackets. The adjuster is a wing nut. The top connection tube has holes facing forward for the bolts fro the speedo bracket. The speedo bracket itself is the right shape but a copy in alloy whereas the original is a steel pressing.
The later type forks are like the M20 type with more teardrop shaped friction plates.
I know this bike as I have looked it over to buy myself. This guy collected V twins and he is quite knowledgable. This is a good project and the right type of forks are not hard to find. In fact I have several in my shed. The hardest part is finding the correct size links.It took me quite a whiule to find these for my civilian 1934 J34-11.
I do think this is a good project but there are still some expensive parts missing like the H52 head lamp. The army model didn't have a tank panel and needed a light with a switch.The brake rod is a simplere desing than the later BSA type but still hard to find.
If his reserve is close to his asking price 2 years ago I would think that it is a realistic price. But then again this is Ebay and people can get crazy.
Go to evilbay.
search BSA motorcycles
In the side bar down the bottom click the "completed listings" option.
evil bay will now list all of the bsa's listed for the last 60 days, final price & number of bids.
Prices in red = not sold prices ingreen =sold.
