I recently purchased a bit of a hodgepodge M20 and was hoping someone might be able to help a bit with the history. I really do hope to restore it back to its military era colors and markings. From reading the forum, I see that the higher serial numbers are a bit harder to trace but any information is good information.
Frame: 97952
The engine has not yet arrived but I think it is off of a 1952 BSA so I am not sure it would help to have the number.
Also, are there any services similar to Heritage Motor Centre services that provide a detailed buildout of the orginal motorcycle?
Thanks for all the help and advice. I really appreciate good forums like this for helping out with my restoration efforts.
As you're aware, factory production records have not survived for the later wartime production. However, there is a fair bit of evidence available.
WM20 97952 was supplied under contract S2603 and would have been allocated WD Serial no. C5208652.
Production under this contract was scheduled at 2400 per month commencing December 1943 at WM20 96818 so yours would probably have been built the same month or early 1944 if deliveries were not on time.
In terms of detailing original specification, I'd say that there is no better place than this forum. You'll have to collate it yourself but I'm sure that Henk can supply quite a lot.
Thank you for the great information. I am hoping to have the motorcycle as purchased reassembled and working mid-July before beginning a teardown restoration. Plenty of time to start accumulating more information.
Thank you again for the information and getting me started.
As you're aware, factory production records have not survived for the later wartime production. However, there is a fair bit of evidence available.
WM20 97952 was supplied under contract S2603 and would have been allocated WD Serial no. C5208652.
Production under this contract was scheduled at 2400 per month commencing December 1943 at WM20 96818 so yours would probably have been built the same month or early 1944 if deliveries were not on time.
In terms of detailing original specification, I'd say that there is no better place than this forum. You'll have to collate it yourself but I'm sure that Henk can supply quite a lot. [/quote]
OTOH there is a better than average chance that your bike could have been unused war surplus.
I have WM20 78096, some 20,000 older than yours & mine was crated war surplus ( same engine & frame numbers )
I don't know where Justin is located but that some machines shipped to Australia remained unused due to the envisaged mobilisation against the Japanese becomming unneccesary does not mean that there were large stocks of early 1944 production in the UK, as the campaign in NW Europe was using up huge amounts of transport.
This is C52075** and it has certainly seen some action.
Third owner.
Matching engine & frame numbers so it never had an army decoke as these were done as engine swaps same as the UK. So absolutely no chance of seeing active service.
So a 99% chance it was a surplus sale.
We seem to have a lot more war surplus WM20's down here than any where else.
The only place I have seen or heard of the modified steering gear to fit tele's onto rigid frames is down here.
We had a lot of companies that bought them surplus, dumped the frame and used the engines in things like swing saws , bench saws, trenchers and rotovators as whole bikes were cheaper than a new stationary enine and you got to sell the instruments and tinwear back to the dealers for spares.
AFAIK the original owner bought an obsolete empire star tank and wheels to "civillianize " the bike so he did not look like the 10,000 other motorcyclist riding ex army bikes.
This "problem" posed such a threat to the local car industry that all state governments increased the tax on bikes to be greater than the tax on locally assembled cars. A piece of blatient discriminatiion that is still in place although Victoria & South Australia both dropped theirs to match while NSW increased it even further.
