There seems to be a few of these from India at the moment. Dean the Bean brought three home and was selling them for well over three grand. Two of them at least had very poorly made Indian forks fitted and one of them had the rear frame badly welded back together and was returned for a full refund by the purchaser. Best to view this bike before bidding. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
My opinion hasn't changed...
Avoid anything from the Middle east/Far east unless you can give it a really detailed look over and you are very familiar with the model concerned.....
Even if the bike looks OK it's highly likely to be pretty worn out mechanically and have been subjected to some novel bodges to keep it running....
I've worked on a few and they were all knackered......
I learnt the hard way myself, rebuilding an 'ex Egypt' M20 for my own use that turned out to be largely scrap..
It was a good bike after just about everything had been replaced...and I mean just about everything...
Personally, I won't go near another....Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
Is this the original fork or not?
This one does have the nipples, 3 in total.
One is broken, you can see it in the second picture.
I like to know if this fork is the original one, because I bought it 5 years ago from someone who had the fork in his garage for years.
When did they start to sell those duplicated Forks?
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Seeing the size and rough finish of the lugs it is definitely a bad replica to my eyes.......
Regards, Michiel
['Re being knackered - i expect any old bike to be knackered, including the 'restored' ones - knurled piston 'rebores', etc. are not confined to foreign imports...']
Agreed...but most bikes from the UK haven't seen the amount of hard use that the majority of imports from the middle/far east have...
I've restored plenty of bikes and I always start with something that is off the road, as I give them a full and thorough restoration...There's little point me starting with a 'restored' one..
I can say with complete certainty though, I have never dealt with such worn out bikes as the ones I worked on that came from India, Pakistan and Egypt...
Two of the M20s I did actually had few serviceable parts remaining and they had been subjected to numerous poor quality repairs as well....(bodges)
Whilst I accept they might not all be like that it seems very many represent, at best, potentially very expensive restorations if they are to be refurbished thoroughly.
IMO they should be considered with caution and with that fact in mind......Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
you have to look for the cast number on the inside of both fork legs.
the number is H474.
also the holes for mudguard support have different sizes in front and back.
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['Exactly how many have ACTUALLY failed ?']...
It may be that none have failed..To my knowledge only one person that uses this forum has the Indian forks...They were fitted recently and to date are OK....
Whether any have failed elsewhere is an 'unknown'....
I had a good look over an M20 set that were blasted back to bare metal and as well as very poor build quality, there were obvious and less obvious dimensional faults when compared to a NOS original set I have...
I guess when a few sets have been in service for a while the question of whether they will suffer a major failure will be answered...
Although they look 'as rough as a rat catchers dog' they may be OK..or they may not be....
Regarding crankcases and other castings, I've only restored one wartime Triumph, a 5SW. That one had pretty good castings...Ian
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email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
There's no doubt they are in use..I have had no first hand feedback yet though, so I can't really comment any more than to note my visual observations of the M20 set I looked over in detail....
There is nothing to indicate the Indians have 'raised their game' in terms of repro parts and therefore the forks are likely to suffer from the same problems as many other Indian products...
So there will probably be quality control issues, with one set differing from another in both the quality of the basic components and the dimensional tolerances...
Certainly, the ones I looked at were not good from a dimensional point of view and the rear leg above the lower casting was badly kinked at the 'bend point', indicating it had not been formed in a tube bender but by hand in a vice or similar...
Also the lower lugs that hold the wheel were incorrect and different on the two sides...The overall width between the lugs was also incorrect..
This is not a comprehensive list either...
Additional points for consideration apart from the material specifications of the castings which are difficult to determine are...
The materials used to make the bushes...The material spec. and heat treatment of the main spring and any other springs used...The quality of the brazed (and pinned?) joints....
I'm not saying these forks aren't useable..or could not be made useable with some work. The above are just some of my own observations and comments based on the examination of one set...
However, I don't think we should try to kid ourselves into believing that because some have been sold and put to use they are necessarily of good quality overall...or even moderate quality...
I would say they are not, based on what I've seen...
The Indians make and sell large quantities of parts we know to be defective and of generally poor quality...Expect these forks to be the same to a degree... Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com