hi guys, im looking to buy a wm20. ive wanted one for years but theyve always been just beyond my budget. im scouring the ads but there arent a great number of them about. any pointers, doesnt have to be a minter or even remotely tidy, i just want something from the 40s to run round on in my dotage. either to buy or p/x or swap my 1961 matching numbers triumph t100a for, any pointers?
thanks John

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk

Hi Johan,

This might help as a basic guide.
BSA M20 & M21 Buyers guide:
http://sump-publishing.co.uk/bsa%20m20.htm

Noam.

email (option): noam10@gmail.com

Hi Noam, thanks for the reply. Im no stranger to the M series bsa, ive had my M21 for probably a decade now and wont ever be parted from it. im planning to fit a sidecar to it as i believe its had a sidecar fitted since it was nearly new, thoiugh ive always run it as a solo. but ive found a nice 1960s single seat chair and as the bikes a 53 its not too far out. but ive always had a hankering for a drab olive girder rigid 500, uptil now theyve always escaped my budget, so i figure that if i dont get one now, they will forever be out of my reach. i suppose trying to buy one in the 70th anniversary year of d day might not be the best plan, but im set on buying one, so my triumph and one of the other bsa's will be going as i try to slim my fleet into single figures!
heres hoping eh!

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk

Were in the 71st anniversary year now John. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hi John,

Did you notice this one on the Bay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BSA-M-20-/171676242691?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item27f8b39303

It's missing some parts but according to the seller it'runs.

Good luck,

Ramon

email (option): noahlevi6@hotmail.com

Frame number very suspicious!!

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbxxx.net (think about this!)

hi guys, i spotted that, but holland is a trek if you arent exactly sure its the right bike, factor in getting there and back in the van and then getting it registered and also on the rd, and its likely that you could add a grand to that price. the one in northwich i was interested in on ebay i emailed them about but got no reply from them so it must have sold. andy tiernan may have one coming but it will be absolute top dollar. so im still searching. what made you think the chassis number was suspect on that one btw, its not listed in the advert?

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk

Stuart Bray usually has a few for sale. http://www.hunnypot.org.uk/sbm/

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I have four M20s. I'll sell any one of them to finance the restos on the others.

I'm in the States.

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

email (option): welbike@welbXXX. net, think about it!!

To those who have researched number stampings from the 1930s and 1940s, this is clearly not an original manufacturer's stamping and the area around bears signs of abrasion. I'd say that this is a post-war Continental font.

There are numerous reasons that it could have occurred at any time over the last seventy years....

It does rather highlight why many of us are becoming reluctant to 'date' and allocate contracts etc. without first seeing photographs of the number stampings. Many (maybe most of those coming up for sale) of the Nortons that I look at have spurious stamps.

Part of 'doing one's homework' before buying a seventy-five year old vehicle, in my opinion includes looking at as many machines and their stampings as possible to get a feel for how they should look. Anyone not doing so has only themselves to blame if they are concerned by the numbers and subsequently find that they haven't bought what they thought they were getting.

Licensing authorities across Europe are becomming stricter and stricter and I know that the UK clubs who are called upon to authenticate registration applications are nowadays loath to put their good names and reputation on the line where numbers are not clear and original.

Its quite worrying how many younger people coming into this game of older bikes are convinced that these machines have been treated with kid gloves all their lives.
They are bound to get done at some point which will not encourage them to continue.

Its very hard to convince someone prepared to pay 3k for a bike we used to regard as junk 40 years ago that we really did use them as hacks and or a source of spare parts or boat anchors.
I have broken for spares bikes that today would be really sought after, a near mint alloy engine T100 for example scrapped purely for the long chaincases and the motor at the height of the Triton craze; most of the tinware went into shed foundations.
As for the flankers we used to work with log books,enhine and frame numbers in those days of less stringent authorities, less said the better, but continental home brews during the 50s and 60s were far worse.

In the 1970s I could buy an unregistered bike, ride it to County Hall in London, when a guy would come out and look at it, and I'd go away with a new reg and logbook.

['In the 1970s I could buy an unregistered bike, ride it to County Hall in London, when a guy would come out and look at it, and I'd go away with a new reg and logbook.']

That was before the introduction of the Police State...

Strangely, we still managed to get by without all the regulations and everything pretty much functioned OK...

You're right though Ken...'Sacred Cow' status for the more 'mundane' bikes is a relatively recent phenomenon...

First I broke standard bikes to make café racers, then I broke standard bikes to make choppers, then I broke standard bikes just to make something I thought was better...

Most of the tinware went up to the derelict prefab estate near my garage or in the river when no one was looking...

The last thing I wanted in those days was a standard bike!...

Plenty of the bikes that passed through my hands at that time had had the numbers 'adjusted'..It wasn't at all uncommon..Ian

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

Glad I am not the only one who remembers.

1971 ish I bought a Triumph Greeves scrambler, a pukka job, not a posy one, made an appointment at County Hall, rode it there on almost open pipes and knobbly tyres, paid road tax and came away with a registered bike.

In 1968 I rescued a 1938 bike from the dump, no logbook, applied to the LCC, or GLC whatever it was then for a replacement. They actually WROTE to the previous owner who not only sent me the original Buff logbook but a letter about its history. These days its only parking scammers that can do that.

I have another bike, built from parts, registered to a number that has no relation to the bike, but fitted the year. all done on the Buff books, and now all the numbers are on its V5....., no numbers on any part have been faked or altered, all quite legit and nothing dishonest ever done but I worked within the rules of the time.

To me this shows the modern folly of relying religously on numbers and parts lists.
When that bike is sold, it'll take with it written details of how it got to be what it is now; also a resume of the horrendous fibs I tell when accosted by a rivet counter; I wonder if it will get passed on?

I think we were more honest as a nation back then, now, everyone is suspected of being on some kind of fiddle, certainly the establishment regard us all as dishonest subjects, but as they say, a fish rots from the head down.

cheers for the response guys and also for the replies ive had by email, im pretty sure what im getting now, so, fingers crossed im going to be riding an m20 pretty soon.

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk

im spellbound by this forum, i cant wait to get myself an m21 and start getting oil under my nails again.

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk

just to conclude this thread, ive been for a drive to hull and back (sic) tonight, and now have 2 wm20s in the van plus a vanfull of spare parts. hopefully enough to build one good one or perhaps even both eventually. one is a 41 and the other a 43 im told, one has matching numbers too. i will be clearing the decks in the shed first, shifting on some other bikes, triumph suzukis and possibly my c15, and then when ive the space, i will crack on with these two. expect plenty of damn foolish questions in the process!
many thanks guys

email (option): johnrregan@yahoo.co.uk