I am wanting to fit the correct grips to my M20, a 1939 K series.
Should this have rubber grips or canvas grips, I understand that canvas was introduced due to shortage in rubber.

Definitely rubber up until mid-1942 (and of course they didn't disappear straight away).

Period photos suggest open-ended grips with bar end plugs. They look to me to be the standard late 1930s Amal type which just have a small logo around the edge.

Jeff Hunter will make them to size.

thanks Rik, does Jeff Hunter use this forum or do you have contact details?

Thanks
Sam

You can't phone Jeff. Email him and wait for a reply. From years of dealing with him, it seems he only looks at his emails a couple of times a week. jeffalanhunter@aol.com

He's always at Kempton/Shepton/Stafford and probably others.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Thanks Ron

Hi Rik,

I found this old thread in a search.

I am trying to identify and date the rubber dummy grip on my recently acquired WD M20. Here is a photo of it:



Is this the standard late 1930's grip you are describing above?

I also found another thread in which Rob Miller posted a scan of a figure from a period catalog showing several different models of Amal grips with their respective part numbers. In that figure, the shape of and knurling on the grip with part numbers 65-8502 and 65-8503 (for dummy and throttle grip, respectively), which match the part numbers found in the 1940 C6126 and later C9310 contracts, looks exactly like the grip on my bike.

But the figure in the catalog does not show the top of the grip where the Amal logo is found on the edge.

My bike has components from early (e.g., 8" DU142 headlamp, long field stand, etc) and later (e.g., 3 gal tank with no knee grips, full size panniers rack, horn on nearside engine yoke, etc) production periods, and I am keen to ascertain if this grip could indeed be an original early rubber M20 grip.

Here is the scan I was referring to...



In the figure, the rectangular checkerboard pattern part of the grip is up, and the crosshatch part is down. On the Amal grip on my bike, the crosshatch pattern is up, and the rectangular checkerboard pattern is down, but you can see that it looks to be the same grip. The only thing you can't see is the "Amal" logo on the figure.

The 'Amal' lettering on yours looks slightly different from any that I recall seeing but of course moulds wear out (and Amal would have had dozens in use at any one time)...Your grip is certainly what I would consider to be 'late' Amal (i.e. later 1930s rather than the 1920s style) and no reason to suppose that anyone was faking them after the war...

If it was mine, I'd use it. It looks 'right' and 'period' to me.

Thanks. The other end is boogered a bit, but I believe it's serviceable. The difficulty might be finding a suitably matching rubber throttle grip, which is missing completely.

That's a nice grip, I have never seen one like it before, but I suspect that when your bike left the factory it was fitted with canvas grips.

Most M20s still in service after the war have been rebuilt in an Army workshop, a quantity of bikes would come in, they would all be stripped right down, engines and gearbox's would go to one group of fitters for refurbishment, all the rest of the components would be checked for useable tolerances, anything that didn't measure up would be binned, frames and forks would be straightened if possible, and complete bikes built from what was decreed usable with the addition of some new components, very few frames left the workshop with bits that were originally attached when the bike was new.

Rubber components were available again after several years of shortages, so new knee grips and handlebar grips would be fitted, and there is every likelihood that these date from that post war period, so they are probably not going to be identical to the pre war style shown in the 1939 spares list.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

If you mean when the frame on my bike left the BSA factory in late 1943, then yes, I have read that the handlebars that were originally fitted to my frame would have had the canvas grips. Thanks for confirming. But I am quickly learning that vintage and identity are exceedingly complex concepts with M20's, especially in the context of the cannibalization process that most likely took place in wartime Army and post-war REME maintenance depots, as you yourself elaborated on in your subsequent paragraph.

To restore my bike to 1943 BSA WM20 factory specifications, I would also have to cannibalize it again, swapping out early components for 1943-correct components, and it would have to be stripped of the BAOR overcoat. Frankly, I am loathe to do any of that.

Instead, I aim to preserve the bike "as is", for what it represents: a late 1940 original BSA WM20 engine yoked to a late 1943 original BSA WM20 frame, with a mix of some early and mainly late wartime original parts attached, that served its country honorably during the war, and in the BAOR, survived, and was rebuilt, no later than 3-11-55 (which is the date on the REME data plate), with 60+ years of its virtually unmolested history under that wonderful, gnarly paint.

That's the story I am warming myself up to, anyway! :)

So I will be looking for an OEM or repop Amal rubber throttle grip that matches the dummy on my bike and the figure.

Not a very good photo and the grip was still shiny with mould-release but this is a 'Hunter' rubber as referred to above.

He makes them to any length or ID. I don't know of anyone else replicating the Amal trade-mark type.

Thanks, Rik. That looks pretty good to me.

I had an email request for additional photos of the Amal grip on my bike, so I thought I would post them here as well in case anyone else is interested.