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Ministry of Defence Motorcycles

Hi All

Can anyone help. I am looking at a BSA B40F which is described by it's owner as an "ex-Home Office" motorcycle, it has the London registration number beginning CCY... as per most British "Authority" vehicles however, according to the BSA factory records it was supplied to the (and I quote) "Ministry of Defence Army" in March 1965.

I have to stress at this point that this is not an AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) model.

So my questions are;

1. Why was a BSA Motorcycle ordered from BSA and delivered to the MoD/Army with a civilian registration number?
2. Did the MoD order all motorcycles for Home Office use?
3. If it was a Home Office machine, what duties did the Home Office use motorcycles for in the 1960s?

Any ideas?

Cheers, Dave.

email (option): dave.stapleton@me.com

Re: Ministry of Defence Motorcycles

Hi Dave

This is not really my era but there are a large number of possibilities, so here are a few guess's to get the ball rolling.

1 The seller describing the machine could be wrong about it being Home Office you haven't said why they think this is the case.

2 The BSA ledgers could be wrong, there are lots of errors in the earlier ones I've studied.

3 We haven't seen your evidence as to why it definitely can't be AFS.

But supposing all that is true.

Could it be Police, they are currently under the Home Office, the MOD Police may have been under different control at different times and then there is the Civil Nuclear Police, RN Police, RAF Police, BR Police?

There was and I think still is at least one Government car and chauffeur department with many title changes over the years, they had civilian staff and may have had motorcycle for some purpose?

The Home Office may have used despatch riders at various times, apparently today its still quicker to send very large files by hand than it is by email?

Civilian registrations were used in Northern Ireland on government vehicles at various times for security reasons.

Rob

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

Re: Ministry of Defence Motorcycles

Not an defense force bike
They were all B40 G?'s
Ours were GA's

The F was the transition from distributor to side points and can be a bit of a problem parts wise

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

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