Hello, I’ve recently acquired a BSA WD M20 motorcycle and keen to know if your panel of experts can throw any light on its history?
I purchased the bike without a V5 document, but it has a number plate which apparently has some connection in Southampton! Other than that I have no idea where the bike has been for the last 80 years!! The number plate is EOW 520.
Today I have received the official letter from the VMCC stating the frame no as 74079 and engine number as 95638. Apparently the military contract number was C12424, for 8000 vehicles.
I can now register the motorbike with DVLA and would like to keep the EOW 520 plate, but unsure if this will be possible.
I know the. Ike was used in the military but it would be lovely to know where it was posted, used etc.
My late father was a dispatch rider in WW2, so the bike and history has a personal significance.
You'll need to check on line to determine whether you can retain the old number...All the rules regarding registering classic vehicles have recently changed and they've made some things easier.....Ian
EOW was a 1947 Southampton series. Unfortunately, DVLA will require some documentary evidence linking frame number to the registration. The on-line database is not the full extent of DVLA records, but if it has not been on the road since the mid-1970s then they will certainly not have anything.
Prior to approaching DVLA, contact Southampton Archives. The Kithead Trust state the following :-
SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY BOROUGH
Southampton Archives, Civic Centre, Civic Centre Rd, Southampton, SO14 7LY (02380 832251)
Registers CR 1-1752, 2175-2520, 2880-3240, 3592-3960; HMC register CR 139-3608; Card index complete; files of original declarations to COW 999 plus few up to YOW (1959).
If the "Card Index Complete" includes frame number and registration then you may succeed. If not then why not paint the original number on the plate for display at shows etc. and attach any new number over that with magnets.
Martin, have no further info other than the the correct C number for on the tank, bike is not in the "Key Cards" but that only means it was sold by the Army before 1948-49, when the new ERM system replaced the C numbers and hence the 1947 civilian number.
C number was C4754662.
If you find a wartime picture with this number on the tank, you will be very lucky, but a chance of one in a million. Don't believe records of individual bikes in regiments/units etc. were ever kept.
Hello Lex, many thanks for looking into this. It’s a shame I am unable to trace the history of the bike. I’m just curious to know where has it been for 80 years!!
One theory is that it remained in an army college of engineers. RCME, because it appears the engine has been stripped apart many to one, probably by young cadets! But I’m only guessing and have no proof.
Thanks again
Martin
