New member 1961 BSA A7SS Melksham UK

[Desburnett]

Quick hello to fellow BSA owners.
3/4 thro restoration of A7ss owned since 1967. Willing to post pics but cant see any means of attaching, is this due to being a new member? Read the help page which mentions "buttons" in lower right of screen but nothing found.


Regards,

Des

[rocket man]

you need five posts before you can send pics

[Richard]

Des
Welcome to the forum I have sent you an email re the Wiltshire branch BSAoc
Richard

[a10gf]

Welcome, "restoration of A7ss owned since 1967", this is great.
I hope you will enjoy the forum, and am sure you've got lots to share.
Looking forward to pictures & story.

For the practical forum stuff, see Forum Info & Help >> New Members: Read This !

e

[Desburnett]

Thanks for the welcome.

So the story begins...............

Back in the early 50's I lived at the opposite end of Golden Hillock road, for those that do not know that's the home of BSA. My mother who is still ticking at the age of 91 can still recall the BSA works being bombed in WW2 and the unreported fact that many unfortunate victims were buried in the rubble and were never recovered.
My first bike was a hand me down from my Father which was a 1948 Royal Enfield ensign (150cc) I rode this at 14 years of age across the fields that backed onto our house in Longbridge. A few months before my 16th birthday I realised that if I wanted to ride this bike on the road I would have to find all of the of the bits that had fallen off in the last two years! My big problem was restoring the headlight which was a Miller unit. The manufacturers were located in Miller Street Birmingham which I must of visited four or five times to pick up the refurbished unit only to see it on the shelf where it was left from the previous visit.
So on my 16th birthday in 1967 with the rebuild complete and provisional licence I headed off to the MOT station. 1/2 hour later I was road legal and as my dad said, he's off like a cork out of a bottle.  More to follow and how the Royal Enfield morphed into a BSA A7 SS.........

[fido]

I didn't know about bodies not recovered.    Is there still a big pile of rubble there with steletons poking out?

[Desburnett]

No Fido, Take a look on google street map to see what it looks like now but if you are interested here are the names of the 53 dead from the air raid Tuesday, 19th November, 1940.

THE ROLL OF HONOUR

Joan Ball
Leslie Harold Bartlett
Ann Elizabeth Beech
Robert George Beet
John Broome
Andrew Bruce
Albert Ernest Bryan
Constance Mary Dale
George Richard Davies
Stanley Job Davies
Sarah Dowse
Thomas James Dowse
Robert Evan Duggan
Marjorie Edge
Roy Foulston
Harry Reginald Hackett
Harry Hall
William John Hemms
Charles Ernest Hill
Albert Edward Hird
Arthur Edmund Holdaway
Harold Horne
William Henry James
Alfred Kirk
Ernest Edward Lord
Arthur John Lovsey
William Marklew
James Henry Mason
Matthew Metcalfe
William Charles Minor
Frank Stanley Noel Mitchell
John William Morgan
Joseph Mucklow
Edward Stanley Mugleston
Florence Louisa Osmond
Joseph Parker
Gwendoline Parr
Phoebe Partridge
Edgar Charles Payne
Albert Edward Phillips
George Edward Poolton
Herbert Charles Pratt
Wilfred Thomas Price
Charles Henry Reacord
Alfred Scragg
Leonard Richard Skinner
William Joseph Sumner
Evelyn Annie Trueman
Ernest Edward Tucker
Spencer Littleton Ward
David Williams
John Charles Woodley

 

[Desburnett]

The story continues......

The year 1967, Topol is in the charts singing "If I were a rich man" and I had just landed an apprentiship with Burman & Sons (Gearbox) getting rich on £3 14 shillings per week.
Motorcycle gearbox production had already ceased when I joined in September 1967 and the factory in Kings Norton was manufacturing steering systems for trucks, tractors and cars although they still had a clipper shop for the production of hair clippers and sheep shearers! They still sent technical staff to the Isle of Man each year to support the TT but all of the WIP (work in progress) spares and other items to do with gearbox production was mothballed in the basement at Wychall Lane.
My first year as an apprentice was spent in a Government Training Centre in Handsworth. This was one year before the Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB) was formed and I was trained as per the Ministry Of Works Skills handbooks which included bench fitting, turning, grinding welding and electrical being a foundation in Engineering. The Royal Enfield made the trip each day from Longbridge to Handsworth and back again without too much trouble.
I passed my motorcycle test at the first attempt despite a puncture in the front tyre which was deflating during the test and shortly after found myself looking at a 1961 BSA Shooting Star in the showroom of Ken Segley motorcycles with a price ticket of £99.  So in terms that the bike would cost me six months wages I persuaded my father to guarentee the HP and traded in the Royal Enfield for £9 off the purchase price.
I rode the A7SS away from the showroom in the dark just as the rush hour traffic from the Austin was turning out. I can recall for the first few days getting used to the extra power accellerating through the gears until I hit third then I would shut off and apply the brakes!
The bike was standard apart from a fringe leather seat cover with silver studs and a extended carb bellmouth. Not having the gumption to test the bike first (I was still 16) I soon found that the bike was burning oil and leaving a trail of smoke from the RH exhaust. The dealer had the bike back and said he had fitted new rings but the smoke continued. Armed with some rudimentary tools I set to to dismantle the top end. Once the head was off and the valves stripped out I coud see / feel that the guides were worn. Making a new set of guides in the toolroom at Burmans was easy but fitting them at home was a different story. heating the head in mums cooker worked nicley but drifing out the old guides resulted in a 1/4" depression (from a valve guide) in the new kitchen tiles that had only been down a fortnight.
This fixed the smoke but the depression in the tile was still there when they demolished the house in 2005.

[rocket man]

carnt wait to see some pics des i think you only need one more post
and welcome to this great site 

[Desburnett]

Continued.........
The A7SS provided daily transport through 1967 to 1971, evenings were spent with mates on the coffee bar circuit south of Birmingham including the stops at "the doss" Amusements next to the Hare and Hounds in Rednal and the coffee bar in Cotteridge. There were a few haunts in Rubery including the "Top Cat" where many a Saturday night was spent. The Double Zero club in Digbeth (Saint Basil) was in full swing but for some reason I cant recall visiting there although the vicar who ran it (David Collyer) did end up performing the marriage ceremony at my wedding in St Lawrance Church Northfied in 1975. I still have a signed copy of his book "Double Zero" and at £0.40 has provided a good investment as I see them advertised on Amazon at $119! Of all of my mates who I rode with back then there are none that I see on a regular basis. One (Roger) emigrated to USA in 1977, he had an older brother (Brian) who lives in Redditch, between them they had a string of bikes ranging from BSA, Triumph, Norton, Vincent and many more. One other guy (Vinden) was extremly tall, his dad wouldnt allow him to have a motorbike but relented and let him have a Honda 50! He used to ride it to my house, dump it in the garage and travel with me on the pillion. One trip into Malvern resulted in a blow out of the rear tyre. We were lucky to keep the bike upright but by the time we had stopped the tube had come out of the tyre and had been peppered with grit / stones between the rim and the road. With no tools on board and little money a kind gent loaned his garage and tools but all we could get hold of were bicycle repair kits. With about 20 patches on the inner tube and some four hours later we headed for home only for the tyre to deflate again outside Worcester. A guy cutting his lawn saw the dilema and offered to store the bike in his garage whilst we made our way home courtecy of Midland Red bus. Vinden turned up at my house one summer afternoon, his dad had relented and let him buy a bigger bike in the form of a 500cc Triumph on the condition that it had to have a sidecar attached. he was over the moon and asked if I wanted to give it a spin. So off I went round the block leaving Vinden waiting at the house. The first leg of round the block was down hill with a T junction at the bottom. Turning left was when I realised that I am not a "chair man", the thing understeered so much (I didn't know about sidecar braking) that I ended up on the opposite side of the road, thankfully the oncomming traffic took to the pavement and I survived. It was at this point I realised that something was amiss with the engine as it appeared to be only firing on one cylinder. A quick look revealed that the nearside plug lead was adrift. replacing and restarting the bike ran sweet for the remaining drive and I handed the bike back. Vinden left and in five minutes he was back demanding to know what I had done to his bike. He couldn't understand why it was going like a rocket,  he had not had the plug lead attached for three days since he bought the bike!

[manosound]

Des,

A hardy welcome to the forum. Great stories, virtually folkloric! I hope to read many more. One thing non-bike-related that caught my attention was your reference to Topol in 1967. Quite coincidentally, my family and I just saw him in Fiddler a couple of months ago in Chicago.

Another mention, actually much more important, was that your mother is "still ticking" at 91. Hope she is doing well. Mine is 97 and still going, can't say "strong," but for a while now, on the up side. Having stored my wrecked and rusting away A10 in her side yard for about 15 years, she was floored when she saw the results of my rebuild in 2006. "That was the piece of junk in my side yard. I don't believe you.".

Have a great day.

Richard L. 

[Desburnett]

Thanks Richard,

Wasn't sure if the ramblings were of any interest but there are loads more stories.......
I am quite lucky that mum is still quite active although her hearing went some years ago and more recently her sight is failing, she is currently having Lucentis treatment which is done by injection direct into the eye ....mind you her sight was so poor she didnt see it coming.

I recall Topol / If I were a rich man as it was played every day on the radio when I was working at an in fill job before my apprentiship started, didnt know he was still going though.

Nice bike...look after your mum, she looked after your bike long enough.

Des

[manosound]

Des,

Please pass on to your mum, as I will to mine, that she has gained a whole new set of well-wishers via this forum.

Thanks for the noticing the bike. I don't know if you only saw the avatar picture (to the left) or if you saw the "Best Picture" posted at

http://www.audioworld.net/BSA/forum/index.php?topic=1023.msg7021#msg7021

I can't help but be proud of her (the mother and the bike), but I am only sharing the picture of the bike. Not for rivet counters, but pure BSA.

Richard L.

[Desburnett]

Richard,

Will Do.  I have a picture from a weekly UK bike newspaper of my mum on a R1 that I owned, she was 87 at the time, I will get it scanned and posted when pics are activated. The headline was, "Sod the bus pass Ill take the R1" Her comment reported by the Motorcycle News was, I dont like it when he goes fast, Im only six stone and the wind lifts me off the seat"

You have a really nice bike, I like the headlight set up and the fork stansions, will relate the story later when I converted mine from the Nacelle to the chrome headlamp and how the weld on the headlemp bracket broke and I ended up catching the headlamp whist travelling at 50 MPH. 50MPH wasn't the problem it was 2mph and no hands on the handlebars that was tricky.

Des

[snowbeard]

great stories, I also love to fix things for other people, the enjoyment of your friend finding his bike so powerful sounds familiar. 

and now you've passed the 5 post mark!  a hearty welcome to you, and now we want to see some pictures!! 

[Desburnett]

Thanks,

Strangley enough and personally disapointing I dont have any pics of the 60's / 70s but do have most of the rebuild.
Here is one  not of my machine but of some fine examples which two days after taking the photos were destroyed by fire at the National Motorcycle Museum. I believe the A7 was the first machine to be rebuilt after the fire.

Take a look....http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/3114410.stm

[Desburnett]

More from the museum....

[Desburnett]

Correction.... the last photo was taken at Shepton Mallet Showground in 2003, the owner may be a forum member?

[manosound]

Just to be sure you know, you can include up to six photos in one post. Just use the "more attachments" link next to the "Browse" button.

Hey, while we're at it, what's that little pan for under the red bike?

[Desburnett]

Tried attaching more but the file sizes were too large. Have been experimenting with one or two files to make them smaller so here are two more. One is one of my favourite bikes and would dearly love to own one...Rocket 3.
Oh the  little tray under the bike. Some say its to catch oil drips but I think it is put there to collect donations to aid running costs! Especially when you see what the fire destroyed.

Des