Some pics of my bike after all

[redbeeza]

Got my wife to email me them from UK.  Was beginning to forget what the thing looked like.  A 'before' and a 'nearly done' (three years later). 1962 SR originally dispatched to a dealer in Derby UK.

The 'before' includes: 18" rear wheel; A65/Triumph mudguards; Triumph fork shrouds/headlamp brackets; A65 headlamp and rear lamp; flat lid toolbox; unknown (probably Triumph) siamesed pipes with Goldie silencer; bizarre TLS brake plate that looks semi-homemade; a tank riddled with dents; no chainguard, engine plate cover, or centre stand; a crankcase breather hole blocked up by screwing in a main jet from a Solex carb, resulting in additional 'sexy' breather pipes out of tappet cover and timing side cover; a brass curtain ring as part of the gearchange shaft assembly; a 3/8W socket as part of the footrest assembly; and a new seat!

The 'nearly done' is not a back to standard as you can see; it's more my interpretation of how the SR should have looked in the first place.  I think BSA did it better with the Road Rocket and again (too late) with the RGS.  Valanced mudguards and a funny headlamp cowl with no rev counter on a motorcycle called 'Super Rocket' seems a bit peculiar to me.

Fingers crossed that I will be able to sort the latest setback soon with your help and travel further on her than up and down the lawn, but reading the problems that some of you guys experience trying to set your bikes up after a rebuild makes me wonder how they ever run!

[mikethebrush]

thats looking nice

[tombeau]

Hello there,
That front brake looks v interesting!
I love "special" stuff like that.
Your bikes looking really nice. I know what you mean about the mudguards and cowl.
Cheers,
Iain

[NickSR]

Hi Red
Looks good to me, see you when get back to Lincoln.

Regards
Nick

[chaterlea25]

Hi redbeeza,
The original brake plate that was (is??) fitted loooks to have similarities to the "Taylor Dow"
TLS brakeplate, those certainly had some "homemade" looking features
It looks as if a bigger airscoop has been added?
I would love to see a couple of close up photos of it
I have a TD brake on my SR and it works very well

Regards
John O R

[redbeeza]

Thanks for the comments. Iain and John: I'd like to know more about that brake plate too, I'll post some more pics of it when I get back to UK. Have fitted a standard brake plate at present. I wasn't happy with the fit of the TLS in the standard drum. The shoes were wider than drum and ran over the area where the spokes anchor, so only two thirds of their width was being used, that didn't seem like a good idea to me.

I took it to show the guys at TMS Nottingham and they hadn't seen one but they reckoned the shoes looked like Norton ones (I can't remember the width but they're a fair bit wider than the A10's), they suggested it might be a John Tickle but after further research I've done I think his stuff had his name stamped or cast into it somewhere; this thing has no markings.

I say 'semi-homemade' because it obviously started out as a properly cast thing but there has been some jiggery-pokery going on around the area where the fork lug locates on the plate. Wherther it's a repair or an adaptation to fit the late A10 fork lowers it's impossible to tell.

I'd like to clean it up and fit it because it's a bit out of the ordinary and should work well but I would need a wider drum (A65?).  I'll need to save up some more money.

I've seen pics of A10's with A65 TLS plates fitted to their standard brake drums.  When I looked at the brake shoe widths, the A65 shoes are wider than the A10 drums so the same problem as mine would occur. I just don't like the idea of the possibility of the brake lining breaking up where it runs over the spoke anchoring bit of the drum. The A65 drums don't have this issue because the spokes are cranked and attached differently than the A10's.

Can anyone throw any light on this from experience?

[chaterlea25]

Hi Redbeeza,
To the best of my knowledge some more jiggerypokery is needed to fit the A65 brakeplate to the A10 wheel
(maybe narrow the shoes???)
I know the early A65 single sided hub cast iron hub brake drum is 1/4 in. deeper than the earlier "Gold Star" hub
The A65 just has wider shoes
Some time ago I bought an A10 wheel complete with TLS brakeplate for my brothers 59 A10, he hasnt fitted it yet
I must go and examine it to see what its like?

Cheers
John O R

[trevinoz]

John,
         Just as a matter of interest, the first A65 to use a half width front brake was the 1964 Lightning Rocket. It is the same brake as used on the G.S. and R.G.S. and in reality the A and B range in '54 and '55.
The wider brake was introduced in 1966.
As ever, I may stand corrected.
Trev.

[chaterlea25]

HI Trev,
I can confirm that there were/are  2 different width brake shoes an hubs (8in. single sided)
I dont knonw when the wider ones started to be used???
Am I correct is saying the 66 on type is the full width hub??

Regards
John O R

[trevinoz]

John,
         The A65 hubs started as the A10 type, Full width.
The sporty bikes from about 1964 used the 1/2 width Goldie type hubs.
Pretty sure that the next full width hub used, excepting the Spitfires, was in 1968 for the TLS brake.
Trev.

[t20racerman]

Nice pics 

Some interesting development on that bike. Like you, my BSA (originally a box of mixed bits) was nothing like original and has been developed over the years....

Hello there,
That front brake looks v interesting!
I love "special" stuff like that......

If you like specials - here's my front brake - a 1972 Suzuki GT750 4LS twin-sided brake, with GT750 forks too, fitted in A10 yokes:



I first saw an A10 with one of these Suzuki front-ends fitted at the Dragon Rally in the late 80s/early 90s, so mine was not an original idea. However, it transformed the bike. Superb braking and decent (non-juddering) forks. Raises the front a bit too improving ground clearance. On the current restoration I'm doing, the hub will be substantially lightened, just like on my Suzuki T20 race bike.

Hope there aren't too many anti-japanese purists on this Forum! 

[redbeeza]

That's a nice idea T20, and easy too if you can stick the forks straight in A10 yokes.  But with GT750's now fetching silly money as well, it wouldn't be a budget upgrade!