Hello There,
I just got an angry mail from the administrator that said I wasn’t posting on the site, and that's true I must say, I just created the account and hadn't come round posting an introduction jet. so more posts from now on. I promise
So a bit about me:
I grew up in the east of The Netherlands in Enschede, and I currently study in Rotterdam which is in the west. I’m 21 and don’t really have a background with motorcycles really. My dad does own a Matchless g3l, but i grew up atr my mothers, so i didn't grew up with bikes at all. What you're doing here than you might think... well a year or so back one of my friends got him self a car(Citroën cx) and although I’m not a car "lover" I liked the fact that it was a great project he bought himself. Later another friend bought a car (VW beetle (old one)) and this was an even greater project, don't like the way it looks though
That last friend’s brother was always yapping about how he wanted a motorcycle because that would be so cool... well at that time I disagreed with him partly because of his chose of bikes and partly because I don't really care how I look so I can impress people.
But that aside i did start looking at bikes i did like and totally fell in love with the classic bike look. I never understand why someone would put plastic on their bike to make it look better. Well i now had the wild plan to save money for a license and a bike. I was a bit let down because as is said I’m a student and haven’t got much left on the side to save up, so it would take quite a long time to reach my goal. I presume that’s why there aren’t many students around without rich folks that ride (classic)motorcycles themselves.
One day I was daydreaming aloud to my mother about how great it would be riding in England, large fields divided by stone wall's, the clouds braking open(at least that the best I can hope for
) a classic bike and me...
She said that my uncle had a more or less complete bike that maybe I could fix and ride. wow wow wow!!! The only problem was of course that it was completely disassembled.
some time later at a birthday party at that same uncle we came to speak about it and he told me that he kept it for 30 years in storage(read 25 years in a shed and 5 outside wrapped in tarpaulin or something like that) and wanted to keep it as an I’m 50 and in my midlife-crisis and am going to patch it up. But he bought himself some big touring bike and left the other bike for what is was. So he said that is could take the bike and begin building it. yay!!!
so what kind of bike is it anyway??
The fact that I’m on this forum doesn't require a lot of guessing but anyway
It's a BSA A7 500cc swinging arm, build in 1957! And since it's 50 years old this year i think it's fitting present to rebuild it. The engine had been revised before it went into storage and the clutch was also. I'm very happy with that because I was a total stranger to bikes technology at the time i got the first parts. But I’ve been reading allot in the manuals that I got with the bike. I mentioned that my dad has got a Matchless G3l and knows quite a lot about bikes I found out after telling the good news. This weekend we ploughed trough a big stash of "classic bikes" magazines and I learned a lot about bikes back in the time. He has his bike in storage for a while now, and doesn't actively ride it for a quite long time now. But now I’m working on my BSA he's got very enthusiastic and we made a deal that this summer both bikes are up and running, and we'll be hitting the tarmac!
Well that’s about my story so far, and I’ll keep you up to date with the process, and I’ll be asking a lot of stuff here I’m afraid. there are some photo's of the tank, frame and the disensamblement of the frame
Have a nice day!
