My A10, a challenge!

[DuncanF]

Hi everyone, great to be in the forum, thanks! I already recognise a couple of "faces" from elsewhere, so I know I'm in good company. My A10, well there's a story behind it, as always. But I'll start with how I got it. My mate Tony originally purchased it at auction, on a whim. It was only when he was loading it, he wanted to see if it turned over. Well, the pedal went all the way down with no resistance. There was no clutch, or other innards in the primary! OOPS! On getting it home, Tony gave it the once over, and found LOADS of grief. Eventually, he got the hump with it, and dropped it down to Millers at Hastings. Over a grand and a half later, he got it back, still a non-runner (I think I may have moaned a bit!).

Fast forward a few years, and I break my leg (4th time). Tony suggests I spend my recuperation time sorting it out for him. Good idea, says I. We'd already worked out the mag was rough, so first job was to pull that off. The timing case was sealed with white bathroom silicon, and there was no chain driving the dynamo. The points were worn to bu%$ery, the earth pick-up was missing (just a spring in there), and the cam ring was uneven. This caused the points to open on one side, stay closed the other. Well, I got it back together, cleaned the carbs out (it's a twin carb head), and got it started. Good physio for my leg!

I got it back to Tony, but he never started it, because he broke his knee, and couldn't start it. It came back in my care, as it also transpired that the mag needed a condenser. After an exchange of pound notes for V5C, I've had it ever since, and am now rebuilding it fully.

Dramas so far:
Metric, AF & Imperial spanners needed to get the front wheel out.
It's a mish mash of Road Rocket & Super Rocket parts.
Tank centre stud bodged
Metric studding holding almost everything together
Side stand broken off
Front brake shoes de-laminated

Good stuff:
Twin carb head, ported with big valves
Pistons look about 5 miles old, just a light dusting of carbon
Forks in good order, just need paint
Gearbox all good, just needs strip/clean/re-assembly
Clutch all good
Registered as a '58, so no MOT.
Any parts not required, are in good enough shape to be sold/swapped.

That's about it for now, I'll put progress up as it goes on.

[kiwipom]

hi guys, good looking project no too much to do, good luck with it, cheers

[DuncanF]

Believe Me, looks are deceptive in this case!

[RichardL]

Duncan,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the interesting introductory post. Gotta be curious about four broken legs, but glad you can still kick it over. In addition to what you've listed, you may not have noticed a small scratch on the side of the fuel tank. 

Richard L.

[RichardL]

Uhhh, what's holding up that seat?

[a10 gf]

Welcome aboard, thanks for fine intro post.

[Greybeard]

 

[jachenbach]

Looks pretty good to me. Just remember, frustration and adversity build character!

[KiwiGF]

I'm not certain but it looks like your bike might have an Ariel brake on the back, but it has non Ariel brake on the front, Ariel hubs were fitted front and back in 56 and 57 model years, which may indicate your bike was a road rocket not the later super rocket (unless it's an upgraded flash of course)....does the frame number show it's earlier than 58, out of interest?

Reason I ask is that I doubt anyone would retrofit an Ariel brake as the swing arm for Ariel brakes is different to other years and it's not the best brake used by BSA anyway, but then anything can happen to these bikes over the years 

[DuncanF]

Correct about the brake, however that rear wheel is on the market, and a full width iron hub is going in. I'm not sure of the swing arm difference, other than the slot on the brake side, which is larger for the Ariel hub. If that's the only difference, I can attend to that issue, or try and find a correct item. However, I've had no luck so far. Still, it's early days really, so I've set a target for Christmas to find a '58 on swing arm.

I'm not building it up as a pure Super Rocket, as the engine number starts DA10RR, which is Road Rocket, but the rest of the number indicates a 62 engine. The frame was dated as '58 by Roy Bacon, who also dated the engine. So whatever it is, it'll never be as the factory intended. Who knows how all the numbers, frame and engine all ended up as one package, but I'm happy with it.

The tank has a dent (which has been filled quite well), and is lined with leak sealer. I have a really good round badge (RR) tank on the shelf, which is painted in turquoise and silver (??), so that's going to be plain black, and he existing tank is going on the market.

I've a couple of other projects on the go, and I'm more interested in getting the bike on the road, than a totally correct restoration. I'll make it mechanically good, and as close as I can to how it should be.

[chaterlea25]

HI Duncan and Welcome,

DA10RR, which is Road Rocket,

I dodt think thats correct 

DA10 came in 1958 (Gold Flash)
DA10R came in 1960 (Super Rocket)

DA10 SR is a Spitfire scrambler,, no RR listed
http://www.britbike.com/bsapitstop/dating/1951-60.html
http://www.britbike.com/bsapitstop/dating/post1960.html

Post a photo of the engine number and lets see what the members think

John

[DuncanF]

I'll put pics up of the numbers in the fullness of time. It's obviously an import, but who knows what the history is. What I do know is, there were quite a lot of un-stamped cases around for a while, and it may have been stamped by someone, who just cobbled it together.

In fact, the last place I knew where there were new, un-stamped cases, was Millers in Hastings, who did some of the work when my mate got it originally.

[KiwiGF]

Hi Duncan, if you wanted to you could date a frame and engine yourself using this link below, this is quite a well established "source of truth", the only better way probably being to get the club or vmcc to look at the actual BSA despatch book records for you.

http://www.bsaownersclub.co.uk/yearlisting.html

As far as I can years (for the A series at least) on the link are "model years" as opposed to manufacture date, and BSA started despatching a new model in August the year before the model year, so my bike is a 56 model year but was despatched in Dec 55.

I've not had to make a decision on what year to call my bike as it was a no brainer once I got the dating cert from the vmcc, and there are no "rules"  on whether an engine or frame number is the deciding factor on model year, or more contentiously  whether a bike should be called a super rocket when it's a flash with alloy head! As you say stamping new frames and cases was not uncommon whilst BSA were in business, and perfectly legitimate.

The reality is that most of our bikes are bitsa's to one extent or another and most people don't care.

The cylinder head on your bike is a great feature (as is the rev counter set up) and I'd be tempted to base its model year on those but only for the purposes of discarding a part in favour of one of the chosen model year.

[DuncanF]

Thanks for the ideas, but it's already been dated (officially) by Roy Bacon, and it's never going to be either a Super Rocket, or a Road Rocket. The frame is apparently FA7-1392XX (apparently a '59),  the engine DA10RR-35XX, which apparently is a '61. It's got lots of RR parts, and lots of SR parts. Roy called it a Super Rocket, but that's only because he had to call it something. Because of that, I'm not sure it'd be right to pretend it was either. I'm perfectly happy for it to be a mixture, and I hope the bike will be happy as well!

I had a mate once who crashed his AJS 350 while being chased by the Police. The frame number was from an Austin 7, the engine number from a Morris Minor. The registration plate had never been issued, to anything! He pleaded ignorance, and because none of the numbers came back as stolen, they gave him the bike back. He applied for the log book, and got it with all of the numbers. Ah, the good old days. He was fined £30 for damage to the bus stop he hit.