Greetings to one and all. Should I refer to you as fellow sufferers, pioneers, or ingenious and creative ones? A noble band dedicated to Small Heath's Finest?.
Well folks at long last having visited as a Guest almost every day for the last couple of years, I have' taken the plunge' and I and my trusty '53 Plungy A10 have passed the first hurdle and been accepted to the Forum. I hope I can assist some of you, seek help from some of you, laugh and cry with some of you. Especially that decent fellow Greybeard, whose twisting and turning troubles seemed never ending for a time.
I have owned my Flash since 1971, when I bought it as an "English Chopper" For those members in far flung exotic places this description may sound a little strange, but bear in mind in those days most of us youthful, enthusiastic and mechanically inept got our information from such worthy tomes as Motorcycle Mechanics and Mr Haycraft's Pitman book, and used our dad's worn Whitworth Spanners from his motorcycling days. Every bloke of a certain age had a tin of odd nuts and bolts that fitted nothing. Taps and Dies? What?
So, the English Chopper was a mix of the worst of everything. concerning construction, finish and reliability. However, with the ignorance of youth, Peter Fonda a very recent memory, riding round really was the dogs*. In the case of the A10, Haycraft's book only detailed top end maintenance. Splitting crankcases was something for the local dealer. Suffice to say, this all came to fruition in the form of the Great Mechanical Disaster of 1972, in the outside lane of England's almost deserted M1 Motorway, somewhere near Newport Pagnell Services, on a Sunday afternoon.
Perhaps Haycraft had a secret pact with Crank Grinders and Bearing Suppliers. How many have gone bang over the years thanks to the secret sludge trap. Even when I had cranks reground there was no mention along the lines " Don't forget to remove those two plugs and give it a good clean." You were back in a matter of weeks, same again please, less another 10 Thou. So a simple cause of failure in hindsight, but at the time it was the End of the World.
Well you will be pleased to know it was rebuilt in 1976, after a visit to the Science Museum in London made me realise that the superb example of a 1950's BSA Motorcycle was none other than the same model resting in my garage.
So, its not concours by any means, but a good workhorse. This was at the time when greater interest in old bikes had just started and you could still get bits from the former BSA Dealers. Alas, I was never cured and I now have another couple to occupy my time.
I am currently based in Suffolk, near Ipswich. UK
* The Dog's" A curious colloguial phrase which means "excellence in the highest degree"
Enough of this rambling, I will try and add a picture. Thanks for being a great international movement for the A10.
