Greetings everyone,
First post, thanks to Erling for assistance rendered, helped make the trip through the registration process fairly painless.
This is my first A10, purchased from a friend on April 20th, 2011.
It's a basket case now but it had been a chopper when the friend purchased it a number of months ago.
He had found it in somebody's basement and bought it, for next to nothing, with an eye to bringing it back as a chopper/bobber of some sort.
Unfortunately, he didn't get any boxes containing the BSA parts that had been removed in the original chopper building process.
After the main lump was removed (CA10 11xxx), the rolling chassis was dismantled and all the parts went into a 4'x4'x3' box. I'm pretty sure that was the last time my friend looked at what was in the box as he was unsure whether the frame was solid, plunger, or swinging, when I asked him about it he said that he thought it was rigid. He also didn't think he had gotten a carb with it (there were two).
His main focus was on the engine, which was seized up. Turned out to be just the rings rusted to the barrel, came free fairly easily and damage looks minimal.
I had last talked to him a couple of months ago, he still seemed enthused about the project then, just a little unsure about which chopper/bobber style he was going for. In hindsight I think he realized that something closer to stock would be the proper thing to do, and that he couldn't really justify another reasonably stock British bike. He already has a very nice 1972 Commando, looks original but has a few mods/improvements like oil pressure gauge, mikuni single carb, etc. It's a beauty and he rides it regularly through our riding season here.
About ten days ago I was in the process of cleaning out my basement, getting rid of an accumulation of old used small block Chevy parts. I was giving it all to the same friends son, he's about 25 years old, work's as a marine engine mechanic, grease on his hands night and day. He'll be able to make some use of all this "stuff" I had hoarded over the years. As we were chatting, I asked how his dad was coming along with the BSA, totally caught me by surprise to hear he was selling it!
I wasn't really interested (no, not really), both my already owned BSA's are still projects, did I really want another one?
Of course I had to take a look, find out why he was selling it etc., didn't want to be kicking myself later for not at least finding out what it was. My friend was pleased to hear that I was interested, he wanted to know that the bike was going to be brought back to life and he knew that I could/would be able to do that.
The main lump was all nicely laid out on the bench, he showed me the cylinders, a couple of broken fins and fairly minimal damage from the rings seizure, looked like it may come up fine with just a honing. I was pleased to see that the head was alloy and looked to be in excellent shape, hadn't expected the alloy based on the engine number. The chassis parts were still in the 4X4 box but it was on a shelving unit about ten feet in the air, this was at his workplace. He had propped an extension ladder up against it so that I could climb up and take a look at what was inside.
First thing I saw was the frame, which had the swinging arm and shocks attached. It had been painted a psychedelic paisley/tie-dyed green, I could see that somebody had put a lot of work into it as it had been completely smoothed out and corners blended with bondo. At least it appeared to be a complete A10 frame, un-butchered except for the paint and bondo. There was a horrendous looking set of handlebars in the mix, shaped like a couple of Z's. No sign of a gas or oil tank, no proper seat either.
I told my friend that I was a little more interested now and asked if he could give me a day to think about it.
It didn't take long, I called him that evening, we agreed on a price and arranged for me to pick it up a couple of days later (two day's ago).
It's still in the back of my truck (canopy) as I need to free up a bit more room in my basement/workshop, hope to have it indoors before I go back to work next week.
I was curious about the head, brought it indoors to check it out a little further. The numbers between the intakes (remove-able inlet manifold) are 67-1106 J54 AM.
Looking forward to cleaning up the frame to find out what it's number is. I'll be sure to get a bunch of "before" photos before doing anything to it.
There really didn't seem to be any parts in the box that stood out as Golden Flash bits, that's what the engine would appear to be though, 1956 build?
My friend had also purchased some reference material, Haynes workshop manual, Service Bulletins, Parts book. Nice of him to throw them in as he had just paid good money for them.
Cheers,
John
