Derbyshire in March

[Pete Gray]

Took the A7 out for her first proper spin since a few Winter repairs/mods.
Friday was rather cold but I took a few photos to celebrate the pleasure of the occasion.

[muskrat]

 G'day Pete,
                 bet that feels good. Every ride is a good one.
That front wheel, a huntmaster?
 Cheers

[Pete Gray]

That front wheel, a huntmaster?

Yes I reckon it is. I've had the bike since '72 when I bought her as a hack in pretty bad shape.
The front end is Ariel and the back BSA which I never realised was a mismatch until a few years ago when the new MOT test regulations here demanded frame number identification. It turned out that the stamped number was not that on the registration documents, this error nearly cost me my nice cherished number of 777AWA. The conclusion from BSA dating expert Mike Worthingtom Williams was that the frame was of 1954 and not 1961 which was the registered date for 777AWA.
Presumably someone bent the original frame and cobbled together an amalgam of bits to it's current construction, I'm not a purist on originality so it really doesn't bother me.

I've sadly neglected the A7 this last year in favour of a BMW R1100R - Yesterday's ride through the bends of the warm and sunny Derbyshire Dales has reignited my long term love affair with the lovely old girl !

[muskrat]

 There is something special about our A's. Bikes come and go but the BSA's stay. I've had the '51 for 31 years. I doubt if any would be as they left the factory. Ride and enjoy.
 The difference between the Ariel hub and the BSA "Ariel hub" is the brake arm. The Ariel having the arm and shaft nut on the inside.
Cheers

[WozzA]

Those brake plates do polish up rather nicely dont they..   

[muskrat]

And about 1 poofteenth the time it takes to do the rest of the hub/wheel. But better than blistered paint on the steel hubs from hot brakes.
Cheers

[Brian]

Here's one to throw the cat among the pidgeons with your hubs.

A pic of a B31 I did some work on a few months ago, the current owner bought it from the original owner. The original owner collected it in person from J N Taylors in Adelaide in 1956 and owned it up until last year.

Have a look at the brake arms.

[muskrat]

 Well there you go, all is not what it seems. How hard would it be to build a bike as it left the factory when they swapped bits around like that.
Cheers

[Brian]

Thats the thing, its almost impossible to build a bike to so called "100%" authenticity. There must have been dozens of changes in the model year.

At the end of the day we are dealing with bikes that were made 60 or so years ago, nobody knows for sure how they left the factory or what has been done to them over the years.

You can only do your best.

[Stephen Foster]

Excuse My stupidity but what are We looking at exactly please ?

[LJ.]

Excuse My stupidity but what are We looking at exactly please ?

The brake arms on the Airel hubs it seems... I'm not familiar with Airel hubs so I'm as much in the dark as you. 

[Brian]

It seems there are differences in the Ariel hubs. Musky thought that the ones used on BSA's had the brake arms that bolt on and the ones used on Ariel's had the nut on the inside of the hub.

Musky would know a lot more about these hubs than me as he has a bike with them fitted, I dont.

But, I worked on a B31 recently that is an original bike and has the brake arms that fix on the inside of the hub, the bike in the pic.

None of this really matters except to show there are differences in bikes that we sometimes dont think are correct. Which brings us back to the question of just what is correct.

So if you are a "rivet counter" and want to build a bike that is 100% correct, you cant. None of us know for certain just what changes were made in the factory and when.

You can only do your best.

[Stephen Foster]

Thanks for that Brian !
Have seen both types .. My 55/56 Flash has the plain type (as the B31) in the picture & these are the original wheels I believe .
Think they may have changed year by year ?

Steve ...

[Pete Gray]

Sorry to have inadvertantly started a debate, I just wanted to show off my photos !

The reality in my case is that both front and back brakes were pretty hopeless, certainly after riding my BMW with discs, so I've had softer linings done for the front which now seems almost acceptable in performance but is showing up the rear. So it's back wheel off this weekend and same procedure again with the shoes to be relined by a local company.

[Topdad]

Hi Pete , only had 1 a10 with the ariel hubs ,back in 1967 and like you found them pretty poor unlike some of our friends on this forum . Admittedly mine was on an outfit and the braking came to ahead ,literally, when I ran into the rear of a moggie minor that had stopped ,I coundn't. fortunately it was an older model with strong bumber so no damage ,imagine my horror when my passenger started shouting that he'd lost his foot !! Only sitting on a car seat ,fixed to a board He'd shot forward when I hit ,the sidecar board went down with his weight allowing his foot to slip under the rubber rear wing of the Moggie then the board came up -one foot lost luckilly only until 3 of us lifed the moggie off it !! bit of bruseing only but the front wheel and forks were out asap when we got back to the shed and a better type ( in my opinion ) (single sided 8" ) fitted . That incident has always coloured my judgement of these type hubs, probably unreasonably but its incidenets like that which form our preferences .Bobh.