how rare is a star twin ??

[olev]

Gday Brian,
I've been struggling to get my photo to a smaller file size.
If this doesn't work I'll try later.
cheers.

[Brian]

Hi Tom,

everything looks right for a 52' Star Twin so I think you are right with the engine no.  AA7S 1103.  The 51' models started with engine no AA7S 101 so without knowing how many they made its hard to know.

The next possible no. would be 11103 but that would mean that they made around 10,000 Star Twins in 51' and 52' which seems unlikely.

You mention the engine you have is in poor condition but hopefully you can find another A7 engine to use.

Good luck.

[Porty]

Hi There,

Just come across this Forum, and decided to make a few comments.
I have a 1954 Star Twin sitting in the garage, and is about a 1/3 of the
way thru a restoration project.
How Rare are they... I am in New Zealand and the story I have been told is
there where about 4 brought into this country in 1954 the same year the
Shooting Star was released. So if you ordered a 1954 Star Twin you might have
been lucky to get it, or you might have recieved the Shooting Star.
So mine is the same colour as the SS (Dark green frame, Light green body work)
I have found it very hard to find any colour photo's of this model, most seem to
be earlier Star Twins or the Shooting Star.
According to engine numbers, I have 2 sets of crankcases (only 1 is good enough
to use) so there may-be only 2 other bikes down-under.

[fido]

Welcome to the forum, Porty. Do you think your bike was painted the same colours as the Shooting Star? When I restored my A7SS you could get the polychromatic green paint from Polly Palmer in the BSAOC. I don't think it was a perfect match as bits of original paint inside the toolbox were more like an apple green with less silver than in the new paint. Having said that, BSA themselves did not bother too much with consistent colour shades so you have a fair bit of leeway.

[Porty]

Hi
Thanks Fido, like I said before, in NZ I think the ST and also the SS are very rare
down here. So I haven't seen either models in real life. So I have of been relying on
the photo on page one of this thread and a bit of detective work. The only original light
green colour I had was on the inside of the rear brake backing plate and the dark
green, I found some on one of the plunger spring covers and frame. I took these
samples to an Automotive paint supplier and they matched up the colour. I have since
been told they weren't a bad match. And that was going by keen BSA owner's memory.
I have also noticed in all the colour photo's of ST's and SS's, there seems to be different
shades of green depending on quality of photo, and light.