classic motorcycle forum

Yes the price is silly - perhaps if the owner had some guidance during the restoration he might have saved on costly, unnecessary plating. The similar bike in the NSW Museum shows a bit more of the original purposeful finish. https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/61186

Interesting that the eng/frame prefixes are the same on the two bikes, but the numbers are so different. A reminder of course that without provenance we can't say if the bike started life as a Waratah or an Excelsior?

Hope it finds a new home, at maybe 1/3 of the listed price.

Leon

Hi Ralf,

In "The Villiers Engine" Browning makes it quite clear that the "Sports", "Super Sports TT", and "Brooklands" engines use, respectively, a one-piece cast-iron cylinder, a cast-iron cylinder + a detachable alloy head, and the shrunk-on aluminium jacket on the cylinder and a "high compression cylinder head". So your head and cylinder combo is at least "pretty much Brookands".

I notice that your head has a little more beef than some others we've seen: the bosses for the bolts are more-or-less level with the top of the fins on your head, but the bosses are a little shorter on, for example, the Excelsior Brooklands we've discussed here previously. Not sure is this is a variation between a SSTT head and a Brooklands head, or maybe an early head vs a later head.

Browning says the engine number prefix is BZ for SSTT, or Y for Brooklands.

He also says that the engine was "made specifically for racing events, the number produced being comparatively small".

Cheers

Leon

It may be that the flywheel is not going onto the crankshaft far enough, but I don't have a reference to determine this.  It looks like the lighting coils are only covering about half the magnet.  It is about 1.5 cm from the outside edge of the flywheel to the front edge of the ignition armature.
Does anyone have any pics of a flywheel in place or any other suggestions.  I'm pretty much stymied at this point.

This doesn't sound right. The pole pieces in the coils should be centred on the magnets in the flywheel, and presumably the flywheel should sit quite snugly with its backing plate. If the flywheel is not riding on it's key, it might be a mismatched flywheel? The tapers should match such that the when pushed home the flywheel is firmly located - no looseness or rocking - even before the nut is tightened.

Leon

Hi R,

I have a length of chain with 0.334 rollers, but only long enough for a (shortish) primary chain. Sorry, I don't know where to get more in Australia. Plenty of 415 and it's heavy duty brother the 415H, but all with the smaller rollers.

Leon

And here's the advert mentioned by 33d6, showing a gearbox that is not Sturmey Archer FW (fitted to most model Ks). I suspect it's also not the box in the Adelaide bike.

Any idea what it is? The bike is flat tank, so maybe 1926-7.

Leon

I'm curious what a "fully restored bantam" would/should go for ?

I've seen them between $2k and $22k, although I doubt either of those numbers are typical !!

I would have thought $A4-5k? https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-motorcycles-scooters/bsa+bantam/k0c18322r10

Re the gearbox mystery, I'll try to get the thing down to ground level to get a better look. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know what happened!

(I turned pages of 1928 mags, and Dunelt literature, but all the gearboxes I could see were the "standard" FW Sturmey Archer, with the change lever either on the box or up high at the front for the fancy models. Mmm...)

Leon

Interesting to read about the combined oil filled and sight glass - apparently there is a bowl and drip feed under a glass filler lid, which somehow swings out of the way when it's time to fill the oil tank.

Tempting to say the rear carrier is missing, but on p33 of the parts list there is a set of mudguard stays "if required". So maybe the stays are original. Back stand is missing. Love the Dunelt-specific flanged hubs with 4 7/8" drums.

Quirky little bike, even before we get to Professor Supercharge's stepped piston.

Leon