classic motorcycle forum

So, we have twin petrol caps, a lucas headlamp with ammeter and switch on toppish, and a biggish looking sloper engine
(unless its a v-twin, which I'd doubt - doesn't look solid enough build).
Rear brake inside the rear sprocket.
And whats that circular object in front of the engine, below the horn ?
So its 1930s, and almost certainly British.

At first I'd plump for a Raleigh, but I think the headlamp is later.
Hmmm

I have come across these. Bit battered, bit crusty and a bit modified ?
They have dried out, considerably, what is best for 'revitalysing/rehydrating' them ?
They seem to be in black - unless they have been coated with something ?
Very thick heavy leather.
Would, at a pinch, fit my old Triumph project.


Closest I could find of their ancestors is these (modern remakes).
https://files.ekmcdn.com/wisedale123/images/toolboxes-veterans-brooks-2306-p.jpg

So the lock/clip has been added at some point ?
Brookes made quite a range, when you scout about ...

Oddly enough, you can almost substitute the word Norman with Norton here, and get almost the same story !!

Almost - the technicalities vary a little.  But spread over many decades.
Damping was almost a foreign concept back in those days !
And were often a case of one step forward, one backwards and 2 sideways. ?
We diverge, so the details can wait ...

Edit. I'll get this right yet !
7A is the warehouse entrance - and its writ right there on the door.

(and, oddly, the places in that street/road are consecutively numbered,
not odds and evens ??)

I used something like that to have a sprocket "rebanded".
They machined away the blank's inner, and shrank/welded the circle of teeth onto the old ground-down sprocket's splined hub.
And heated and oil dipped it.

And used a bigger blank, for someone to retooth a cush drive hub for me.
https://i.postimg.cc/NfN3Fb78/New-teeth.jpg

Wasn't I ??

You have to stop thinking like a hobbyist and start thinking like a business owner.

I see that Villiers Services are obviously getting a range of sprockets remade
(if they are not buying up old stock ?)
At quite reasonable prices.
So in quantity its quite economical....

What would that cost - ballpark ?

But keep your eye out.

I have this bunch - for some model of Villiers. ?
While they look a little crusty, they clean up well.
Ex-Singapore stock, superficial cancer.
And by co-incidence, they are 17t.
Make ideal donors to reband a worn out one ?

https://i.postimg.cc/Dz1rGMxq/String-of-sprockets.jpg

Have smaller ones also - with the 5-5 splines. But only 12 teeth.