ACME aussie bike

[R]

On fleabay.
$5k for that ??
Not much left really, unless 'comp' bikes are of interest.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/55wAAOSw1HZoNpu-/s-l1600.jpg

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/177131888611

Tilbrook high compression head.
Requires bump starting.
Hmmm

[cardan]

That would be a bit of fun as an old-school dirt bike, but pretty optimistic pricing. Expensive to restore from there.

Interesting about the "Tilbrook" head - not something I know a lot about, but Tilbrook built lots of replacement parts so might be true. I've had a look through my Tilbrook stuff and can't confirm that the head comes from them.

Nice to see clear photos of the engine and frame numbers. Combined with the features, confirms c1948 build.

Cheers

Leon

[R]

Be very expensive to restore from there.
IF you can even find the bits these days.
Best kept as a compy example

https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/141196

No idea what a 'communter' is, but we can guess.

Like the Waratah, do we know how much was built locally post WW2 ?

[33d6]

Well, no more parts missing than the average stripped down chook chaser and as far as a “comp” engine goes, it still has the bog standard Villiers carb on it. I suspect the Tilbrook head is the sum total of the ‘comp’ tuning.
Parts are dead easy, everything for the engine is available off the shelf, the headlight is a generic VEC /Miller jobbie, a Bantam saddle and tail light assembly will drop straight on and mudguards are available from WA. And of course the exhaust system as shown on the Powerhouse example is straight James ML readily available of eBay. Parts are absolutely no problem.
Painting, plating and tyres, etc, are a different story. The cost involved are little different from doing the same on much more fancied machinery. Just because it’s a lightweight doesn’t reduce labour prices.
Good luck to the seller, he tells a good story but its still just a noisy chook chaser as it stands.

[R]

Thats a fair wad for what you list there already.
Those guards from WA are lovely, but $$$
And what about a tank - is that one stock, looks short ?

I've built bikes from parts before, its eternally chasing bits you find aren't right.
Never again sez I - a few times !

[33d6]

The tank is right and the joy of these little lightweights is that they are made up from proprietary parts from a multitude of different firms. What parts of an Acme were actually made by Bennett & Wood? Very, very little.
It’s not like finding all the parts for a 1947 Norton or Triumph where you always have some numbnut looking over your shoulder saying things like “Oohh, you’ve got a chrome plated giggle pin there. They didn’t do that until engine number such and such.” Or some other equally tomfool remark. No one ever looks at an Acme in that way.
Yes, it’s no cheaper to restore a lightweight than anything else. So? What’s the problem? It’s a hobby and people pursue hobbies for fun.
If you’re not enjoying it why are you doing it?

[R]

It’s a hobby and people pursue hobbies for fun.
If you’re not enjoying it why are you doing it?

Aye !
But thats when you see "abandoned project for sale" "spent $x asking $y"

Where x is greatly more then y
And you ask yourself y did they do that !
As the saying goes - one mans folly is anothers bargain.

A roundabout way of saying keep it as is. ?
I'd have trouble living with that seat but ...

[cardan]

Unlike Williams Bros' Waratah, Bennett & Wood's Acme probably had a decent amount of Australian content. At least if claims in the contemporary press are to be believed.

In particular, the frame was said to be made in Australia. This is possible: I've not seen a British lightweight with a frame of the Acme design. Happy to be proved wrong!

Leon

[cardan]

And of course the exhaust system as shown on the Powerhouse example is straight James ML...

Yep, but the real Acme setup was different: teardrops pre-war and rayguns post-war.

Leon

[R]

Seems Bennett and Wood were also agents for James.
Maybe someone mixed up the orders that day ...

Full bike view - prewar
https://bikeshedtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-05-at-2.53.56-pm.png
and postwar.
https://cdn.justauto.com.au/ad-assets%2Fc686a88b-3a6e-4b19-b78d-5dbd49c12f60-xlg%2Fc686a88b-3a6e-4b19-b78d-5dbd49c12f60-xlg.jpg

P.S Can anyone find any pics/evidence of local manufacture ?
B&W show some pics of local bicycle making, and the factory it was done in.
But nothing of motorcycles  ?

[cardan]

I've looked pretty hard, but I have no direct evidence of local manufacture. However if a local firm of repute (like Bennett & Wood, one of the best known cycle/motor houses in Sydney for 50+ years) say that their bike is "Manufactured in Australia" there's every chance they are not lying. Simply not worth making something like this up if it isn't (largely) true.

There are comments in the 1939 press like, "... an unusually large proportion of the Acme motorcycle has been locally built" and "In appearance, this newcomer, with its Australian-built frame, is "easy" to look at."

It wouldn't surprise me if the frame was locally built, and maybe guards, tank, spokes, rims, handlebars, levers,... leaving the engine/gear unit, fork, saddle, lights... imported from the UK, then the whole thing assembled here? More or less.

We mustn't forget that there was active industry in Australia at the time. Beginning around 1940, for example, Tilbrook in Adelaide made a wide selection of parts and accessories for motorcycles.

But yes, it would be fun to know exactly what went on!

Leon

[cardan]

The building on the left is Bennett & Wood's "Motor Cycle Factory and Repair Centre", in Wentworth Ave, Sydney, as it was in 1949, at the end of Acme production. Sadly no photos found of the Acme production line (if there was one).

Leon

[cardan]

The booklet "The Story of Bennett and Wood Pty. Ltd." was published in 1949, the year that the company's own Acme motorcycle gave way to the BSA Bantam. Unsurprisingly, the Acme motorcycle is not mentioned at all. But they do comment that the motor cycle factory was established in Wentworth Ave "over ten years ago" - say around 1938/9 - which ties in nicely with the beginning of Acme production for 1939. They could enamel sheet metal (see attached), they had a plating works (shown plating handlebars that they presumably made), they had frame jigs and brazing in the Speedwell Cycle Factory, and a huge spare parts and accessory department. In a nutshell, I believe that they did "manufacture" the Acme motorcycle.

Leon

[33d6]

It’s a fine line between ‘manufacture’ and ‘assemble’. Acme erected their own frame. Who made the tubing? Who made the lugs? I would expect Australian made tubing, but what about the lugs? Did buying the Webb forks include the headstock lug? I don’t know.
What about the wheels? The hubs were imported but what about the spokes and rims? I would expect spokes to be made locally but what about the rims? Dunlop were popping them out by the gazillion. Could local manufacture compete given the economies of scale?
So it goes on.
What Bennet & Wood did was no different from many other small motorcycle factories of the time. Lots of proprietary parts but their own vision. I’ll accept ‘maker’.

Last thing. The prewar Acme silencer was merely a Coventry Eagle job mounted upside down. Postwar C/E were gone but there was now a thriving local aviation industry looking for work. Pressing out Acme silencer halves was no different to pressing out lightweight aeroplane bits and pieces. Problem solved.

[R]

That pic of painting the tanks is a good un !

We wonder what an infrared oven was though ??