Newbie needs help with Beeza 500 A10 restoration

[Portland_Bill]

Greetings all!

My dad has got a garage full of bits from Triumphs, Nortons, and BSAs and he's told me I can have one of his A10s to muck about with.

Unfortunately, in his youth, he chopped it and it's now got a Yamaha front end, a Triumph back wheel and the rest seems pretty standard or just after-market.

The bike has been sat for in the garage collecting dust for about 10 years and was running when we put it away last.

My questions really are these:

What fuel do I need to use? It's an old 4-stroke engine so surely Unleaded is no good? Am I wrong about this or do I need to put some kind of additive in the fuel before use. If I am right, how easy is it to get them fuel converted?

Secondly, how available are parts for these bikes? I would prefer to try and get it back to as near to original as possible as I think it's a shame that it has been so ruined.

Any help would be massively appreciated on this one.

Cheers all!

Kristian

[VintageBike]

Hi Kristian,

wish my Dad had done the same!  The good news is that BSA parts for bikes such as the A10 are readily available from a whole number of places.  You won't have any problems there.    As for the fuel, there are many opinions, ranging from running it on unleaded, running it on Lead Replacement Petrol (LRP), adding an additive (my favourite), or having the valve seats replaced.

Oh, and by the way, if it's an A10 it's a 650cc.  The 500cc version is an A7.

Good luck

Nigel.

[Portland_Bill]

I stand corrected. I just got confused between the two coz I actually have one of each sat there but the one my dad's giving me is the *A7* (for now anyway!).

He even hinted that I could have his Bonne at one point but that conversation didn't seem to last very long and I'm not going to take him up on it coz that's his bike...

Anyway, so will the engine run alright on Unleaded petrol? It won't wreck the engine or anything will it coz I know the lead in the old 4-star fuel used to act as a lube for the engine itself so maybe a spot of additive will do the trick I suppose.

You mentioned having the valve seats replaced.. How easy is this? I had to mess around with the valves on my Vauxhall Astra and this was a nightmare removing the valves and grinding them back in, is it anything like that or completely different?

Anyhoo, all help is much appreciated, thanks a lot!

Kristian

[VintageBike]

If I were you I would run it on an additive (of which there are many to choose from).  Getting the valve seats replaced with hardened seats is a job I would normally give to a properly tooled engineer.  

Cheers

Nigel.