Born Again Bikes completed BSA projects

grandpaul

Author, "Old Bikes"
DTT SUPPORTER
DTT BOTM WINNER
Here is my little '67 BSA 441 Victor thumper that I refurbished years ago. I got it in a pretty sad, rusty, crusty state with an frozen engine full of rust and sludge, rotten seat, and shot tires. It was my 3rd or 4th major project, but I was budget constrained and didn't do a full restoration. It was in good enough shape under the rust and crust, that it's "passable" from 10 feet away...

BEFORE

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AFTER

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'67 BSA A65L Lightning 650

I got this old frozen beater in a "twofer" deal along with a similarly "modified" '62 Triumph, in a small town 50 miles east of Laredo (Hebbronville, TX) after stumbling into the guy somewhere and getting on the subject of old bikes. When we first started talking he wanted WAY too much and I put it out my mind till he called over a year later and we talked some more; at THAT time, I didn't have any play money. The NEXT time we talked, the start aligned and I got a fantastic deal.

BEFORE

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Upon getting it home and checking it over, I found THIS...

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Now that just won't do. What you are looking at is the oil pump "in" and "out" connections plumbed in a SHORT-CIRCUIT, with a T fitting and a third hose connecting to the oil tank outlet fitting. In this configuration, there MAY have been a small amount of oil in the system, but it was being recirculated continuously and eventually overheated and starved the crank, locking up the engine.

So, I had to source another engine and swapped them. While waiting for the replacement engine to arrived, I scrounged around the shop and found a seat (the one in the "before" photo), gas tank, grab rail, tail light, headlight, and good used electronic ignition unit. I also bought a nice set of proper forks and mufflers, and got it this far-

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I've had so much going on since then that I just haven't made time to dump fluids in it and get it running. Anyway, it'll be for sale real soon, because I got THIS restored '68 BSA Lightning as partial payment for a Norton restoration I'm doing-

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Another 1968 BSA A65 Lightning 650

This was a client build to a fixed budget, starting from a donor bike that I sold him. The donor was little more than a collection of parts loosely assembled from a lot of 7+ bikes I bought in Alabama in 2007. My client saw the for sale ad and asked if I could turn it into a cafe racer, but keep it under budget; we went through my 100-point evaluation spreadsheet after I sent him a copy to study, added and subtracted till the total lined up and then I got after it.

BEFORE

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I had the chassis & cycle parts powdercoated, had a seat that he provided painted to more or less match the gas tank, rebuilt the top end (bottom end was flushed and buttoned up), sent the meters out for overhaul, overhauled the forks, installed a new wiring harness with a new Sparx electronic ignition, and installed new cables, JRC Superior carb, shocks, drive chain, clutch plates, oil lines, tires & tubes. All other parts were thoroughly cleaned, hand polished, and refurbished as required.

Decent results I think...

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1968 BSA 441 Victor - Client restoration, 2006

I sourced this rough BSA 441 thumper for a client, then performed a total restoration on it.

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Powdercoated chassis & cycle parts, polished all alloy parts, re-chromed all chrome parts, cad plated all fasteners and hardware, overhauled engine, forks, and carbs, and installed lots of new parts. I had to replace the forks and front wheel, as they were not original.

My bike in foreground, client's bike in the rear...

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1969 BSA A50 Royal Star 500

Bought this bike in a 3-bike deal out of Oklahoma City in 2006; all three were choppers. This was the easiest of the three to return to standard configuration, as the other two were chopped and/or custom built.

BEFORE

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It actually didn't take much at all to get this bike back to semi-original condition and running; a decent front end, tank, mufflers, seat, and lights, basically. The single carb was easy enough to overhaul, and as long as points & coils aren't trashed, they'll always re-fire. I had a spare tank and lights on the shelf, got a nice seat at a swap meet, and found a complete front end and a cheap set of mufflers on ebay. The bike fired up on the first kick!

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Very nifty "around town" bike.

Sold to a guy in Australia with a new Texas title that I got in less than 2 weeks; that process has changed, it now takes THREE BLOODY MONTHS!
 
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