BSA Tour of Britain vintage road frame and parts – restoration project.

[y6GVRTBH]

Keith
Agree the pump peg looks poor, and an 18.5 “ pump is really hard to find. I was thinking of removing them before the respray but it would lose its original look.
pete

 

[keithglos]

You could put an extra spring in an 18 inch pump to stretch it a bit.
Keith

 

[SallyCotterpins]

Having removed the blue hand painted paint you can see the BSA tour of Britain sports logo on the down tube and the white band with BSA on the seat tube but that is all that's left.

I am going to give the chrome a good clean, repaint the frame in Black and white and have got a new set of decals from H Lloyd cycles.

My issue is the bikes age, the serial number is N 32506, so according to the VCC register it is a 1962, 5 years after BSA sold the manufacturing?

It has all the lugs, head badge, pedals, chainset and oiler cap of a pre 1957 BSA, even on the casting has BSA 81434 all the same as my BSA 1954 model??

Does anyone have any thoughts??

The difference between the '54 model and this one the pump fixing lugs are on the top tube ( to take a 19' pump!) and really ugly also the rear derailier has a block to attach a adjusting screw.

Any thoughts?

Your bike is a late 1955 or 1956 frame number. The last BSA numbers began with P in late 56 early 57. Raleigh changed the number format.

 

[SallyCotterpins]

I have collected numerous 1950s BSA bikes and by studying catalogues and frame numbers I found a pattern. In the UK frame numbers in the 1950s stated with A and went up to P. Every other letter is missing. I have only ever seen bikes in the UK with A,C,E,G,J,L,N or P and a number. The noticible flaw in this observation is that there is no "I". I assume because it was too like a number 1. The brochures seem to go from September to September so if a new letter code was used for each brochure and A was September 49 to September 1950 this fits perfectly with the take over by Raleigh in 1957. I have backed up this theory by studying colour, decals and equipment on the bikes against the brochures which are dated. I have also seen a couple of original purchase receipts which prove some letter codes existed at a certain time. For example L was definitely in existence by 1955.

 

[y6GVRTBH]

Dear Sally
Thanks very much for what must be the clearest explanation of the BSA’s serial number system I have ever seen. I just thought it was a true BSA.
well done

 

[SallyCotterpins]

Here is a frame I am currently working on which is J and had the plastic head badge that only appears very briefly between 1953 and 1954. Posing in front of my totally unrestored Ladies Goldcrest (N, 1956) which is also Flamboyant Amoranthe the same as the TofB.