c1956 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

[quiet mike]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

A few snaps. These are about as good as they are going to get.

The Brooks toe clips were a nice discovery. I had initially thought they were shot and past saving, but after a scrape they proved to be quite solid. I did not know Brooks made clips.

A 'barndoor' .. ? Just more rusty junk in the shed :shock:

 

[quiet mike]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

I wonder how old these tubes are :shock:

 

[Mac2016]

Re:

Love these back from the dead threads. Hope this progresses!

 

[Doubledee]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

Hi I know the dilemma but you have to ask yourself is it to look at or do you risk riding it as it is without knowing its potential frame weaknesses. If its to look at clean up otherwise strip down to metal. Ive currently got my Excel tandem restoration thread up and running here viewtopic.php?f=23&t=359878 Im actually picking the frame up today/tomorrow so I'll post again soon.

Mine is in great condition but Im getting it blasted and powder coated, I suggest for the little outlay and effort you should try that, they charge £40 for strip and powdercoat and you could get them to take a picture before coating to assess damage. They do any colour and if you carefully take pictures & dimensions of the decals before then they are easily reproduced. Masking is also easy and you could re-paint the head tube white as powder coating only does one colour. Hope that helps, and also that you don't de-laminate your fingers cleaning link to powder coaters below
http://www.gariebevancoatings.co.uk

 

[yorkie1956]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

A sixty year old bike in such original condition. So, so sad it's been so badly neglected. Like you say Quiet Mike, it looks like it's been left outside, or maybe in a damp garage, who knows. Did you not get the chance to view it before you bought it?

I remember when it came up for sale on here in August. Only the one picture and it looked rough, but not rotten like in your pictures. I was taken by it's originality as no doubt you were and I tried to buy it unseen because I was out of the country visiting family. The seller sounded keen to let me have it and I offered to pay him for the bike and send a courier to collect it. For whatever reason he then must have decided not to because he ignored my pm's, his prerogative of course. The next I saw was your post on here the next day saying you were looking forward to picking it up. Anyway, while all this was going on I had become smitten by the BSA having been a Motorcycle technical man most of my working life, hence my soft spot for BSA. I did some research and my findings were:

BSA launched the Tour of Britain model in late 1952, November I think to commemorate the BSA team win in that years race which ended in September. (The individual rider's win went to the Ellis Briggs rider) So, I think the first ToB bikes were 1953 model year and they had the pump pegs mounted on the downtube, not under the cross-bar like this bike. The 1953 bikes also had the slotted large flange BSA Continental De Luxe front hub, not the BSA Continental De Luxe hub with circular holes like this bike. I think for these reasons the earliest this bike can be is 1954. I couldn't find much on the 54-56 bikes, but the front hub changed again in 1957, so for what it's worth I think this bike was made between 1954 & 56. At the time I was trying to buy it and for no rational reason, I had convinced myself that it was 1956, for no other reason than it is my year of birth! Silly old sod that I am. The seller had also earlier sent me the frame number, but BSA's numbering wasn't sequential and I couldn't find any rational despite comparing this frame number to others,

Anyway, I hope you can do something with it, although it looks in a bad way I must confess. I hope my findings are of help.

Regards
Dennis

 

[quiet mike]

Re:

Great research Dennis, thanks for the info on dating!

I knew there was at least one person in the queue in front of me for this bike, so I was surprised I ended up with it. I can only assume there was a breakdown in communication somewhere for me to bump up the list. Anyway, I had a chum who was literally round the corner from the seller, and he popped round with the ready's and collected and stored it for me. Maybe it was just the easiest option for the seller? And he didn't want the hastle of waiting for a third party courier to arive to collect?
Also, I know when I've been selling bits, and have them advertised on multiple platforms - facebook/forums - it is difficult to keep on top of responses!
Anyway I think most people would look at this now, and if they dipped out, maybe they got the better deal

The bike hasn't been touched for a few weeks. Might pick it up again over Christmas but busy decorating our hall at the mo.

 

[yorkie1956]

Re:

Yes, that all makes sense and like I said, it's the sellers prerpgative who to sell to, It's just sad that the bike is quite far gone.
Mmm, maybe I did get the best deal in losing the opportunity to buy the bike. Nonetheless, I hope you can save it.
My research on the bike did however motivate me to find a BSA ToB and so far I've found a part bike, same colour as yours, but only the frameset, bottom bracket and headset are useable, so my search is on for all other parts. If anyone can point me in the right direction for hubs, crankset, seatpost and most other things etc, I would be gratefull. Plenty of cranksets on e-bay, but no fluted ones.
Your pictures of individual parts are useful to me in my parts search and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for other pictures from time to time to help my search for correct parts? I'm trying to make my bike stock if I can.
Kind Regards
Dennis

 

[twosheds]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

Front hub anyone?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-NOS-VINT ... Sw5cNYcnOr

It's the wrong type for my spare wheel, but correct for 1955/56

 

[Piperdave]

Re: Re:

Yes, that all makes sense and like I said, it's the sellers prerpgative who to sell to, It's just sad that the bike is quite far gone.
Mmm, maybe I did get the best deal in losing the opportunity to buy the bike. Nonetheless, I hope you can save it.
My research on the bike did however motivate me to find a BSA ToB and so far I've found a part bike, same colour as yours, but only the frameset, bottom bracket and headset are useable, so my search is on for all other parts. If anyone can point me in the right direction for hubs, crankset, seatpost and most other things etc, I would be gratefull. Plenty of cranksets on e-bay, but no fluted ones.
Your pictures of individual parts are useful to me in my parts search and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for other pictures from time to time to help my search for correct parts? I'm trying to make my bike stock if I can.
Kind Regards
Dennis

any good....not my sale

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Bicyc ... SwHMJYNLtA

 

[Piperdave]

Re: c1952 BSA Tour of Britain - too far gone to restore?

ALso.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-BSA-B ... SwA3dYRwea