BSA folding bicycle

[tango021]

Hello all,
I am posting some pictures of the BSA folding bike that I finally found and bought.

The bike seems to be totally complete with original parts. Even the tires look quite original as they have the "war grade" inscription. The only sad element is that the bike is fully overpainted with grey. I assume it was used after the war by the danish army, as there is a "CF" stamped on the top base of the tube for the saddle.
I found the frame number on the left back base : R44567.

I tried to find some informations about this number but only find the following list:

Is there anybody who can confirm that my bike should have been constructed in 1942 or 1943 ? Is there any way to find a more precise date ?

Under the grey paint, I found the british green paint. I probably will try to carefully remove the grey paint with water and high level sand paper, even if it will not be possible everywhere.

Was the british green dull, satin-finished or shiny ?

There was even grey paint on the saddle! I worked hard to erase it and the result looks nice.

Thanks to anybody who can help me to answer these few questions!

Have a nice weekend.

Eric

 

[Mercian]

Hi Eric,

Nice bicycle and even nicer saddle (-:

Yes, the grey is Danish paint. the original green is eggshell, so a sort of semi matt, more matt than gloss.

There are no ways of accurately dating it, if you read round you'll see BSA frame numbers described as 'a mess'. I tried to put some logic into it a few years ago, but failed. Even the list you have there has errors, the low number parabikes are still stamped R.

Because it is mid to late production, and green (not brown) it should be 1943.

This is the only published list of frame numbers, but no way of dating them. It does give an indication of how widespread these bikes are.

https://captainstevens.com/military/mv/bsa-airborne-bicycle/bsa-survivors/

Best Regards,

Adrian

 

[tango021]

Thanks for your clear answer, Adrian! I really appreciate.

I will try to restore lightly this bike and ride it in Normandy (with my Huffman) in june 2019, for the 75th anniversary of the landing.

Best Regards

Eric