WW2 BSA folding bicycle

[jeep44]

I recently got this bike from another CABE member. It's a wartime British BSA folding parabike. I took it apart, cleaned and greased up everything, and repainted it. I was suprised at the large number of loose ball bearings in this bike-especially the headstock, with 60 tiny ball bearings. Quite a few of the front spokes were loose and bent, and I was unable to tighten them with out breaking them. Fortunately, I had a british-made front wheel that turned out to have identical spokes and nipples on it, that unscrewed easily. Those cranks are not quite right,either. They should be of a type that allowed the footpegs to slide (so the bike could be folded up into a smaller package), but I had to use postwar BSA cranks. They look pretty convincing at first glance, anyway. The seat should be marked 'BSA', but mine is a Brooks. Again, you have to look pretty close to notice. A real one will turn up sooner or later on eBay, but it will go for very big bucks. There should be a tire pump mounted behind the seat downtube, but they go for insane prices. I bid one up to almost $400 last week, and still lost out. I didn't have original 'War Service' tires for this, but I had a nice set of '50s Goodyears that look pretty good on it.

edit: The chain is still soaking in a can of kerosene.

 

[SailorMac]

Super Coolio

 

[grey3speedfrmeuro]

Beautiful bike. There are several magazines available in the USA and UK that deal with collectable military vehicles. Most military vehicle events seem to be regional and every quarter season of the year. I bet some one here at the cabe or who reads one of those military vehicle collectors magazines has parts why don't you run an ad for the correct pedals and parts you need to complete your bike.

 

[jeep44]

I get all those magazines-I also have a number of military vehicles, but I expect that my best bet will be to watch eBay. BSA made 70,000 of these bikes during the war (seems like a very high number, but that's what I read somewhere), and there are a lot of guys looking for the same stuff. These bikes were sold surplus, and the owners didn't want footpegs , and switched them out for cranks with pedals instead.
I'm rather suprised that there is no provision for a kickstand. It seems so 'unmilitary' to have to lean it against something, or just lay it down on the ground, but I guess these were just considered as basically disposable, and only intended for brief use in assaults such as D-Day.

 

[oldy57]

Wow nice bike. It turned out very nice. Did you get the transfers for it. How did the wing nuts turn out. I wasn't sure they would straighten. Did you see the twinn seat tube BSA that sold for $6866 last week.

 

[jeep44]

Thank You-I'm very happy with it. I made no attempt to straighten the 'wings' on those wingnuts-I didn't want to break them, and then really have a problem to deal with. I got the decals, but they were gold, where the original decals were white. At any rate, they are still there, under a thin layer of the OD paint-I was careful not to sand them away. I made the 'tommy bar' for the handlebar bolt by cutting the head off a suitable british whitworth bolt I had, and cutting a groove in the base of it-then I turned down the center of the tommy bar itself to fit that groove, clamped it all to what was left of the center bolt, and welded it all together.
I was watching that twin-tube bike. I'm just astounded that someone wanted it that badly.

 

[oldy57]

It is hard to tell by the photos if the wing nuts are bent. I didn't notice the tommybar, nice job.
I have seen one of the double seat tube bikes in person. It is an interesting design. The first 6000? bikes had the double tubes. They are not as easy to find as the single tube bikes. After WW11 the bikes were sold off at military disposal stores. I met a guy 2 weeks ago who had 2 of these bikes bought brand new in the 60's. One of these bikes he had chromed in the 70's. It was stollen a few weeks after he did it. It may still be around. I know of maybe 10 of these bikes that are in my area. Nice cleanup on yours.