INVESTIGATING THE FRONT END

Regarding Odgie’s BSA feature in RC156; the girder forks look identical to those fitted to my 1932 W6 (see RC95), BSA part number 15-5210. Two other clues: the second eyes in the top mounting plate for the headlamp bracket and the double lug where the front brake cable outer locates. This lug would also have located a cable from the foot brake, suggesting these forks came from an early 1930s linked-brake model, probably one with hand change. The cables originally operated a plunger screwed to the top of a rod which pulled the brake arm.

The correct top yoke for this fork has two tapped holes to carry a speedometer mounting plate and long ‘ears’ to the rear to clamp the handlebars. As the speedo mounting on Odgie’s feature bike looks homemade and the bars appear to be centrally clamped I think this top yoke is from a different model (possibly a B1, L2 or L3, part 27-5092) which would be compatible, being the correct width and taking top links with the same length and pivot diameter. Original springs for these forks were usually barrel-shaped rather than parallel.

All a bit anorak but hopefully this helps. Paul Tebbett, member 4186