BXProject

Hooray!!! I've at last sourced a +60 B40 piston, brand new, with a set of rings and a gudgeon pin. £100 all in. OK I suppose and it will let me complete the engine rebuild.
Well, no it won't actually, I'll need to get the barrel bored and honed to the piston.

+60, blimey, I assume the bore is very fucked then??

What be this on Phil? A bike is it?

That is all.

/\ what's eating you bashful?

Yeah! that was a bit obscure Mat.

It's for the Beeza Bandit.

The bore is a bit rough TBH Doc, but it already had a+ 40 piston that had quite some wear on it when I tapped it out.
+60, that's what, nearly one and a half mm's, is the max on the barrel, but I ain't going to wear it out so meh! that's what it will get.

Beeza?

Just that I said I'd ask about a piston for Phil, and forgot.

Oh ye of little education

BSA (British(formerly Birmingham) Small Arms) Selley Oak Birmingham. Model B-40 350cc single cylinder.

Circa 1960 and first of the unit engines. IE, engine and g/box are integral and not separate units. A very strong motor as the same bits go in the SS90 version (90mph) and a lot of exterior parts from the revered Gold Star.

The engine I have seems to be a bit of a hybrid, fitted with a roller brg btm end and an SS90 piston, with o/size inlet valve. However it has the smaller 247 carb ?????
As I have the engine and frame numbers I really should contact BSA owners club, to see if they can throw any light on it's history. I received it in boxes and don't even know if the engine and frame are an original match or not.

Don't worry Mat, I had too

Interesting Phil................still don't know what it is? A tank? An aeroplane?

it is one of dem two wheeled powered cycles called

A FOOKING MOTORBIKE YOU DOZY SHEEP MOLESTER

BSA used to be right up there with Norton Triumph and Vincent when men were men and wore leather with a white silk scarf.

Phils has 350 cc's of throbby bits in a single pot if that helps make it clearer.

little known fact is in the early 70's BSA nearly made a bike called the BANDIT in conjunction with triumph but Triumph ended up selling the bandit while the BSA was called the Fury they both had a 350 dohc twin engine.

mickey taker wrote:A FOOKING MOTORBIKE YOU DOZY SHEEP MOLESTER

I'm just trying to imagine exactly how slow a 350cc single cylinder tank would have been!

mat_the_cat wrote:

mickey taker wrote:A FOOKING MOTORBIKE YOU DOZY SHEEP MOLESTER

I'm just trying to imagine exactly how slow a 350cc single cylinder tank would have been!

And I don't want to fly in a 350cc aeroplane!

Actually a superb bike that Mickey. Produced 1hp per 10 cc's.
35 HP @9000 RPM. Not bad for a parallel twin with only 2 valves per cyl. even with 2 camshafts.
Only the KH series Kwaka had more, but that had 3 pots and 2 strokes.http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/cl ... empest.jpg

I wouldn't mind this http://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/cl ... 1_1960.jpg

How kewl is that.....I'm a bike!

The Triumph ended up designated Bandit, the Beeza was a Fury.

If I make a decent job of this (and make some money) I fancy one of the second picture.

That's an old 600cc single side valve, model M21. There are lots of old military examples knocking about for little money, loads of spares. It will only just scrape 70 mph but will run all day at 65. doing about 60 mpg.

Bx Bandit wrote: How kewl is that.....I'm a bike!

I'd quite forgotten, I've just bought annother motorbike, that is a Suzuki GSF600 bandit!

Here is one just like it.....

Nice Bike John. Bit too sophisticated (and fast) for me these days though.

I prefer something simple like that M21 pic I posted.
That model even runs off a magneto for simplicity.

Philhod wrote:That model even runs off a magneto for simplicity.

Just like my lawnmower! Which coincidentally also has a 350cc single cylinder engine dating from the 60s, only 8 horsepower though.

Heh Heh! I bet you could race that with a bit of tweeking.

The mag is on M20 and 21's which were 500 and 600cc respectively. Single cylinder, side valves. Throwbacks from the 30's really, but the Army kept buying them because they were ultra reliable, provided they were serviced every 12 weeks.
They were just a slow thumper with bags of torque and wityh compression that low they will run on paraffin allegedly. The later ones have an ally cylinder head, which dissipates the heat much better. The old M20 I had years ago, used to glow red, around the exhaust, in the dark