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Richard recently made from scratch a pair of early pattern BSA KM20 Front footrests, he has been kind enough to share
with us how he did it, First just so's you know what Im talking about heres a pic of the actual footrests in WWII
| KM20 w/early pattern front foot rests & sump guard |
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| German NSKK examining war booty after fall of France |
Bottom left corner of the B&W pic above showing German NSKK personnel working their way through piles of abandoned
British motorcycles, probably ex-British Expeditionary Force, abandoned after the Dunkirk evacuation 1940.
Also the prototype pictures above that show the early footrests too.
The procedure:-
Take an original pair of cast military footrests with the cross hatched flat part.
Hold in a vice cut the criss cross patterned ends off with hacksaw
then file any excess metal off so that
the surface is level and smooth
| The hacksawed off footrest |
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| Not much to do but discard this |
| Centre drilled ready for drilling right through |
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| 13mm diameter hole |
| Rod inserted flush |
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| ready for welding or brazing |
| Rod welded in place |
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| hole drilled in end of rod & tapped for bolt |
Use a centre punch to make a mark where you want to drill the hole. Drill a hole with a 13mm drill bit, I
used a bench drill for this its easier.
Cut the 13mm round bar to the correct length. You get an idea for this by measuring the footrest rubbers and
allowing a bit exta for the bar to fit through the hole in the bracket that you have drilled. you can get these replica foot
rest rubbers from Jeff Hunter.
Now drill a hole in the end of the bar and put a thread in there so you can screw a bolt in, this will hold
the foot rest rubbers on with the aid of a big washer.
Then place the cut length bar in the hole on the foot rest bracket it should be a nice tight fit If you
have done it right and flush with the arm on the inboard side. Nb: Make sure the end with the threaded hole in is facing
outwards
Lastly weld or braze the bar in place
| The finished conversion |
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| ready for painting |
| Red lead undercoated |
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| rubbers fitted and end retaining washers in place |
| Theres been some confusion over which |
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| Footrest rubber is the basis of the project |
| The type with the round center hole |
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| are the basis for this conversion |
Then clean all the bits up, under coat, paint and assemble.
Be careful when buying the footrest rubbers there are a very similar type around that has a winged BSA logo and the center
hole is rectangular not round. These are obviously not the type that were used in this conversion.
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