Wednesday 17th Sept
Im Baack! It been a while since I was last able to do an update - for which I apologise. Things
have however been moving along apace, above is a nice pic of Joe & Mike Rosson's impeccably restored WM20 hailing from
1941. Painted in 8th Army desert rats colours as it originally was found to have sand coloured paint under the Olive green
when it was imported to the USA from Egypt quite a few years ago. It was restored by the two brothers Joe and Mike from Austin
Texas. Unusually the gearbox features a fron cover with the same deeply embossed stacked rifles logo featured on the rare
bits pics page, More pics please Joe & Mike!
Meanwhile, Our regular contributor Richard Corcoran has been moving along rapidly with priming and
painting of frame and fuel tank and basic assembly of frame and gearbox, Ill be uploading photos of progress so far tomorrow
on Richards own dedicated restoration page.
Another contributor to the Pin up M20 page Colin Smith - is still having problems with his recently
purchased WM20 - has all the syptoms of 8 stroking once the engine warms up, but the finger of guilt seems to be pointing
now toward a worn out carburettor bore. Im trying to organise a loaner carb to see if it eliminates the problem.
Also weve pinned down a good modern equivalent for the early war Khaki Brown likened by the War Dept
to a good strong cup of Tea in colour. Industry standard colour RAL 8028 Terra Brown is a very close match to on original
New Old Stock Battery carrier frame I have, we can get these made up as large spray cans that dry Matt for £10 a can
a bit steep but spot on. Three cans used carefully will do one bike.
Anyway Ive wittered on far too long, but look out for more updates in the next few days.
Cheers!
Tuesday 26th August
The pleasure of working on the bike has been forfeit this bank holiday weekend due to work going
crazy in what is normally a quiet month for engineering firms.
I stumbled upon a small Lubricant Equivalents document in the front of a Matchless Maintenance manual,
produced by the REME engineers at Chilwell dated 1st April 43, with a date like that one immediately thinks practical joke
- I have retyped it into my worm processor and will post it in the REME section along with the lubricants chart I posted recently.
I have been trying to find good clip art of BSA WM20's but there aint much around I was sent a very
nice adaption of the Line drawing that appears in the owners handbook, which I thought people could copy then colour in to
record the details of their WM20, and if you care to submit the finished item we will keep a line drawing registry of visitors
bikes all to a common scale. Ive posted that in the REME section too.
Saturday 16th August
Hier, le 15 août 2008 les enthousiastes de motocyclette britanniques en France ont découvert notre
site Internet. J'irais comme dire être bienvenu à tous nos visiteurs de la France et à tout le monde parlant français. J'espère
que vous avez trouvé notre site Internet intéressant.
My apologies if the welcome to our visitors from France above is not quite grammatically
perfect, I used an online translator program. In the past we have had a few hits from France but yesterday it seems France
discovered our little website giving us the highest 1 day hit total since we started the website.
This website is maintained by enthusiasts for all enthusiasts of WWII British military motorcycles,
predominantly BSA WM20's at present but soon to expand into other makes, It thrives on the contributions from its visitors
so feel free to drop us a line or send us a picture of your motorbike or ongoing restoration project.
We hope our mad project to drive our restored BSA WM20's from Birmingham to Berlin will give others
enthusiasm to have a go at something gloriously eccentric.
Friday 8th August
Well Ive been updating the website continuously over the last 3 days, plenty of new material in the
Rare Pics, Richard C's page has a feature on making a pair of early pattern KM front footrests, more stuff on REME and QMS
pages, Ive almost lost track of the changes, tidying up pages to present better, more links, yadda yadda yadda,
Monday 28th July
No usual weekend entry due to the VMCC founders day meet at Stanford Hall - what a cracker it was
too, scorching hot and more good lumps of rusty metal than you could shake a stick at. I managed to obtain a 3 gallon
petrol tank with both rear tails - so far all I'd been able to get for my projects was two both with one side cut off for
the Vokes filter air hoze. Its ready to paint too! It had a bonus in the form of the early fuel cap with the round tap handle type
opening lugs.
also In todays update I have posted the official lube chart for the BSA WM20.
Sunday 20th July
An important development for the website, a good friend of mine of many years standing, Steve Madden
who co authored British Forces Motorcycles 1925-1945 and his partner Jenny, who has proven her vast knowledge of all things
WWII WD Motorcycycle have most graciously agreed to act as authenticity consultants for our website. This is a great honour
for us, and will increase our knowledge base almost infinitely. To this end I have given them their own problem page where
we will feature the questions and their answers. To start the ball rolling all you have to do is eMail us with your question
via the 'contact us' link on the QMS page
Friday 18th July
Sadly the guy in France has not been in touch I can only assume permission is not granted to
feature the pics of a very nicely restored BSA KM20, albeit in civvy trim - who wants to see flashy civvy stuff anyway!!
Give me Olive Drab any day.
Been a good week apart from having my one and only lot of BSA M20/21 parts on e Bay yanked because
the AA said I was infringing their trademark ergo their intellectual copyright when I described a petrol tank as AA pattern,
they seem oblivious to the fact this pattern of tank was a special made to order contract by BSA only for the AA - how else
should I describe it then? Dunderheads!
My Mag Dyno is finished just awaiting collection - hooray! Also Ive been a BAD Boy! Couldnt
resist flexing my overdraft & buying a 1939 Girder forked Matchless G3WO Kit of parts for restoration, Its missing the
early type fuel tank, chaincase clamping strip and handlebars, its in many tiny pieces and Im just going to hide
this away for a while till the BSA projects are finished, as fate would have it this bike is from the same contract as
Richards, theyre only 150 different on the frame numbers which equals a week and a half apart in construction - considering
how many thousands were made - spooky yet again!!
Thursday 10th July
I have had such positive reaction about the header pic of the BSA factory I have decided to leave
it up for a while.
I deleted the Mainly BSA link as they now no longer sell spares - its good news really as they are
now using their stocks of parts to rebuild complete bikes and anything that puts more WM20's out there cant be all bad. Instead we now have a link to the annual War and Peace show down in Beltring Kent.
Lastly have started a special page for the El Alemein Norton 16H - Pics courtesy of Ulrich - I someday
hope to see this historic beastie in the flesh.
Thursday 3rd July.
Firstly to all our American visitors Happy 4th July for tomorrow.
I have news of a KM20 restoration in France - I am awaiting permission from the owner before
I put anything on the website. Also we have a new Pinup bike of the week from Colin Smith of Derby here in the UK.
Saturday 28th June
Today a WWII British army Log Book 412 - WD WM20 Service log book sold on eBay UK for over £104
- is this a record?
Next a small but important note - We have in all cases gone to great pains to obtain permission
from the copyright owners to display all the pictures seen on this site, saving pictures to your computer for your own personal
use/reference gets no complaints from us, however using them for commercial gain in any way without obtaining permission in
writing from the website owners - namely Richard and I is regarded as breach of copyright and will be treated accordingly.
Monday 23rd June
Didnt think I'd be posting again so soon but an interesting eMail from Ulrich this morning gave me new
material to add to his page.
Next I won off eBay a drivers handbook for a military WM20 when I checked the number range on the
booklet it turns out it is for exactly the batch my bike was in - hows that for spooky!
Lastly - I have webbing saddle covers up for sale now with Terry maker plates on the reverse.
They really do look the business - well you can see them on richards and my bikes on this front page. I will also be
getting pillion covers made too.
