Rocket Gold Star steering head gusset?

[alanp]

A question for the experts - the Super Rocket had a steering lock and a steering head gusset which wrapped around and extended upwards as far as the bottom of the steering lock bracketry welded to the head, the Rocket Gold Star didn't have a steering lock so did the gusset on the RGS extend up further? If so how far? These bikes are rare in our area so I don't ever get to see a real one. Thanks.

[trevinoz]

Same gusset.
Trev.

[Brian]

Bit of a coincidence this topic coming up just now.

Last weekend I was at a friends place who is currently restoring two A10's, standard flashes. Both these bikes have been dated and certified by the BSAOC as 1961 models with matching engine and frames. Now when I was looking at them I noticed they had different gussets on the headstem. One has a gusset that goes full height with a hole in the right side for the wiring loom to go through, the other has a gusset that only goes half way up the head with the top flared out.

Not that its terribly important but it does seem there are some variations in these gussets. Next time I am over there I will take a photo of both of them.

[trevinoz]

Brian,
         I have seen the same.
Trev.

[cus]

My '61 has the full height gusset with hole in r/h side, not sure if thats the common one or not, but anyway, I
have a question for Brian on frame no's, in an earlier post I noticed that you found out that an engine & frame
had left the factory together, is there a link that I could see if my frame & engine are a factory pair,

regards, Cus

[Brian]

Cus,

Dating information can be very hard to get as the owners of this info are very reluctant to part with it. The A10 info I recently aquired was found out by a good friend who has access to this info here in AUS.

I have recently sent a e-mail to the dating officer of the Victorian BSAOC asking him if it is possible to gain access to this info and what I need to do, eg. join their club. As yet I havent had a reply.

Years ago I contacted the BSAOC in the UK on the same subject and was informed that I would have to join their club and then pay a fee per bike for the info. I was happy to pay for the info but joining a club on the other side of the world seemed like a waste of everbody's time. At the time they told me they would not release this info under any other circumstances. In fairness to them I havent contacted them in the last few years to see if they have changed their rules.

As far as I know there are two sets of the factory info in AUS, the Vic BSAOC has one and another set is in the hands of a collector in Queensland. There may be more but they are the only two I know of.

For me I like this info to assess just what I do with a bike, if I do have a bike that has a frame and engine that belong together then I put more effort into doing a correct restoration.

I have to say this is a pet subject of mine as it really "p*^#*s me off" when people will not share info. The way I look at it we are all just custodians of our machines until the next generation take over and any information should be shared. I have a reasonable collection of original parts books and are more than willing to copy pages or send on any info I have. If I could get hold of a set of the factory records everybody would have access to it.

[cus]

Thanks Brian,
I agree, that the information should be freely available to at least BSA club members in any State / Country,
not so much to the average punter who may re-stamp some old gear. I've noticed on ebay that people are
just quoting the prefixes a bit these days, probably not a bad idea in case someone wants to give a bike
a new identity.

Cus

[Brian]

I guess you are right Cus, as with everything there would be people out there that would abuse the system and doctor numbers to add value etc.

Its probably not a problem if you happen to live in a city that has a BSAOC but if, like me you live in the country and dont have access to clubs it gets harder. The nearest BSAOC club to me is 450 k's away. No doubt there are others Richard (orabanda) for one that are a lot more remote than me and must have similar problems.

Oh well, as a famous Australian once said "such is life" mind you, that was seconds before they hung him!

[trevinoz]

Brian,
           I agree with you re factory records.
I have a pile of cases you couldn't jump over, not all serviceable, and along with the frames, it would be nice to at least get the numbers as close to each other as possible.
The BSA Police seem to think that there would be wholesale fraud if the info was released, but they who have the numbers must be above that sort of thing.
It's funny that the Triumph and Norton people are not like that. Maybe it's because the factories were sensible with their identification system.
The BSA galahs should realise that all the numbers mean is that the right crankcase half belongs to the frame and the rest could be anything.
Trev.