Author Topic: Fitting a 1971 Rocket front end to a 1960 Golden Flash.  (Read 415 times)

Offline Curt13

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I recently picked up a 1960 Golden Flash. (Project) It consists of motor and frame assembly, swingarm, oil tank and tool bag. Finding A10 front ends piece meal are incredibly expensive. So has anyone done this conversion? If you would please give any feedback you may have. I know its not purist, but an all BSA bitsa is better than none. Thank you in advance everyone!

Offline Swarfcut

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 If its a project, with no paperwork, then registering it for road use may prove difficult if the bike differs from its original specification and you go for Historic Vehicle class.

 Up to 1970, A65 range use the same head bearings as the A10, so conventional forks will swap. Later 1971 front with upside down forks use a different bearing, so though it can be done, maybe more hassle than it's worth.

 Page 82 of Roy Bacon's book "Twins and Triples"pictures what is possible, upside down forks on an A65 Frame. Page 92 shows the 1970 Rocket with conventional pre Oil in Frame type forks.

 Swarfy.

Online Rex

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1971 would make it an OIF Ceriani pattern fork with a taper roller head set. Those forks work excellently but then you would probably use the appropriate conical front hub too, which great brakes though they can be, to me they just look so wrong on an earlier BSA.
If I was going down the alternative fork route (leaving aside  the possible registering issues as Swarfy rightly points out above) I'd go for a japanese front end with disc brake. Cheaper and more readily available than the OIF parts too.

Offline Curt13

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Thank you all for the info!

Offline BSA_54A10

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    • BSA National
I am yet to find a comical front end grafted into a pre-comical front end that rode anything like reasonable.
Two A 65's one jut shoved together with beer cans and the second machined carefully to fit properly.
Both handled like a bowl of jelly on a 1/2 full sack of potatoes.
Reasonable at speed but next to unrideabe under 20 mph
There is a tapered roller upgrade available from Groffy which will get you cups that fit into the headrace but from memory it still needs a custom cone.
Bike Beesa
Trevor