I am pleased to tell you that the total rebuild of my Golden Flash is now finished! It took me about two and half years to restore the bike, which I bought off eBay. It had been stored for 46 years in the back of a garage in Romford. As such, the bike was completely knackered but very original, which is what I wanted for my grand project.
It has been fun, educational, absorbing, expensive and worth every minute. I’ve still got a few teething problems and of course the dreaded Covid-19 has changed my return to the road plans, but hey, I’m still well and one particular plunger-framed 1954 BSA A10 has returned to the road!
I thought it would be useful for this great and informative forum to list the main things that I’ve done (and had done) to the bike, and I’ll expand on any of these things on request. I wrote most things down and took lots of photos, because my memory lets me down a bit these days.
- SRM rebuilt the engine. It had new liners fitted because the originals were worn beyond the possibility of a rebore. I had standard pistons on Thunder Engineering conrods fitted, as well as plasma hardened valves in lead-free seats. SRM rebuilt the gearbox as well and re-laced my wheel hubs onto new rims with stainless spokes. SRM’s work is great, but they were expensive, but in this world you get what you pay for…
- The Dynamo was rebuilt as standard, but I went for SRM’s belt drive because I converted the bike to 12V. I removed the old voltage regulator and substituted it with a Dynamo Regulators DVR2 solid- state electronic unit
- The threads inside my magneto and ATD were both damaged, thanks to the ‘non’-extracting nut, so I opted for SRM’s magkit, which uses a pick-up unit inside the original mag body and a Boyer Bransden electronic ignition box, connected to two mini-coils under the tank.
- I recovered all of the original body parts, degreasing and bead-blasting them at work (I’ve retired now), priming them myself but having them all very well painted in ‘Polychromatic Silver Beige Pearl’ by Lurgy near Sandbach. I was able to reuse all the bike’s original bits like the petrol and oil tanks, the elusive air-filter/battery box, both mudguards, cow-pat nacelle, etc., most of which were remarkably rust free, but some needed filling, filing and straightening.
- I had quite a bit trouble with my reconditioned Amal 276 carb, but I wanted to retain the original set-up rather than convert to a Concentric. So I eventually opened my wallet and bought a brand new 276 from the experts at Surrey Cycles. It was beautifully made and works well.
- The panniers I made myself out of marine ply. It was important to me not to drill any new holes in the mudguards, so I have used all the original fixings. My indulgent indicators came from Vehicle Wiring Products and again, I fitted them without making any new holes in the tin ware.
- I replaced nearly all of the fasteners with imperial stainless items from D. Middletons. Lovely stuff!
- I bought nice new exhaust pipes and silencers Armours. They fitted well without any problems. The original rusty two into one exhaust pointed to the bike’s previous life hauling a sidecar.
- I bought many bits from Andrew Guttman at Priory Magnetos in Macclesfield – saddle, wiring loom, mirrors, petrol taps, side stand and much more. Great guy, very helpful and knowledgeable too. He is one of the main men in the Cheshire branch of the BSAOC and is on this forum too – thanks Andrew!
- What else? Registration and transfers from the BSAOC, tools, cables and ammeter from Draganfly, fork and plunger parts from Classic bike shop, front number plate from Barleycorn, wiring products from Vehicle Wiring Products, LED bulbs and battery from Paul Goff, chain from The Chain Man… and many more.
Sorry if I have forgotten or left out anyone. I dealt with so many people and did lots of different work, so perhaps it’s inevitable, but my main help was from SRM for their excellent engine work, the Cheshire branch of the BSAOC for their friendship and encouragement, (‘Saint’ Simon McCarthy deserves my special thanks), and this A7-A10 forum for all your suggestions and experience. I’ve already had the privilege of meeting Neil / Greybeard, but I hope to meet some more of you soon, as we return to a degree of normality with runs, events and shows starting again.
In the meantime, I will take pleasure in running the bike in. Another BSA A10 lives again!
