B31 & small BSA bikes

[muskrat]

G'day Tim.
My mate is a former 250 Prodi Champ (Bathurst Mt Panorama early eighties), 5'0", 7 1/2 stone wringing wet, has a B33 racer (ready for Broadford), a B31 scrambler, the DBD34 Goldie and a Catalina. Then there's the Aprillia RS250 (track day next week), 125/250&360 Pursangs, T140, CBX1000 and XJR1300 and rides the balls off all of them.
The little B31 in question is a road rider that had been fiddled with in a previous life. On the last ride of 1000 Km he was just wanting a little more out of corners on the long hills. The valve guides have already been shortened to accommodate high lift cams.
Cheers

[chaterlea25]

Hi Muskie,
I have fitted 2 x 2446 scrambles cams to a B33, It improves all round get up and go
I have the same cam pair to fit to my all alloy B33/ GS project

John

[KiwiGF]

To resurrect this very worthwhile thread  my b31 got finished, quite a while ago actually, it even got an award at a recent norton rally (possibly it was the only entrant in non norton category tho  )

Here’s some pics from the norton rally weekend, held just before the “lockdown” in nz so we must have been lucky no one there had the virus. I dared to add my bike to the “norton singles” line up for judging.

My mate on the mk3 commando was annoyed he spent all that cash only to find himself unable to overtake a humble b31 on the tricky back roads of Taranaki 

[Greybeard]

That front brake though! 

[RDfella]

Agree with John re using 2446 cams. Would they need the 696 pinion for 350cc? I have most of the singles cams and used 2442/2446 or 2442/1891 for racing my B31. Tried the 2450/2454 cams and was disappointed. Could never get it to perform. Always found raising compression on most engines with a lowish standard ratio to give the most noticeable 'sparkle' so aim for around 8:1 for road work.

[KiwiGF]

That front brake though! 

Yes I know  but it needs a new, longer, cable to be adjusted properly. It does work REALLY well though despite the lever angle, I welded a spacer on the leading shoe cam bearing face, which made it the best drum SLS drum brake I’ve come across, I guess only until the shoe wears down to match the trailing one again.

I will probably do the “reverse lever” mod when I fit the new cable.

One day I’ll get around to it  (but today is the day the goldwing gets some long awaited TLC to the rear suspension’s electric pre load adjuster .....yawn).

[stev60]

Done up a while ago 47 C10 and 53 C11, C10 was just a trailer of parts, good learning curve

[Rex]

I have a BSA-related bike in a 1936 Ariel Red Hunter. Back in the days of the weekly Blue 'un and Green 'Un people used to regularly debate the advantages of singles vs twins and I could never understand why anyone would sing the praises of a plodding old single over a multi of some sort, but riding this bike through the country lanes and hills and dales I can see exactly why they loved singles.
I also have a Panther 600 for when some real torque-y plodding is required..

[berger]

hi rex -TORQUE'Y plodding reminds me of when I was I teenager. a builder fella called ted used to come to my dad for lathe work he needed doing on his bikes. he had a panther with what I would describe as a scaffold frame with boards on it and more often than not it would be loaded with bricks and other building material. I often wondered how it stopped.

[Greybeard]

hi rex -TORQUE'Y plodding reminds me of when I was I teenager. a builder fella called ted used to come to my dad for lathe work he needed doing on his bikes. he had a panther with what I would describe as a scaffold frame with boards on it and more often than not it would be loaded with bricks and other building material. I often wondered how it stopped.

Did he have very thick-soled boots?

[Rocket Racer]

I've got a c12 sitting waiting patiently that could really do with a new home as I have such a queue of bikes ahead of it. Maybe once I retire I'll do it along with a completely basket case c11