No Signals

As you are in W Yorks you might find a bike or two turning up to the Meltham Memories do in a couple of Saturdays time, but that is just a guess on my part. Might make it myself but it isnt definite at the moment. I'll be glad to chat bikes if you collar me, as will most owners. 'Over the hill' to Saddleworth in August will definitely have few in attendance and some of us will be making the trek to Stanford Leicestershire for the Taverners Founders Day event at the end of July. The theme this year is military motorcycles so if there aren't any there then you might as well give up! :-)

As has been mentioned dont expect a bike to be a cheap alternative to a 4 wheel vehicle but dont be put off. Wartime bikes tend to attract quite a premium over their comparable civilian counterparts. If you get one sorted (preferably by doing as much of the work as you personnally can, that way you know it has been done properly) then you will have a vehicle that will run well, be reliable and do pretty much what you want and above all else be a whole load of fun in its own right irrespective of the re-enacting side of things. In my experience dont expect too much help from collectors of classic and vintage machines. For the most part, in 40 years of biking, I've found they tend to be a bit disdainful of military models so you will find more help on such forums as this and the WDM20 site refered to - a v.useful forum. All the best in your search.

Hi james, take a look through the threads in this section, they are have a pretty good selection of the typical ones.

They bolt directly through the mudguard stay, along with the toolbox bracket on the O/S. Ron

Thanks for that Ron, much appreciated.

Regarding the rear carrier, do the 'middle' mounting stays bolt to holes in the mudguard or via 'clamp on' brackets to the mudguard stays? I ask as I have a(at a guess a modern repro) carrier that looks like the one in the diagram but mounts in that fashion. Or should I say it was mounted in that fashion to the bike it came off, and obviously was not for that machine (BSA). If I can get a proper identity for it it will help when selling it on. Cant access my photos at the moment so cant post one but, without having it in front of me, I would reasonably confident say that it is the one.

Fort Campbell on the headland to the north of the bay. Have a look on Google Earth. Worth a bus trip down to Valetta for two reasons 1) the ride on an old bus :-) , although I'm told they are being forced off the road since they entered the EU 2) if you like fortifications, Valetta is heaven.

Not one coming from the MV scene but geographically reasonably central (England speaking!) this looks as if it could be a good day out for military bikes.

http://www.thetaverners.com/Founders_Day.htm

and below the drivers screen there is something i can't make out?

 

They offset to allow the mirror arm to come through, the one on yours are straight?

You mean that small button like thing? C'mon on John, that's the screen wash nozzle!

Rippo's book is correct - 25. 40 might prove too firm and not 'give' enough on wet bends?

Glad we finally got it sorted

Interesting. I was told that the item shown doubled up as both a trailer socket and a diff light. The feed would go to the electrical socket head that is doing nothing at the moment and if used for the trailer then the cap would be dropped off and the trailer lead put in there. If a diff lamp was needed then the feed would be put in to the 'capped' end and a bulb would be put in the end facing the diff. Obviously I was informed wrong but it did seem that what was said would work. So what does the correct diff lamp look like?

I've seen Lottery money spent on many worse things. Interesting, I hope it goes well.

I'm pretty sure that 'YD' was an M20 BSA sequence. Some of them were, at least. Have a talk to Lex, as per post #6 on this thread :-

 

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?30011-where-did-my-BSA-WDM20-serve-in-WW2

 

Nortons were allocated a lot of 'YB's and 'YC's but no 'YD's as far as I can tell.

Thanks, the info I have came from following the very same. Thanks Lex. The thing was I know I've read a thread somewhere, some time back, that discussed the post war registrations and there was some info about which regiments(?) had certain numbers/letters allocated to them. Rather than the reg numbers being allocated to a batch of vehicles, but it could be my memory is wrong on this. Which is why I'm asking. But of course it could have been on a different forum in which case it s a case of keep looking, eh?

I have just spoken to the great northern one aka Wally Dugan who has confirmed to me that the information above is incorrect, as he has all the post war registration no's and the contracts stating which vehicles were allocated the new type numbers starting YA through to FM which is possible the only copy left in existence or at least seen by him in the last 20 years, this one came to light approximately 3 years ago, and he is now currently waiting for 4 volumes containing war time census no's and the link to the post war numbers and in some cases the regiment who was using the vehicle up to the change over in 1949.

So, says he with baited breath, did he tell you what YD were? I have a census number and a P/W reg which has YD as the middle two and as per Radiomike7 it is a bike. So I really am intrigued to find out what any documentation might say. Where are you Wally Dugan? :-)

I know I've seen info on the forum about this before but I can't find the result I'm after from a 'search'. So does anyone know of an online reference that I can use to find out which branch of service used 'YD' as their mid two letters on their reg. numbers? Cheers.

Is there a BS number on that tin of paint? 298? Why wouldn't he produce British olive drab? Ron

No number on it Ron, just the description 'Dark Olive Matt'. Dont know why he has no specific 1944 onwards British Olive Drab as, lets face it, it is a 'known' colour and must be on enough vehicles to warrant producing it. At the time when I ordered it ( O. Drab) over the phone, if I recollect correctly, he seemed as if I was asking for something that never existed that I was wrong in my description so I accepted the substitute. But what I've read since and from what Ted has told me British OD is an actual colour. I was interested to hear if any bikers knew where it (Dark Olive Matt as opposed to British OD ) might have fitted in to WW2 bike colour schemes.

Ok then fellas, I've got a tin of Frank Burberry olive green, I am told he doesn't do a paint designated (1944) British Olive Drab so where would that fit, if anywhere, for WW2 use?

RAF is different.

You need an 90 degree adapter to mount it on. Guess who has got one? :-)

Dont know a particular font name for it but this period pic shows the style fine. All the numbers there, apart from 1 , 8 & 9, but enough info to make up your own version I would have thought? Lets see the results when its done! :-)

http://www.classic-car-accessories.com/lamps/

http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/products/257amb-rubber-indicator-lamp

Part 257AMB on the main page looks promising , until to you go to the detail and then it is definitely a diffrent item. Might be worth enquiring if the 'detail' page pictures are the item you get - or the main page one. It might be they have both?

Have you tried asking on the UK WW2 re-enactors site Paul?

Cheers fellas. I'd no sooner posted it than I thought about ducting, but a good link there with some nice clear pics. spot on, another forum result!

I wondered if there were any forum members in this part of the country who are familiar with this battery, or dare I say it would be willing to go and do a bit of field walking and take a look at it and report back?

I'm intrigued as to what the structures are that now inhabit the gun positions. Ok they might be feedbins for farm animals, but they might be something more interesting. I've not come across anything else like these on any other sites so far.

Over to you!

Brilliant mate, spot on. They are your bikes and you do them as you want. Sometimes it is too easy to lose sight of that for some of the guys on here. Yep, I would have done mine in pure military spec too but that doesnt make yours any less attractive. Probably just the sort of 'camouflage' needed to blend in on the streets of Karachi :-) Dont be upset if some of the purists dont like them or dont comment on them, each to his own. At least they are all preserved and running, rather than like some of the sheds full of slowly rusting scrap that the purists keep swearing they are going restore 'next year'. And yes, I do want one of those horns! :-)

It appears that there aren’t even any grass marks left at Clapham Common but the site is visible on the 1945 view. Cannot see the gun pits, maybe netted over, but in 45 I wouldn’t have thought it necessary(?) but the Nissen huts for the personnel are very obvious.

Regarding Southampton, it could all depend upon whether your old fella was at Southampton – ‘specific’, or whether he was just somewhere in the wider geographical area. A check of the sites on Google Earth seems to show none in Southampton ‘specfic’ having survived (image 1), just one a little down the coast having some traces of the gun pads visible with all the surrounding magazines etc levelled. (image 2). If you spread the search a bit wider then there are two sites on Hayling Island with the one at Sinah looking much better preserved and accessible. If you go for the wider Southampton/ Portsmouth as the area to which he was he was posted then there is a good survivor over there, but I would guess it is not immediately open to the public. (image 3)

Abroad, except for where there was an established British base e.g. Gibraltar then I would not have thought there would have been any permanent placements made (?). More likely sandbag arrangements that were dismantled and moved forward as the advance progressed, if indeed HAA was used in that manner. Maybe attached to airfields or other sites of importance as they were brought in to Allied control. Needles in haystacks are probably easier to trace ! J