Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board Hornet, Wasp, Spitfire Hornet, Cyclone (Restored)

Gary

Ok thanks. That was about the only thing that I have found on this bike that wasnt correct. The only other thing was the side covers. Someone had trimmed about a half inch off the top of the covers. Probably had nicks on them. I looked at them for a long time scratching my head.

ljm

Damn Monoblocs. I started collecting some of those 389/689 pairs 20 years ago off ebay. Man, I got some worn out junk. But got some good ones, too. Finally have a good pair on my 67, them and my rehabbed ET ignition makes that one of my easier starting bikes.

My 66 I fitted with a Boyer and a Pod way back then, all the ET stuff fell apart in my hands. Always been a good runner whenever I have good carbs on her. I've collected all the stuff to change her back to ET, (black asian AC coils) but never wanted to till I have a really good 389/689 pair on there. I went clear through another pair from the bottom of the Monobloc bucket and put em on last night. This may be it! Fired first kick and sounds great. Test ride today, then I'll have to find the ET bucket.

Nice to have buckets of spares. My buckets are getting depleted. Good parts getting harder to source. Some are real stinkers. More repop stuff out there now. Quality of it is so-so.

It's always fun when you get a batch of parts back from the powder coater. This was the second batch I've had done for the Cyclone Competition build.

Before and after images. 15 pieces this time, $150.

Is there a part number cast into that left hand one? There's something about it, maybe the curve and the thick lug that says Triumph to me. Wouldn't be surprised to see an 83- part number on it.

No part number on either one of them.

Interesting observation.

Two side stands are listed in the '65 Spares manual:

68-4757 Thunderbolt Rocket & Spitfire Hornet
42-4778 Lightning & Cyclone/Cyclone Competition

Haven't figured out the match models. The 68-4757 is shorter than the 42-4778 even though the Spitfire Hornet and Cyclone use the same frame.
The long one is typical for subsequent years.

Hi, new guy here, and I just got a 67 Hornet that I think is a West Coast (big oil tank) but it's by now means stock. I tried to access the "first 67 page" link, but the connection times out. Could it be reset again? thanks
'B'

Welcome to BritBike, the BSA board, and to this thread.

Glad to see another West Coast Hornet has been rescued. You are one of the few that has one.

Unfortunetly the first 64 pages of this thread got deleted. It has all of the specific information and differences including narrative and images of the west coast and east coast models of the Hornet, as well as information on the other models included in this thread. John was able to download those 64 pages to one of his servers in Canada. If the link he provided does not work, then it means the server is "down" and he needs to reset it.

I have those 64 pages saved but am not able to link them so they can be viewed. Each page is a separate saved folder and quite lengthy. I haven't figured out how to put them on here yet.

In the mean time if you have any questions regarding your machine, feel free to post on here or send me a PM and I/we can answer along with images if needed.

That still pisses me off that got dumped. Like throwing away an encyclopedia.

Sadly that was an unforeseen circumstance. If it eases your frustration, I spent the following few days finding the 64 pages which John was able to put on his site. This was before they lost forever and google updated its server (or however that works).

The real encyclopaedia is the minds that wrote it, I think for any thread if you find the information within it of great value then it print it off, using the thread options tab at the top of the page.

Not frustrated..........just still pissed. One thing, I guess most of the photos would have been photobucketed anyway.

I acquired this 65 Spitfire Hornet a few years ago as a rolling basket and stashed it away. I am getting closer to being able to have it front and center after I finish my 55 Triumph restoration.

When I purchased the bike I thought it was a Lightning Rocket, but when I inquired with the VMCC I was informed frame A50B 8399 was a SH dispatched to BSA, New Jersey on May 21st, 1965.

I am trying to determine how much of this bike is original SH. The engine that was included was from a 64 Lightning according to the VMCC. I assume the original Hornet engine met it's demise along the way years ago - should be A65E 1579.







I know that the lighting would have been added at some point.

The front brake is a question mark for me. Some say the SH had a Goldstar front brake others not. Could this be the correct front brake?

I would love to see the first 64 pages of this thread, but no luck accessing it so far.

Yes, as well as several others would like to access them. There is a ton of information and images on those first pages. John has them on one of his servers. The server needs to be reset or something like that. John has gone missing for a long time. I sent him a post long ago but got no response.

Dave, looking at your machine, it has the same side cover mounting method as the '66 and newer A65/A50 models. My frame is a very late production, in the 10,000 numbers, dispatched in July 1965. It also has the newer side cover mounting style. I suspect the factory switched to the newer style mounting method sometime late in the '65 model year production.

Interesting! Thanks

67 WC Hornet Restoration
Been working on this off and on.

Note: the alloy rim is temporarily installed. Proper wheel and tire next up. The box is to install the motor.

Current problems are misaligned forks. The axle is about a third of an inch lower on the left side and slightly off center

I don’t see my pictures in the preview so might have a problem with that

Looking good there. I'd like to be that far along with the Cyclone.

I've had fork alighnment issues with some builds. One fork too long on one machine, forks out of alignment from twisted yokes on another.

Anyone that follows this thread have an extra ET coil mounting bracket? I have one and need one more for the Cyclone Competition build.

I have a folder with 63 pages recovered from archives or somewhere. I've not looked at this in some time, but I just quickly looked at a couple of pages. None of the photos on those 2 pages have been photo*ucketed. All pages are saved as MHTML files. Someone smarter than me must know how to recover this. Or at least make a repository of these files so they are accessible. There was some effort underway at the time which seemed to work, but not sure what happened with that.

I would be exceedingly happy to see this material get back into circulation and will pass on copies to anyone who could do that. Gary as OP you might PM me and I might be able to share on dropbox or something.

This might be the most useful thing I've ever done in my life.

Ray

Here is the latest on the '65 Cyclone Competition build. It's going a bit slow as some parts are hard to source. I had to fabricate the rear sprocket on a milling machine since I couldn't find an original. It is different than '66 and newer. The bolt pattern spacing is 2-5/8" instead of the newer 2-1/2".

Hi Gary, Was just looking through active threads and came on yours, Nice job your doing, looks great! I also zeroed in on your handlebars, When i restored my 69 Royal Star with a lightning engine 40 years ago, I was missing the bars and was given a set just like yours with the cable guides, Because of s fall i needed to replace them with ones for my year, As i remmember they were higher with a different pullback and was never really happy with them.

Now doing its second restore and finding old pics with your type bars ive been searching to find the same ones. As most of the part numbers now are superseded with alternate numbers that are similar, Its hard to be sure what to order and what you will receive, I,m trying to get the dimensions, length, height and pullback information, Or even better if you have a correct P/n and where you got them, Going through the bsa parts catalogue 5118 for year 1965 is the only info i,ve found for bar that incorporated those cable guides, which shows bar #.s 68-4960, with guide #,s 68-4963 right below, So i,m searching that p/n, but not having much success. Hope i,m not stepping on any toes with this reply, But had to inquire, Thanks Andy, in Vancouver

Andy,

I'm no expert on '65 handlebars. There are two part numbers for bars in '65. The bars I have, which are correct for the '65 Cyclone Competition and Spitfire Hornet are the tall style with number 42-4994. I believe they are also correct for the Cyclone Road model. The other bars that you show the part number are the shorter style.

The bars I have are originals that I had re-chromed (at a terrible price). I can get you the measurements, but I do not know of anyone that has after-market bars with the same dimensions.

These bars are taller than the typical 42-4968 of later years. They look almost out of place, but it's what I'm using, so as to be as correct as possible in the restoration.

Are you in Washington or Canada?

Wow, those really do look tall! I am still happy with the bars you sent my way quite awhile ago, must have been the -4968 version. I even use that shape on my Triumphs. Curious on looking at your RR brake details: Likely something I have never missed having on a running bike, the Spring “retainer” ahead of the arm pivot pin/adjuster. Was that later dropped from production? Can’t recall seeing it before, or just never noticed it they are common......