Britbike forum Forums Thread Like Summary - 71 A65 Firebird Scrambler sans motor

The sans motor part of the title might be more interesting. So, Bret in Lancaster, PA is selling the Scrambler and when I get to his place, yea its pretty nice without the motor and I buy it. But where is the motor? Bret has 3 choppers in the garage, all 1960's custom chops as wild as you can imagine, really! I could almost hear Inagadadavida colliding with reality in my brain. Bret showed me the chop that he installed the scrambler motor into. It was Art and I said to Bret "Its art! Would you consider selling?" Maybe when the kids go to college he replied. He said the guy who made the chops is deceased, Sam Radoff. The body work was all metal! ART!

Will post a pic of the Sam Radoff chop with the Scrambler BSA motor if Full Editor comes back up.

When I first saw the Scrambler on CL, what made me bookmark the listing was the alloy wheels; I thought Borrani! Like a shot of really good liquor. I also liked that the pipes looked right, and hey progressive rear springs, and hey is that front fender right. I did check that the frame was stamped with the correct suffix, A65FS before me and Bret loaded it into my van



A favorable shot of the tank; seems to overcome the initial 1971 objections I read about.

Choppers. Death traps!!

They started painting them black at the factory mid-1971 model year.

The FB was a street scrambler, a fashion styling exercise which laster from 68 til 71, probably why they dropped the idea in 72. Had the FB been fitted with some off road tyres and a B50T/MX style front mudguard then you might have good reason to believe the high guard reason.

However, parts books show these brackets as upside down, many an owner will refit them as per the orientation that the parts book shows not realising that a parts book is not and was never intended to be a restoration manual.

I'd have to check but I beleive east and west coast models had different gearing, east having 20t and West having 18t gearbox sprockets? The rest of the box is the same as a thunderbolt/Lightning. Infact the engine is identical to a Lightning, with the possible change to the gearbox output sprocket, carb jetting and the exhaust pipes.

Empty cases is as good a start as any, you just have to source the bits.

I don't think any more than 2 parts on my OIF Thunderbolt (Lightning in a Thunderbolt dress code) left the factory on the same bike together.

I don't think it turned out too bad.... (PS, this is an old photo.. The mudguard does follow the wheel better now, and the mirrors are mounted better)

Attached Images

Liking Alan's green Tbolt! Have seen many pictures of orange OIF bikes, nice to see green. I would call it forest green, but I'm sure the factory had their own name.

So, it sounds like the gearbox ratio on a Scrambler is no big deal if I have to build it; which by the way, I really do not want to do; Mark Z has a motor that I'm hoping to snag from him.

My scrambler has a different headlight than my 71 Lightning basket case. Will post a pic later.

The frame color is not stock but its nice. The original color was "Dove Gray" this was changed to Black when the bikes didn't sell. Some were re-painted black at the dealerships. By 1972 I think all the OIF frames came from the factory as black.

Turn the front fender mount plates (where the rubber wraps around the wire) to point down instead of up. The fender wires should run under the two mounting bolts and the wheel fender set up will look much better. All in all Looks really nice. Congrats on the alloy wheels.

Tacho might read a little slow as its a triumph 4:1 tach instead of the BSA 3:1 Ratio.