O Features archive - Aug 07
O The Bitch is Back
Remember The Bitch, an enigmatic TriBSA that has been under an ongoing development programme for the past four decades? Well, much has happened since issue 148 – August 2003 says Nigel C…Words Nigel C and
Pics Chris Langton
To refresh your memory, The Bitch belongs to one Steve Clark, known locally as ‘Swede’ and began life as a bare 1956 BSA twin frame – with logbook, the registration of which it still wears.
This was back in 1967 and the new frame was purchased because Steve had just wrecked his previous machine, coincidentally a BSA A7 framed T110.
A few parts were salvageable, such as the RRT2 gearbox – originally purchased for £25, but much of the remaining chassis parts came Steve’s way due to the death of a friend who was killed when a car turned across the path of his Road Rocket café racer, while he was travelling to work. His widow asked Steve to dispose of the remains of the damaged Rocket, which he duly did, but not before he had bought the Roadholder forks, the glass fibre five gallon Manx style fuel tank and the Gold Star oil tank.
The time was ripe now to make a proper job, so the engine was stripped and the crank sent away to Fred Cooper who cleaned, lightened and balanced the assembly.
Steve said: “I’d be interested to see if you feel any vibration because it was done 30 years or so ago, it’s done thousands of miles since and it gets caned as you know. I get used to it, so I can’t really tell if it’s deteriorated or not.” I gave him the verdict later.
Fair speed
The rocker gear was lightened and polished and as a petro-chemical pipework specialist by trade, Steve had little problem opening up the ports and flowing the nine stud Bonneville cylinder head to suit the matching pair of 1 5¼32in Amal GP carburettors, fed by a genuine Amal 501 type round float bowl. The barrel fitted was a Mk1 Morgo 750cc unit.
Steve found a 260mm Fontana four leading shoe front drum during the 70s, bought it for a not inconsiderable £250 and had it laced into Borrani flanged alloy rims. Supreme Motorcycles, in Earl Shilton, Leics, relined the four shoes with green AM4 racing linings, which caught Steve out in Ramsey Square during the 1978 TT. “They locked the front wheel and I fell off right at the feet of a policeman,” recalled Steve. The rear brake is BSA’s stock single sided unit. Steve can’t recall from where he bought the original straight through exhausts, but more on these later.
The engine has been down a few times since those days, only through general wear and tear – Steve puts in a lot of miles and at a fair speed too! The crank has lost ten thou on the journals and the barrels bored plus 20 with new 9.5:1 compression pistons. It began with Bonneville cams, but the inlet was swapped for a Somerton race cam, based on the experience of local former sidecar racer Andre Witherington. Likewise, the original head was upgraded to a T140 unit.
Just prior to the 2003 feature, Steve crushed the TriBSA against the garage wall when the clutch failed on his Mitsubishi GTO as he was driving into the garage, causing a surprising amount of damage, resulting in yet another rebuild.
Steve recalls: “The fuel tank split, clip-ons broke, the engine plates bent and the clutch basket was squashed into the cases, so I took a day or two and thought about it. I had to make new engine plates and repair and paint the tank, so I decided to upgrade as well, with a five-speed Nova Transmissions cluster for the RRT2 box and a Bob Newby belt drive primary and clutch.”
Recently Steve has altered the gearing slightly, going up a tooth on the gearbox to XX (size to come) and up to 46 on the rear sprocket, as per Rocket Gold Star.
- End of online sample -
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