Picture yourself on a design course and being asked to complete a working project: would you choose to convert your B25 to dohc? Richard Hazeldine did. Tim Britton heads to Preston to find out more and ride the bike.

Richard explained that the idea seemed better than projects that others on the course – A-level Design Technology at Runshaw College, near Preston – were thinking about. “Being a motorcyclist and having the pushrod B25 available, I thought about converting it to dohc. Other people on the course were suggesting things like making a pedal-powered canoe, a water clock and flashing disco lights. Mind you, the tutor was less than helpful, casting doubt on the idea from the start. I found this strange as he’s a classic enthusiast."
“What did he actually say to you, then?" I asked him, as we sat in the front room of his mum and
dad’s house.
“He reckoned that it couldn’t be done by any other than a skilled engineer, working over several years. He even wrote to my dad telling him that I was ‘overambitious’ and probably off my trolley for even considering it."
Wow! Let’s hear it for our education system!
Richard added: “He even produced a list of reasons why the project couldn’t hope to work. I’ve got the letter somewhere; I’m thinking about getting it framed. Of course, once he said that, it was going to happen come hell or high water."
Not having done such an A-level myself, I asked Richard what the course had demanded of the project.
“It was relatively broad in its specification as all we had to do was come up with a an idea then write a design brief for it and the end-result had to work. Given my background and interests, my project was always going to be motorcycle-based," said the 25-year-old quality engineer. “I started the two-year course when I left school in 1995 and when I left, I took a year out from the education system and worked for Schlumberger Gas UK doing CAD and tool design work. That was down the road at Trafford Park in Manchester."
Richard added that, after the year out, he went to Sheffield Hallam University to study automotive engineering. “I always wanted to work in this kind of area and felt a foundation degree would set me in good stead. All was going reasonably well until I had a big ‘off’ from a Honda CB-1 400. I got into a big tank slapper and was pinged into the road. I suppose I’m lucky in that I didn’t get too serious an injury, except to the wallet," he grinned ruefully.
Anyway, not to make light of coming off a motorcycle – been there, done that and worn the cast – I wanted to know more about the BSA. Richard’s dad, Keith, told me that the 1968 B25 Starfire had been in the family for the best part of 20 years. He paid £120 for it back then, with 5000 miles on the clock, and reckoned he must have had his eyes shut when he looked at it. "It was in terrible condition, all red oxide paint and rust. I had no option but to pull it apart straightaway and, when I got the engine unit apart, things were even worse," he shuddered at the memory. “I don’t know if it is possible for the unit 250 to do 105,000 miles but that’s what it looked like it had done."
He said that virtually all of the moving parts needed, if not replacing, serious attention. “I had to change the big end, rebore the barrel and fit a new piston. Every single bush and bearing was worn beyond belief. Even the head was cracked, between the valves, and had to be changed."