This is a recently finished 1965 BSA A65 custom bobber. This bike was shown last week at the Rats Hole Custom Bike show at Daytona bike week. It did not place for a trophy in the heavily contested bobber class, but was very well received and admired, and the next day was set up for a professional photo shoot by a major European custom bike mag. The bike was built at Olde Iron Cycle Works in Edgewater, Fl. The bobber was mocked up, fabricated and assembled here at Olde Iron Cycle Works, and is almost entirely built by hand with the exception of the metal-flake paint, and the hard tail frame, solo seat, rear fender and oil tank which are from The Factory Metal works.
The hard tail which is stretched 4 inches and dropped 2 inches was jig-fit and welded on by the competent crew at The Factory Metal Works. Olde Iron Cycle Works completed the fabrication of the fender, oil tank and seat mounts, The fender was trimmed to fit the tail light, fabricated the battery box, shaved the front fork legs, fabricated the chain roller bracket, electrical mounting plate and headlight bracket, and many other small one-off parts.
The frame started life as a 1965 A50B model which could have been intended for a 650 or 500 cc twin off road model such as a Cyclone or Hornet. The engine is a 1971 Lightning unit with a single carb head conversion. The engine was a very low mileage unit which had been involved in a crash many years ago, and had significant damage to the head and cylinder fins. The engine was completely stripped and rebuilt. They did replace the the cylinder and head with the Thunderbolt parts, installing new rings on the standard pistons, and cleaned up the head.
The engine starts on the first kick and runs rock solid. The transmission shifts crisply through all of gears, and the clutch grabs firmly. The wheels are newly constructed utilizing the original parts, polished and painted. This bobber is running a pair of new Dunlop K70 tires and new tubes are fitted. A new acid gel battery is fitted in the newly fabricated battery box. A new 125 link 530 chain is fitted as well as you can see. A new 2 inch rise handlebars are fitted with U.S.A. made nos gray grips which match the solo motorcycle seat.The ignition is fired by the original Lucas points condensers and coils, but the charging system uses a (new)Tympanium regulator/rectifier.
I see that in the pics, some bright sun reflection spots are showing up in the metal-flake. The metal-flake is professionally applied, and the finish is very nice. In person the sun spots cannot be seen, it is something being picked up by the camera.The carburetor is a completely rebuilt and polished Amal 389 monobloc with a 320 main jet. The ribbed rear fender is a genuine British made replica of the old Wassell ribbed front fender now made by Barrons Speed Shop of London, and distributed by The Factory Metal Works. The tank is a genuine Paugcho unit left over from the 60`s. The paint is a apricot metal-flake from House of Colors. As we can all see there is a lot of work in this BSA bobber motorcycle, and the description could go on and on.
Overall I rate this bobber a 4.0 out of 5. There are no turn signals and there are no mirrors. I want to look good on the bobber but I also want to get home.
