More about improving your A10.
Braking Riding two up 95% of the time means that braking was a major
consideration and because of this big changes have been made front and rear. At
the front I have fitted a twin leading shoe brake available in 1969 and early
1970 before the conical hubs were introduced. This fits straight into a full
width hub as fitted to my 1961 bike. The only mod needed is to extend the brake
plate location boss on the right hand fork leg by about 1/8" to locate the
plate more securely. The cable fitted has a brake light switch incorporated in
it so braking indication is given when both brakes are used. At the rear I
despaired of finding a decent cable that wouldn't snap under heavy braking.
Having snapped four of these I decided a change to rod operation was the only
solution and set about designing something more solid. The result was a 5/16"
stainless steel rod bent in two places like a stretched Z to allow it to go
behind the suspension unit. A new torsion arm was made with holes spaced an
extra inch. This swings the brake plate round by about 15 degrees and moves the
brake arm higher. This actually brings it to the same position as the earlier
brake in which the cable lies above the wheel spindle. An early A65 brake
actuating arm was bought and fitted on the crossover shaft. The ends of the
brake rod were threaded and stainless clevis's bought from an army surplus
store were screwed on. These are screwed up or down the rod to give brake
adjustment. The slight flexing of the rod does tend to give the brake some "feel"
and it is now possible to lock the back wheel with no danger of snapping
anything.
Electrics A K TEC regulator provides 12 Volts, allowing the use of a
quartz halogen headlamp and pilot bulb. The 20 Watt pilot bulb means I can run
with a visible light during the day. The regulator copes with this easily. 40
degrees celsius heat made it difficult to ride during the day to the Italian
International Rally so the last 250 miles were done at night lighting the way
sufficiently to cruise at 65 - 70 mph with no problems. Eat your heart out Joe
Lucas, Prince of Darkness. When I rewired the bike I incorporated a hidden
isolator switch, 30 amp fuse and a 1/4" jack socket to give a power feed
for auxiliary equipment e.g. fluorescent light for the tent and electric pump
for the airbed. We like a little comfort when camping.
Suspension To allow for continuous 2 up riding with all the equipment
we carry it was also necessary to fit heavy duty springs in the forks and
stronger shocks at the rear. I don't know how strong the rear springs are but
after stripping them for repainting I had such a job compressing them during
rebuilding I don't want to ever strip them again.
Cables All control cables are doubled up, this allows easy replacement
when one snaps, so next time you have the tank off it might be a good idea to
tape a spare clutch and throttle cable alongside those in use. I snapped my
throttle cable in the Lake District a few years ago on a run out at a Manchester
Branch Camp and amazed some people when I was up and running again within 15
minutes.
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Comfort Latest addition has been a different seat. Long distance
travel on the standard item has always taught us the real meaning of BSA B...DY
SORE A...HOLE. So when I looked at the new seat I bought for
our Rocket Three I realised it wouldn't take too much work to make it fit the
A10. One trip to Italy and 1900 miles later in just over a week confirmed my
initial belief, the seat is staying.
Gearing It has always been my belief that the A10 is undergeared and
experimenting with different cogs on crank and gearbox I settled on all standard
cogs but for the engine sprocket, which has been changed from the standard 21
tooth to a 22 tooth. This means I am now changing up into top at about 35 mph
and 40 - 45 mph under acceleration. The bike has coped well with the mileage
and strain, the only parts suffering being the rear chain and sprocket. -
10,000 miles being all that could be expected from a Renolds chain. Changing to
a DID50 chain has increased life by 20%. We've also worn out 5 sets of pillion
footrest rubbers in the last 70,000 miles. When did you last have to change
yours?
Carburettor Lumpy running and erratic tickover after about 10,000
miles was cured by sending the carburettor to Martyn Bratby for resleeving. It
is still performing perfectly. I thoroughly recommend his work. Spares have
been supplied by C + D Autos (10% discount to BSAOC members), Lightning Spares,
my local dealer and Anglo Moto at autojumbles and over the phone sometimes.
Thanks Pat Arnold of Anglo Moto for coming to the rescue more than once. Mind you it has cost
me some beers. One major problem we had was terrible vibration after 50,000
miles which was eventually traced to those worn crankshaft splines I mentioned
earlier. The engine was stripped and the crank sent to SRM for welding and
remachining. When it was returned the sprocket sleeve fitted like a glove. Due
to the oil feed conversion the big ends were still within tolerances, so as a
matter of course new shells were fitted, along with a new drive side bearing.
SRM supplied both and incidentally the bearing cost the same as it did five
years earlier. The A10 has been in semi retirement for the past few years since
we got the Rocket Three on the road but gets aired occasionally, included being
borrowed by various visitors from all over the world. I have already started
working on modifying the Rocket Three and am currently working on an article on
this machine at the moment. We hope you enjoyed reading the article and find
at least one of the modifications useful.
BSAing you
Brian and Chris Pollitt |