BSA Repairs

January 2011 – repairs begin to the BSA Lightning after a period of 18 months off the road.

Finally running again

Go the mighty Beeza!  The BSA has now been ridable for a month or so.  Hurray!  We had an interesting experience not long after getting it back on the road.  The story starts about 18 months ago when I first had the bike off the road and had stripped it down, motor out – the works.

In an attempt to avoid doing the hard work, I sought the name of a chap who might put it together for me  by way of discussion with one of the Eade brothers, on Parramatta Road.  He gave me the name of a chap called Frank Zappia (no kidding).  I contacted Frank by phone, but he wasn’t interested in the job – too many other projects going at the time.  So, I ended up doing the job myself.

A year and half later, the BSA is back in the road and I was riding with Ruth for a test run over in Manly, parking the bike in the curb. As we were parking, another rider went by on a BSA Triple.  I gave him a wave (as you do), and he did a u-turn to come back and say hello.  We introduced ourselves.  You can imagine my surprise when he told me his name was Frank Zappia!  We had a long and friendly discussion about our respective experiences with BSA motorcycles, needless to say, including remarking on the coincidence of meeting each other for the first time in the street in such a manner.

It’s a small world.