Back in the day (this would be early 90s for those of you following along) I picked up this poor, formally nickel plated frame. Like most of the stuff from those days I don't really remember any details. I was buying and selling a lot back then to make some extra cash, with the idea that I'd pick the best parts and make bikes one day, who knew that it would be 20 years later...
This probably came from Jim Krist, who was a former flat tracker. I think I got a few bikes and parts from him. He did have a beautiful BSA Hornet but I think he eventually sold that. Last I heard he was living in NY somewhere.
Where was I? Ah, this frame. I knew it was for a BSA but I always had designs on converting it to Triumph to fit a nice T120TT engine I have. Then I'd make a street tracker out of it or something. Now that I'm older and if possible, more lazy I like the idea of a BSA motocrosser. I didn't say I was getting smarter...
Everyone assumed the frame was a Trackmaster as it had many of the features but when I showed a picture of it to Pete Fisher of Powroll, who now owns all the tooling for Trackmaster, he suggested that it was a late Sonicweld frame. But I've never seen a Sonicweld with a swingarm. Speaking of the swingarm, it's got a diamond cross-section. I was told that it was made somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The only other one I've heard of was hanging in Cliff Majhor's shop (aka The Sandy Bandit).
The engine should be coming from the East Coast in about a month. I think it's an A65L, I know between my brother and I we bought at least two BSA "projects". I don't know from which pile the engine is coming from. It's making it's journey across along with my Production Racer fairing. Good to have an uncle with a big RV and penchant for driving cross-country a lot.
The engine in the pictures was just some empty cases I borrowed at one time to confirm the frame actually was for a BSA twin and not something else.In another pile of parts from back in the day I pulled out these Ceriani forks.
So why a motocross bike? I tried riding the little Bultaco 125 Pursang at the big AHRMA National and it would just get bogged down. The are many factors, mostly the inexperience of the rider, but the way Dick Mann set up the track you can just tell it's for the big four-strokes. So I figure just get a big BSA, hold on and see if that's any better. What could be wrong with that plan?
I'll probably clean up the frame, throw some Rustoleum on it. I have some stock Triumph wheels but I'l save them for another project. Does anyone know what wheel (21in) would work well with the Cerianis? And then I need something in the back. I'll seal up the oil-in-frame and run an external oil tank. Seat and fuel tank and done. Right?
Maybe it will look something like this:
