Metrication of fasteners

Got a question - Are the fasteners and shafts on modern British bikes such a Triumphs and Nortons now metric or still cycle thread ? I've read a few specs about assemblies for Harleys and they still seem to use inch sizes and a variety of threads even though I believe a lot of their bits are made in Asia. In Australia we have gone mainly metric except for the aircraft industry. Years ago a lot of our Australian Standards were simply British Standards which had been rubber stamped - globalisation has changed things. My own bike is a nightmare to work on because of the variety of threads, I always seem to use ten times too many spanners.

Modern European bikes (an almost everything else to) are metric but the Americans still work in imperial just read some of the threads on this site to see what to us are odd sounding fractions of an inch measurements they talk in rather than the metric equivalent but to them are normal figures.

acotrel said:

Years ago a lot of our Australian Standards were simply British Standards which had been rubber stamped

Click to expand...

In the early 80s I started work for a local but British owned defence electronics company. I was vaguely surprised when the Chief Draftsman said that he was on the Australia Standards Board. I was really surprised when he admitted that "....when compiling a new AS the first point of call is the British Standards Institute to see if there is something appropriate to copy...."

At the same place we used to quote on all sorts of defence related stuff. American based projects required SAE fasteners, British based projects required usually Metric, but sometimes Whitworth, European programs required Metric, also at that time Japanese "Metric" was different to European "Metric". Sometimes we would have to jump from program to program which could cause some confusion!!

On some Real Navy ships, probably others as well, I was surprised to see pieces of electronic equipment with a label which said something like "Some fasteners in this piece of equipment may use 1/4" UNF threads"
cheers
wakeup

And to answer the question directly - for which this thread should be on the 961 Board ? - Yes, the 961 is fully metric.
It was mentioned in Mr Garners press releases that fully 2 years was spent converting ALL the drawings to metric,
and then converting ALL the manufacturing facilities/machinery/etc to metric.
An expensive process, by any judgement. ?

And perhaps Allan doesn't know, by dint of not having one, that Commandos were converted to be UNF threads and fasteners in the cycle parts.
Those little linked circles stamped on the nuts are a sign of the UNF.
As we all know, the engines and gearboxes mostly stayed cycle threads, although some became UNF during the years of Commando production.
Watch for the little linked circles....

And before that, the Atlas had cycle thread mixed with some BSF fasteners.
And before that, early Dommies (plunger frame versions and later) were just about ALL cycle threads,
bearing in mind that fine threads are 26 tpi (threads per inch) and coarse cycle threads (20 tpi) in the larger sizes.

But the 1/4 " screws into the timing covers were WHITWORTH form, for ALL singles and dommies,
and the Commando used UNC for the timing cover screws
(UNC is the same thread count as Whitworth in 1/4", but the thread form is different - rounded versus pointy).

And, like all Norton production, there are odd cases of BA, BSF, and other assorted threads scattered all through the electrical, carbs, and brake parts etc
It really is a labour of love trying to record all these, let alone have them documented somewhere ??

Cheers !

map countries England invaded

I would not have thought the penguins in Antarctica would have been too fussed either way.
Must be a penguin joke in there somewhere....