Hello!

We have recently had a family member pass away, who had an old BSA in the corner of the garage. 

I'm trying to find more information about it as I don't really know a great deal about BSA and whether to restore it. I'll attach photos. 

I can't seem to see much info about the engine either to figure out what year it is. The number on the engine itself is C15T 179? 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

Hi,

   From what I know about BSA's the C15T engine number denotes that it is a 250cc Trials engine. But check that the "T" has not been added.

My late father was at one time Clerk of The Course for The Scott Trial when it was organised by The Darlington & District Motor Club, that would have been in the 1960's. The BSA factory used to loan the club a works C15T to use in setting the course out.

Steve

C15T 101-301 were 1959 trials engines. Seems unusual a trial engine ended up as road bike, but who knows what has been done over the years. Do you have the frame number. It would be great if you could locate any paperwork or registration documents.

Restoration depends on how much you can do yourself, how much time and interest you have, how much money you are prepared to spend and whether to restore as road bike or use engine as donor for a brand new pre65 trials bike. 

It does look like a standard  road frame , front tube looks   bigger  than c15 so I would say b40,  one of my c15 road bike had a c15t engine  fitted . Anything  can happen  in 70 years! 

Hi,

Thank you for getting back to me. I couldn't seem to locate a vin number, any clues to where it might be on it? 

It's been sat there for over 25 years. I did read that the T meant it was a trials engine but wasn't too sure. I'll put a photo up of it tomorrow when I get back up there.

It would be great to get it up an running for sentimental reasons as my father on law always said he'd get it going again but never got around to it. 

My c15 is left hand side headstock , see photo. 

As above, left side of headstock. It may of been painted over several times so it’s worth stripping paint off the area to check

Hi, the C15 T would have differed from the road version by only a few ways.   The gear ratios would have been wider, with something like 4:1 for the 1st gear.  The compression could be lower, and the carb would be a 7/8 inch Amal.   The camshaft would most likely have a shorter period than the road or scrambles version.  I think they had a high level exhaust, the downswept exhaust was used on the road bikes.

.

Looks like a collection of BSA parts put together to form a bike. Well worth restoring once you have decided on the bikes designation eg road bike proper, trials or trail. I believe Triumph used the BSA 250 bike as a sort of pseudo trail bike model. Research carefully and maybe have a look at the Otter website. 

You may well have a 250 Star which would have been near the end of the production life of the smaller engined bikes. 

That full width front hub suggests road together with the 18/19 inch rim. 

What ever you have the basis of a potential good and interesting restoration project...wish I had it! Good luck with what ever path you decide to follow.