Old motorcycles often throw up hidden surprises that tell a tale of a bygone era. This is the story of a brass tanked flat tanked BSA that was found in a backyard in Adelaide, South Australia in 2018.
It all started when a member of the Veteran and Vintage Club of South Australia purchased a basket case 1924 BSA, fitted with a 1927 550cc engine – a bit of “bitsa” BSA and nothing exciting about it to write home about… until he noticed that the tank, painted in faint BSA colours did not look quite right, or sound right when it was knocked with a knuckle. It was soon evident that the tank was made of lovely old brass!
The BSA, as found as a project bike.
Every man and his dog had a theory as to why this BSA would have a brass tank. Was it a very well-made homemade job? Was it a “special order” or “special construction” tank for high humidity markets (as brass does not rust)? The owner went as far as contacting BSA historians from around the world, and with no evidence or record of brass tanked BSA’s to be found anywhere, it was destined to be a mystery…
The tank, stripped back to naked Brass.
That was until Jules Dassen, club historian and pre 1930 technical consultant for the BSA Owners Club of the UK got in contact with the owner to advise that another BSA flat tank, with a strikingly similar brass tank was found in Wales, and was now with a collector in the Netherlands. This time, that tank was painted in the Quadrant colour scheme! Quadrant was one of the earliest British motorcycle manufacturers, established in Birmingham in 1901, and were known to use BSA components, such as their gearboxes to create their machines.
The brass tank BSA, fixed up and in all its glory!
The thought from Jules Dassen, BSA club historian, is that Quadrant took the tank dimensions from BSA, and applied them to their motorcycles of the same era. At some point later down the line, this lovely old brass tank has been swapped into a BSA frame, and at this time, there are only a couple known to exist.
If there are any Brass tank BSAs out there, please contact The Girder Club in order that we can pass the information back to the owner.
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