Identification?

It does indeed look like rather good fun ! It seems to have been very nicely done.

The lower front engine mounting lug is certainly Norton, as is the visible part of the headstock casting (it has the girder fork lock stops). Based on the distance between the lower lug and the former (now cut down) front fuel tank mount, I'd suspect that the front part started life as a WD16H.

Is the rear sub-frame / swing arm (and the wheel ?) from a BSA unit single ? It has a Trials B40 sort of look to it.

If it has its original number then it will be on the driveside front fuel tank lug. It looks as if the paint has been removed there. Wartime production WD16Hs will of course have a 'W' prefix...usually.

They didn't use prefixes pre-war. Your number looks about right for 37 according to this list:http://www.bmh.com.au/norton/index.php?id=modelnum

You could ask the NOC librarian for more info now you have a frame number.

Andy

That is a vey impressive looking swinging arm conversion, the bike is very slim in the centre and a lot of thought has been put into getting the footrest position correct.

Could you possibly post a photo of the timing side of the bike.

Andy

Previously mark_wyman wrote:

Hi Andy, I have just posted a link to the other side of the bike. I agree, someone has done a great conversion. You can't see from the pics but the Oil Tank wraps around the frame post and there is a small curve in the exhaust pipe as it wraps around the HT lead allowing the exhaust to tuck inside the subframe. It does have competition wheels and I believe it's a CR Gear Box. The head is alloy, not sure if that was normal...

Mark, the bike looks just as good from this side! looks like a standard Wellworthy ally or 500T head, and as you say, the exhaust is tucked in well.

The back end of the top tube tube must have been possibly lengthened to get the drop tube to go behind the AMC gearbox. If you look at the attached photo of my 500T frame, the drop tube lands just in front of the dolls head gearbox, and I think the 500T frame was very similar dimensionaly to the WD16H frame. Also the tin primary chaincase seems to be shorter than standard to accomodate the tucked in AMC box.

I am presently putting together a 600 street scrambler using a 19S engine and a Mod 50 swinging arm frame, and have been trying to work out how to improve the rear suspension and lighten things up a bit. So its good to see a well modified off roader on the forum.

Andy