Literature

PARTS BOOKS are probably the most useful book to have. Every year BSA issued a parts book that covered all the models for that year up until 1952. In about 1950 they began to issue parts books for each model group that covered several years in one book. These books covered more and more years until there were too many changes to be contained in one book and a new book was started. The problem for restorers wishing to return their machine to ‘as built’ specification is that parts fitted to later years are, where suitable, listed for earlier machines with no mention of the earlier part. For example a cast widget may be fitted in 1950 but in 1951 it was changed to a sheet metal one and because they both do the same job the 1949 to 1953 parts book only shows the sheet metal one for all years. A 1949 to 1953 parts book may be taken to be correct for a 1953 model but may well be quite inaccurate for a 1949 model. In the multiple year parts books if a year is given after the description of the part, this usually means up to or from that year and you will need to check the other descriptions, and read between the lines! BSA in common with other manufacturers began the model year in the previous August and some of the parts book dates refer to the year of manufacture not the model year. We have tried to correct this anomaly in the list below. If you are unsure of the year of your BSA we can check your engine and frame numbers against our lists. OWNERS GUIDES were supplied with the machine when new and cover controls, minor servicing and even how to ride the motorcycle! SERVICE SHEETS were the closest that BSA came to issuing a manual for pre-unit machines. Each sheet covered a different aspect of maintenance, overhaul or information; sometimes for just one model but sometimes for the whole range. Our reprints contain all the relevant sheets for a particular model group but many of the sheets are in more than one collection. The complete set of service sheets is a large loose-leaf book; if you are interested in obtaining a complete set please enquire. HAYNES MANUALS are well known and are pretty good, their main drawback being that the actual example that they use in order to write the book is very well covered but variants somewhat less so. ROY BACON BOOKS are also well known; they contain a wealth of information and are particularly useful for the enormous number of pictures both from contemporary sources and later detail photographs making them very useful for the restorer. The restoration guides give a lot of detail on how to restore and on yearly changes. The other books are arranged chronologically and cover the history of the various model groups. Many other parts books, owners’ guides and manuals are available back to 1914, in fact about another 150 items in addition to those listed below, all high quality and complete reproductions, please enquire.

COVERING ALL MODELS (1924-52) These parts books have many pages and in order to reduce the cost the pages covering dealers, GPO and AA special parts, sidecars and the numerical index have been omitted. We can supply these if required.