Fat Tire Trader
Dirt Disciple
I started a separate thread.
Pre-WW2 BSA, something of a diamond in the rough I believe
- Thread starter Mark Manley
- Start date
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
1936 catalogue: https://oldbike.wordpress.com/1936-bsa-catalogue/
I was going to say this looks like the latest catalogue where the bikes still had head clip headsets, but actually if you look carefully some do have them in the 1938 catalogue.
1936 Gold Medal has a 531 frame with the high mudguard mounts and celluloid-covered Lauterwasser bars.
1936 Opperman Special without gears had drop bars and only a rear brake (presumably was fixed gear?).
1936 Opperman Special with gears had both front and rear brakes but probably would have had a Cyclo derailleur hanger on the chain stay.
They’ve all got cantilever brakes in 1936, though. By 1938 many of their bikes were using caliper brakes, which was a BSA thing. And the pump pegs are still in the wrong place.
I don’t know if that helps even a single bit
I was going to say this looks like the latest catalogue where the bikes still had head clip headsets, but actually if you look carefully some do have them in the 1938 catalogue.
1936 Gold Medal has a 531 frame with the high mudguard mounts and celluloid-covered Lauterwasser bars.
1936 Opperman Special without gears had drop bars and only a rear brake (presumably was fixed gear?).
1936 Opperman Special with gears had both front and rear brakes but probably would have had a Cyclo derailleur hanger on the chain stay.
They’ve all got cantilever brakes in 1936, though. By 1938 many of their bikes were using caliper brakes, which was a BSA thing. And the pump pegs are still in the wrong place.
I don’t know if that helps even a single bit
Mark Manley
Raleigh Fan
1936 catalogue: https://oldbike.wordpress.com/1936-bsa-catalogue/
I was going to say this looks like the latest catalogue where the bikes still had head clip headsets, but actually if you look carefully some do have them in the 1938 catalogue.
1936 Gold Medal has a 531 frame with the high mudguard mounts and celluloid-covered Lauterwasser bars.
1936 Opperman Special without gears had drop bars and only a rear brake (presumably was fixed gear?).
1936 Opperman Special with gears had both front and rear brakes but probably would have had a Cyclo derailleur hanger on the chain stay.
They’ve all got cantilever brakes in 1936, though. By 1938 many of their bikes were using caliper brakes, which was a BSA thing. And the pump pegs are still in the wrong place.
I don’t know if that helps even a single bit
That is great thank you I have seen a couple of these pages but not the whole brochure. I have now seen an Opperman with the same lugs as mine, they were incidentally used on post war top of the range Gold Column and have concluded that it is the oddly named Super-Eeze De-light with the down tube mounted pump as in a previous photo, the resolution is not good enough to say if it has the same lugs but they could be.
The frame is painted but I am now awaiting decals before clear coating.
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