BSA Bantam kick-start shafts were changed for the production of the B175 model – the very last one to be produced in 1970.
The change was made because the gear-change shaft which runs through the middle of the kick-start shaft had, on earlier engines, such a tight tolerance that with very little use the two parts began to foul each other and slowly but surely affect the ease of changing gear.
BSA’s answer to this was to modify the kick-start shaft to give greater clearance but the problem is that thousands upon thousands of D10, and D14 four-speed models had been made before the upgrade.
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As thousands of these are still being used for trials and road use then the demand vastly exceeds supply!
Now Alan Wright has had manufactured a large batch of the bigger and stronger big bore five-eighths (as distinct to half-inch) shafts which in recent times have been near impossible to buy.
Read more in the October 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
