WHEN MY BMW R60/5 DEVELOPED AN ignition fault, I suspected the complex Bosch lighting/ignition switch to be the source. Fortunately, our classic club (SCMC) has an electrical wizard (Derek Blackie) within its growing ranks – an approachable chap who offers his expertise to members. I cried for help, and Derek turned up with his diagnostic equipment on a thundering BSA B32 Competition 350 single. As readers will have guessed, I was smitten. One, I didn’t know Derek owned such a rare machine, and two, I’d never encountered one in the flesh. After fussing over his glittering restoration and unashamedly bribing him with coffee and cakes, I begged Derek for its story.
“When I saw the B32 advertised for sale in Speyside, I wasn’t even looking for a bike,” said Derek. “But it reminded me so much of a bike I had put together in the mid-1970s based on a 1947 B31, fitted with a genuine 1952 ZB32GS Clubman engine, that I couldn’t help myself. I just had to have it.”
Derek brought the B32 back south to his Forfar home in Angus. The documents confirmed the bike was a 1948 B32 Competition 350 single, but at the time of purchase (June 2021) it looked more like a B31, but with lots of extra chrome. The fuel tank, oil tank and toolbox all appeared to be correct, but Derek recalls that the rear mudguard was entirely wrong, having deep valances and an added plastic section behind the gearbox. A standard B31 exhaust had been fitted, and the 19-inch front wheel came with a matching chrome mudguard.
Derek researched NSV686 on the internet and uncovered pictures from the early 1980s when the motorcycle was ‘posted’ as a B31. The vendor said he hadn’t done any work on the bike; however, Derek researched the year of
