Ahh, yes, the old barn story. You know, the one where a bike builder finds a basket case in a barn in the middle of nowhere and wrenches the life back into it. It's nearly a classic tale in the motorcycle industry. At the very least, it's a popular standby for builders trying to conjure up a story behind their build. This '68 BSA was rescued as a rolling chassis from a barn in Akron, Ohio, by owner Gail Williams. Before he salvaged the remains, Gail thought about what he was up against.
Gail grew up around British motorcycles, so they weren't foreign to him (pun intended). He was buddies with three brothers who peddled Brit bikes and parts, and he spent hours on end with them working on the bikes. "I always said one day I would buy one and fabricate a bobber," Gail recalled. That fateful day came in 2003, when one of the brothers parted with a beloved '64 BSA chassis with a '71 motor in the corner of their barn. "Actually, I proudly hauled it back to my barn," Gail said, "and the transition began."
Before Gail made the first cut, he decided on a design featuring a bike long and low with a stock rake. After getting rid of the swingarm and shocks, Gail welded the hardtail on it and stretched it three inches over stock. He kept the stock forks but shortened them three inches, as well as relocated the axle to a leading link axle position. Moving over to the motor, one of the most painstaking tasks for Gail was polishing the engine cases. He then installed a Sparx stator with a Boyer ignition and a Mikuni carburetor, and finished this off with a set of homemade stainless exhaust pipes. The fun part came when Gail had to make an adapter to bolt the carb to the Thunderbolt head. "Nobody seems to make an adapter," Gail said. "But it's all in the fun of having to make parts." From crafting the hand controls to lacing the wheels, Gail was adamant about building this bike with his hands and the sweat of his brow.