BSA RICKMAN

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Oct 28, 2014
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Is there a Rickman expert in the house? working on an A65 Rickman off road and the oil line routing is peculiar. The feed is 3/8" while the return is much smaller. Even stranger is there are 2 return stubs welded high up on the frame by the filler cap. I am guessing one is a vent and the other is the actual return. It is my experience that the return line is NO SMALLER THAN THE FEED. Perhaps even bigger.
I am saying the feed is 3/8" because the Rickman feed tube at the bottom of the frame is 3/8". The manifold on the motor offers only two possibilities..3/8" and the much smaller size. There can be no mistake connecting the lines.
Please explain.
 
Not sure what I’m missing in here...

The frame has a 3/8” feed and a smaller return. The engine manifold is the same. As you say yourself, it seems self explanatory?

As to the question of why a bigger feed; competition bikes often had a big feed back in the day in order to drag cold ‘R’ through from the tank without causing cavitation. Cold ‘R’ is horrid think stuff. I saw this first hand on a race bike with a pressure gauge where the pressure would DROP as as revs increased. It put me off using ‘R’.

On the return, even with a cold start, the oil will be warmed up. And there’s no risk of cavitation on the return anyways. So no need for oversized plumbing.
 
It is my experience that the return line is NO SMALLER THAN THE FEED.
Mine is the exact opposite, on BSA Unit Singles where if you look at the oil manifold the feed tube is larger than the return tube, the feed is a lot more critical than the return even though the return side of the pump is double the capacity of the feed side 1/2 is normally air and no major component is relying on that oil.
 
OK, I got it. I just needed the explanation. I have little experience with BSA and lots of questions.
 
One REALLY STRANGE thing I spotted on a Rickman BSA once, the footpegs are welded to the EXHAUST PIPES!!!

This photo is a Triumph, but it was nearly identical, with a BSA engine...
BSA RICKMAN
 
Yes my Rickman Enfield is the same. There are many things on a Rickman that are questionable to say the least. Some things are just annoying, like the leaking vent on the petrol tank and others are downright deleterious like using the frame itself as a breather pipe which rusts the frame from the inside.
 
Yes my Rickman Enfield is the same. There are many things on a Rickman that are questionable to say the least. Some things are just annoying, like the leaking vent on the petrol tank and others are downright deleterious like using the frame itself as a breather pipe which rusts the frame from the inside.
Rickman makes MANY different frames. The one on my Montesa dirt bike was very clean, simple, and non-integrated. Frame served no secondary functions like that, nor did the exhaust pipe! Of course, I'm kicking myself for selling it...
 
Buy another! :-O
Nope. I'm done with dirt bikes, done with projects, done with classics (apart from the few I have).

Only new (or new to me) bike I see in my future is a modern, tastefully appointed, street bike that is suited for local AND long distance, without being 7 feet tall and/or over 800 lbs.
 
Living proof that it is possible to regain common sense as one ages.
...if only I could go down that road!
 
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