tech16

At this point in our series it is probably prudent to introduce our
restored Victor's owner, Malcolm "Scotty or Scott" Fraser. Scotty was
born in England, educated mostly in Scotland, and arrived in the USA
about high school aged, complete with a Scottish accent. I met him in
high school and we have been friends for about 44 years. He bought
this Victor in 1968 as a year old used bike. At first he rode it for
desert trail riding and then commuted on the LA freeways with it in
the mid 1960's. It was later used again for desert trail riding after
the Weslake conversion to 500cc and the change to Cerriani forks and
Curnutt rear shocks. In 1976, or there about, Scotty replaced its'
functionality with a "fire sale" new 1975 Kawasaki KX400. The Victor
was then stored in his brother's shed in Whittier for years and moved
with his brother (Alan Fraser that comes on our BSA Club rides) to
Apple Valley here in the high desert about five years ago. It was not
started once during that approximate 25 years of storage. Being
English, Scotty has always been proud of English products, having
owned a Jaguar car at one point in his life. He has wanted for several
years to restore his Victor after learning of the new public interest
in vintage racing and vintage motorcycles. His first plan was for me
to go through the motor which I did last year and for him to do the
chassis. Well, Scotty has a full plate in his retirement what with
sailing, his Corvette, his lovely wife, learning to fly an airplane,
etc., etc., so the chassis never got done. I was reluctant to do the
whole bike as I like to do it "my way", complete and like new but with
sensible modifications. I thought that his budget tendency would
interfere with my approach making the whole thing a job for me rather
than fun. But he surprised me with his open pocket book approach and
it turned out exactly as he wanted it and was fun for me. As I
expressed in an earlier article about this bike, it was rougher than
any restorer would have liked and financially he would have been
better off buying one already done or a better core bike. But Scotty
wanted "his" bike restored.

When Scotty first saw the bike, still in pieces during construction,
he was amazed at how good it looked. After it was virtually done he
expressed that he never imagined it would end up looking this good. In
fact, he muttered something about showing it before riding it, but
that won't happen. The end result looks very different from the
original Victor since the tank is totally polished like a Gold Star,
the bike has longer suspension making it look a little taller, the
seat is shortened similar to a B50, the exhaust is brushed stainless
with a Gold Star pattern megaphone with an attached 9 inch long
muffler section piped with 1 5/8 inch tube swooping under the foot peg
instead of the Victor's 1 1/2 inch high plumbing, and the Weslake
barrel is tall and square. We started it, which it did with no more
reluctance than any other big single, and I rode it up and down the
street. I then handed it over to him and he rode around on it for
about five minutes, smiling the whole time. The sound is un-Victor
like, being much lower in tone and with less mechanical noise. We
moved it via trailer to his brother's storage area. Scotty gently
covered it with a blanket from his camper van. Scotty lives in a Long
Beach condo sans garage but with a parking structure. He is
investigating the purchase of an enclosed motorcycle racing trailer,
parked in his stall, to act as storage for his two bikes and as a mini
shop area. He is hot to ride it and I'm sure he will expedite a
solution to his storage problem.

So the restoration was a complete success. I got to build another bike
using only the best components and he got a truly unique BSA Victor
from his past that looks better than it did on its' best day before
the restoration.