Allen’s BSA Bantam D7

Here’s another beautifully restored Bantam, a bike which is, in theory, dead simple. But, as often happens, it isn’t.

Allen is a classic racer who is no stranger to rebuilding anything. So he’d had bought a pattern loom for the D7 and fitted it, but there were issues. These issues were complicated a tad by the aftermarket electronic ignition/lighting/charging setup he was using, built in the Isle of Wight by Minimag.

Minimag design their system to plug straight into an otherwise standard Bantam. This makes it fairly simple, but also retains much about the Bantam that is less helpful. Six volt AC lighting and positive earth, for instance.

With no need for the original Bantam’s ’emergency start’ and ‘park’ functions, I simplified the headlamp switches to do only what was required: turn the whole bike on and off, and bring in lights when needed.

A carb issue stopped me from running the bike but it sparked willingly and the DC parts of the loom were happy. With a bit of final tinkering Allen should have a charming little runabout.