I think we have an answer!!!!
Apparently the bike actually belonged to my Great Grandads brother - who is still with us and remembers the day the photo was taken!
At the time he had two bikes, this one and a BSA 500 Sloper which he used for work. The bike in the photo had been stored in the hut you can see in the photo for year or two as he couldn't afford to run both. My Great Uncle (?) decided to sell it and this was one of those "before I sell it I'll have a photo of it..." moments at which point my G/G jumped on it and posed!
...carefully hiding the engine from us with that knee!
My G/U also remembers that he never got to sell the bike, someone asked to borrow it and he never saw them, or the bike again.
But what is the bike?
A Rudge 250 Rapid.
My G/U reckons you guys should be on University Challenge as he remembers some of the details you pointed out. He also said that he was always working on the bikes so don't be surprised if some of the misleading details are BSA parts!
So, there you go.
I can't thank you enough for your time on this, it really is much appreciated. Admittedly, if we'd known it was my G/U's bike we could have asked just him but we found the photo only recently and didn't know where to start. Having said that I've actually quite enjoyed this sleuthing about...and I hope you have too.
If I find any more photos I'll post them so you can have a look.
Cheers
Phil
Apparently the bike actually belonged to my Great Grandads brother - who is still with us and remembers the day the photo was taken!
At the time he had two bikes, this one and a BSA 500 Sloper which he used for work. The bike in the photo had been stored in the hut you can see in the photo for year or two as he couldn't afford to run both. My Great Uncle (?) decided to sell it and this was one of those "before I sell it I'll have a photo of it..." moments at which point my G/G jumped on it and posed!
...carefully hiding the engine from us with that knee!
My G/U also remembers that he never got to sell the bike, someone asked to borrow it and he never saw them, or the bike again.
But what is the bike?
A Rudge 250 Rapid.
My G/U reckons you guys should be on University Challenge as he remembers some of the details you pointed out. He also said that he was always working on the bikes so don't be surprised if some of the misleading details are BSA parts!
So, there you go.
I can't thank you enough for your time on this, it really is much appreciated. Admittedly, if we'd known it was my G/U's bike we could have asked just him but we found the photo only recently and didn't know where to start. Having said that I've actually quite enjoyed this sleuthing about...and I hope you have too.
If I find any more photos I'll post them so you can have a look.
Cheers
Phil