Registration no. 776 BOP
Frame no. C15S 2580
Engine no. B40 3294<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One of the foremost trials riders of his generation, the late Jim Sandiford was born into a motorcycling family – his father was a keen sidecar trials competitor and motor dealer – and entered his first trial as a teenager, riding a James. When his father retired, the pair formed James Sandiford (Motorcycles) Ltd and took on a BSA agency. After some successful outings as a BSA-mounted privateer in 1959, Jim was offered a works C15, ‘MEN 500’, and by 1961 had progressed sufficiently to be loaned a factory BSA for that year’s ISDT, winning a Gold Medal, the first of ten. Jim was soon offered his own, ‘776 BOP’, which had been fitted with a 343cc B40 engine and ridden previously by Jeff Smith. (Jeff is pictured aboard ‘776 BOP’ on page 93 of Don Morley’s book, ‘Classic British Trials Bikes’). Most of his works colleagues preferred the 247cc C15 engine but Jim got on better with the ‘350’. When BSA axed its works team at the end of 1965, Jim switched to Greeves and continued to be a first-choice selection for Britain’s ISDT team, winning the last of his Gold Medals in the 1973 event in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some years later, in the late 1970s, Jim tracked down his old works BSA ‘776 BOP’ and managed to buy it, though the machine was well worn and needed full restoration. Its accompanying original logbook lists only two private owners between ‘The Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd’ and Jim Sandiford, though Jim’s entry is not stamped and there was at least one other owner, Michael Mennell of Knutsford, Cheshire, whose name appears on the accompanying old-style Swansea V5 as owner immediately preceding Jim. The first of the aforementioned two owners – Thomas (‘Tommy’) Sandham – is author of ‘The Castrol Book of the Scottish Six Days Trial’ while the second is well known collector Mike Bradbrook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quiz today – Guess who<\/p>\n\n\n\n ===========================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have no idea where this is – but it shows the type of terrain that Trials bikes and riders love to explore. ( Looks a bit like the Okanagan Valley – but it’s not)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ======================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming soon the Greatest Trial in the World First week in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n =========================================<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Answer to the last quiz – Jim Sandiford on a BSA – Brett, Bob and Peter from OZ got it. Brett also sent us this link – interesting read. 1960 BSA 343cc C15\/B40 TrialsRegistration no. 776 BOPFrame no. C15S 2580Engine no. B40 3294 One of the foremost trials riders of his generation, the late Jim… Continue reading Friday April 25th\/25<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8377,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8371\/revisions\/8377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/outlawtrials.com\/davesblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smith-in-trouble.jpg\")
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