1930, not 1920, was the year that the motorcycle manufacturers went from nickel to chrome, BUT, don’t forget that the Great Depression had started, and Scott’s output plummeted between their best ever year 1929, to 1930, and they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They had quite large stocks of nickel plated parts to use up before they turned to chromium plating, but some of their suppliers had changed, and so bikes had a mix of nickel and chrome. Webb fork links, star-washers, and adjuster nuts, some Andre damper parts, some Binks carburettor parts, and other bits and pieces, were the first things to be chromed, whereas handlebar levers, twistgrips, filler caps, and nuts and bolts, etc.. lingered on in nickel until old stock was used up. A classic example was petrol and oil taps, which were nickel until the end of production in 1950, and Matt Holder in Birmingham was still using old Shipley stock until the 1970’s !! My penultimate Brum Scott WDO 408L had nickel plated taps. Despite lots of asking and looking through the factory records, I have not been able to find out when radiators had their changeover year.
In some years in the 30’s when they were really struggling, many fasteners were not plated at all, and were just a black painted finish, or perhaps, Parkerised, Bonderised, Coslettised, or some other cheap finish. I have a works photo of the 1934 Flyer, and the black fasteners can be seen quite clearly. This situation would change from year to year, and probably from week to week, so there are no hard and fast definitions to be made….
Brian
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