Dear Group, I too love the black war bikes. While teaching at a community college in Iowa a few years back, my office mate for a year (a former principal dancer for the Royal Ballet in London) learned of my passion for British bikes and would regale me with stories of riding an all-black roadster during the blitz, jumping the bomb craters in an effort to make his deliveries. One should keep in mind that not all "all-black" bicycles with rod brakes are war bikes. Raleigh and BSA and Humber, etc. all had "all-weather" bicycles that left the factory with no brightwork at all.
Ever, Daniel (I like to time travel on my war bikes, listen to a little swing music while I cruise Rocky Hill Road and pretend it's the 1940's" Dahlquist