The
Birmingham
Small Arms Company, despite its
name, really came into its
forté when it started manufacturing
motorcycles. The
factory had been producing
high quality parts
for motorcycles since the very earliest years of the
20th Century, and
in
1921 they produced their first complete bike, a 770cc
V twin
model.
In the following two decades BSA rapidly became one of the largest and
most respected motorcycle manufacturers in the world. They produced a
variety of models, single- and twin-cylinder powered, and both
four stroke and two stroke models.
In 1938 they introduced the Gold Star machine. This was probably the
first publically-available machine capable of speeds over 100 mph
(with a little bit of home tuning), and sold in large numbers for 20
years or so after the end of World War II. As well as being fast and
reliable by the standards of the day, it was comparatively cheap and
by the mid-1950s BSA was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the
world.
BSA's fortunes, like those of the rest of the British bike industry, were
completely destroyed when the first Japanese machines started to be
shipped over. Unwilling to move away from designs which they had
faithfully built for decades and plagued by poor management decisions,
BSA saw its devotees leaving in droves as bikers started buying the
cheaper, faster and more reliable Hondas and Suzukis. By 1971 the BSA
factory closed the doors of its Small Heath factory for the very last time.
Of course this meant that within ten years any extant BSA machines were
looked upon with the misty-eyed glow of nostalgia and became recognised
as the "classics" that they rightly were. Talk to any British rider of
a certain age and they'll get a far-away look in their eyes as they
talk about the Gold Star or Bantam they used to own, or the Lightning
which was the first machine they "did the ton" on. Unless they were
Triumph owners of course, which is a whole different story.