1965 History of BSA Motorcycles - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

Description

1965 History of BSA Motorcycles - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
History of the Marque - BSA
Fourteen men. gunsmiths by trade, sat
around a long boardroom table in
Birmingham. England and watched as Mr.
E. Otto prepared to demonstrate his in-
vention — a bicycle. In 1861. the gunsmiths
had formed the Birmingham Small Arms
Company and as the musket business had
been poor in 1880. they were looking
about for a new item to produce.
Mr. Otto proceeded to demonstrate his
bicycle by lifting it onto the table, riding
it the length of the table, down the stairs
and then out the door and down the street.
So impressed were the gunsmiths that
production was started and in the next
few years, over 1.000 BSA bicycles were
manufactured and sold.
In 1888, the company forsook the
bicycle trade and returned to gun manu-
facturing. The armament demand soon
slacked off again and so. in 1893. the
gunsmiths returned to the transportation
field and began making parts for bicycles.
The concern produced their own complete
bicycle in 1908 and from then on. BSA
was to stay in the two-wheeled field.
. It is not intended to say that BSA is
concerned only with two-wheeled trans-
portation. for today, the BSA group is
made up of 35 separate corporations which
produce everything from motorcycles to
rare metals, machine tools, guns, plastics,
car bodies, and coal mining equipment.
From the humble beginning of five gun-
smiths banded together in 1692 to produce
muskets for King William Ill’s army, the
BSA group has grown until today it is an
industrial giant of England.
It is in the motorcycle field that BSA is
best known, though, and in 1905 the com-
pany experimented with their first motor-
cycle. It was not until 1910 that the first
BSA models were manufactured and these
were 3’/2 and AVi hp models with belt
drive. The two 500cc single had a bore
and stroke of 85mm x 88mm, measure-
ments that were to become legendary in
the BSA line.
BSA motorcycle development followed
standard practice in those early days with
single cylinder side-valve engines, belt
drive and dummy-rim brakes being accept-
ed practice. To test the soundness of their
design, the company had a bash at the
Isle of Man TT race in 1913 with a team
of six 500cc singles. Only one finished,
in seventh place. An experimental two-
speed hub was tried which proved to
be successful.
After World War I the motorcycle boom
was on and the Birmingham group fielded
an extensive line to garner their share of
the rapidly expanding sales. To augment
the 500 and 556cc single cylinder models,
a 770cc side valve V-twin was added to
the range in 1919. The new twin featured
a three-speed transmission and dummy-rim
brakes on both wheels. That same year
the company produced a “light” car pow-
ered with the 90° V-twin engine and BSA
was to dabble in this field until World
War II.
At left, the first BSA venture into the
two-wheeled field was this Otto bicycle,
of which some 200 were built in the
1880s. The unusual “bike” steered and
braked with inverted stirrup handles,
pedal power was transmitted to wheels
via two belts Bell on right pedal warned
traffic of its approach...
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