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Tweet indicates BSA is coming to town

BSA tweet Mahindra

A simple Christmas Tweet has many BSA fans excited that the brand will return to the market with a retro model by Christmas 2018.

BSA was bought by Indian tractor and automotive company Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) for $A5.4m in October 2016, but there has been little information since from the company about the British brand’s future.

Until now.

On Boxing Day, M&M boss Anand Mahindra Tweeted a short note that has many guessing the company plans to produce a new motorcycle by Christmas 2018. His Tweet, accompanied by the old advertising image above, reads:

BSA tweet MahindraIt’s not much to go on, but it suggests Santa won’t miss out next year and that the new BSA will retain its retro character.

The brand was actually acquired by M&M subsidiary Classic Legends, which further indicates it will be a modern retro model like Triumph’s Bonneville or Royal Enfield Bullet and Classic.

BSA history

Classic motorcycles BSA

BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited and it began in 1861 making guns.

It gradually moved into bicycles and motorcycles for which they are most famous, although they also made cars, buses, tools and other metal products over the years.

Its most famous motorcycles were the Gold Star 350cc and 500cc single-cylinder four-stroke bikes considered among the fastest of the 1950s. At the time, BSA was also the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer.

However, the halcyon post-war days slipped away in the 1960s under competition from more modern and reliable Japanese models.

BSA went bankrupt in the early 1970s and merged with the Norton Villiers Triumph Group. BSA-branded machines ceased production in 1973.

BSA revival

More than 45 years later, BSA appears set to join the list of recently revived motorcycle brands including Bultaco, Brough, Hesketh, Levis, Matchless and Norton.

BSA is currently just a brand that churns out motorcycle t-shirts and merchandise.

  • Do you have faith that the new BSA will be true to its roots? Leave your comments below.

  1. The pictured bike appears to be a 1968 BSA Lightning, definitely not a ‘1958 BSA Gold Star’

  2. Tossing up whether to take the New RE 650 Interceptor (ravishing red) or this New BSA to the all British rally in 2019. If both bikes are under $10 thousand should sell very, very well indeed. $18 thousand! for the New z900rs (Jaffa)& no center-stand – won’t be happening – $15 thousand/center stand & on roads (like its supposed to be) & i buy one tomorrow to go to the various Z900 rallies Aus wide.
    Yeah; pick the disappointed punter : (

  3. My first bike was similar to this. It was called a Firebird Scrambler which is the same as the Lightning save for upswept pipes. I had no idea what I was getting into. It didn’t have an oil filter and every time I changed the oil there were metallic bits in the oil. So I replaced the engine which, like the original one, lasted about 5000 miles. No wonder the British motorcycle industry was destroyed by the Japanese. The motorcycles were junk. Apparently the new Triumphs are decent bikes so hopefully the new Beezas aren’t made to the standards of the last ones!

    1. “BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms ”
      It also meant ” Buggers Stop Anywhere” and Bluddy Sore Arse”.
      The B32 and B34 Goldies were considered the best “Clubman” bikes of their day alongside the Velo Thruxton also in the same class but the backbone of the ‘modern’ BSA was the 650 cc A10 engine which was used in the 1950s Golden Flash and formed the basis of future 650 twin power plants even through the later unit construction engines which included the last BSAs built (see pic) which incidentally were targeted for the American market. This A 10 was the engine copied by Yamaha when they produced their first 650 four stroke ( a parallel twin).
      I’d like to see BSA make a comeback with the B34 500 cc Goldie, I reckon it would be a hit with the older riders. Remember, though, “nostalgia ain’t wot it used to be.”
      Be interesting to see what other ‘forgotten’ names may be resurrected….Scott Flying Squirrel ( 1930s parallel twin water cooled 500 and 600 cc two strokes) Rudge Ulster (500 cc single 4 valve ) JAP engines not only ruled the world speedways for 30 years but also powered Morgan 3 wheelers, Brough Superior and a stack of other bikes of the era. And then, just to antagonize the PC and Left Wing gang there’s “The New Imperial”. I can smell Castrol R wafting on the breeze.
      Cheers.
      JMB

        1. As I said, tongue in cheek, “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be”, whether or not the romance attached to the Brough name could see it through the risks of a commercial enterprise is a moot point. Lawrence of Arabia’s love of his SS100s may not sustain the marque in the real world. I suspect we are all doomed to electric and plastic forms of electronically controlled transport, devoid of any soul or personality. Long gone are the days of the Brighton Prom Sprint and the blast of the HRD Vincent “Nero” tearing up the quarter mile promenade.
          I was brung up in the ‘black country’, the heart of industrial England, near Birmigum , just down the road from the Villiers factory, surrounded by the motorcycle industry’s most famous and not so well known names (Calethorpe, Coventy Eagle, OK Supreme, to name a couple) so grew up with the smell of Castrol R and speedway.
          Oh well, you gotta larf !!
          Cheers.
          JMB

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