Issue #268 Sundown of a Great Competitor : BSA
One hundred and fifty years ago, a group of independent English gunmakers facing the realities of a looming automated era joined forces to buy modern equipment and incorporate as the Birmingham Small Arms Company—BSA had been born. Robert Smith traces the legend’s roots on its anniversary.
In the first Half of the 19th century, the British government bought most of its firearms from the many independent gunsmiths in the Birmingham area—though it also manufactured weapons at its own Royal Ordnance Factory in Enfield, just north of London. But the installation of automated gun-making machinery at the Enfield factory left the Birmingham craftsmen at a competitive disadvantage. In 1861, 14 of them got together, raised £24,500 in capital, and bought their own automatic equipment. They incorporated as The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited.
Wars came and went, and government firearms orders with them. The Birmingham gunsmiths turned to two-wheelers, producing, in 1881, the world’s first chain-driven safety bicycle—from scrap gun parts! BSA translated its precision engineering and mass production techniques to making bicycle components like hubs, for which it became renowned. In 1911, the company launched its first motorcycle.
BSA soon earned a reputation for unglamorous but competent machines—demonstrably what its customers wanted—focusing on reliability trials instead of racing. By the 1920s they could say, “one in four is a BSA.”
The single cylinder model H and K machines begat V-Twin sidecar tugs of up to 986cc (BSA made its own sidecars, too), and in 1927, the famous “sloper” OHV singles joined the range. In the 1930s, the Blue Star and Empire Star singles added a sporting slant, especially after Wal Handley rode one of the latter machines on a 100 mph lap at the Brooklands circuit, earning himself a Gold Star from the Auto-Cycle Union, and giving a name to BSA’s most sporting single. The ultimate expression of BSA’s pre-WWII engineering expertise was perhaps the elegant and sophisticated 500cc OHV V-Twin J35 of 1935.
Though sluggish, heavy and with limited ground clearance, the side-valve 500cc BSA M20 became the standard British military motorcycle of WWII. When hostilities ceased, BSA resumed its dominance of the UK market with a new range of parallel Twins, including the famous Golden Flash and Road Rocket 650s. War reparations also provided BSA with the plans for DKW’s 125cc two-stroke engine, which became the best-selling Bantam. BSA produced as many as 500,000 of th
ese over the next 23 years.
In 1951, BSA Group acquired its biggest rival, Triumph, meaning the Group now included Triumph, Ariel, New Hudson and Sunbeam motorcycles; Singer, Lanchester and Daimler cars; and extensive machine tool, light engineering, autobody- and bicycle-making operations.
Though the factory never had a “race shop” as such, privateer competitors were encouraged, and the Gold Star became the dominant clubman’s racer of the 1950s. The company also fielded motocross teams, culminating with back-to-back world championships for Jeff Smith in 1964-65 on the 441cc Victor. But increasing competition from small capacity Japanese motorcycles in the 1960s forced BSA to focus on bigger bikes. Its last major development, the 1969 750cc three-cylinder Rocket 3, though a critical success, was hampered by bizarre styling—and appeared just a few months ahead of the game-changing Honda CB750.
By the end of the 1960s BSA Group had essentially one product line—large-capacity motorcycles—and one market: the USA. The company’s marketing department erroneously predicted a downturn in US motorcycle sales for 1969, so BSA cut back production, just when the US market was actually booming. The factory was also tooling up for the new P39 oil-in-frame models due to be launched that year, and which weren’t ready in time. As a result, the 1970 range was cobbled together from a mix of rehashed 1969 bikes and parts-bin specials. Then teething troubles with a new computer production management and parts ordering system caused further delays.
As a result, BSA’s 1969 and 1970 models were late arriving in the US both years, and missed the crucial April-June quarter when around 90 per cent of motorcycle sales are made. Then the 1971 bikes, with their bizarre paint schemes, brutal styling and well-publicised reliability issues also failed to sell. The considerable expense of entering a team of 10 motorcycles in the 1971 Daytona 200 was wasted, even though Dick Mann’s BSA Rocket 3 was first home. The prestigious win created demand, but BSA couldn’t deliver, and the company simply ran out of cash.
A run on the company stock in 1971 allowed Dennis Poore of Manganese-Bronze, the company that then owned Norton, to buy the remnants of the BSA Group. Poore’s plan was to close the Triumph factory at Meriden and move Bonneville production to Small Heath. The Meriden workers demurred and staged their famous sit-in, which ultimately created the Meriden Workers’ Cooperative, hobbling Poore’s consolidation plans. Within two years the once mighty Small Heath factory in Birmingham was closed, and the last BSA motorcycles—11 Rocket 3s and seven B50SS Gold Stars—were produced on April 14, 1973. The company that made more than 126,000 M20 motorcycles during WW11, and in the 1920s built more than 25 per cent of the world’s motorcycles, was effectively deceased.
There have been several attempts to revive the BSA marque with imported mopeds and specials using bought-in engines, but with little success. And though a small engineering company, BSA-Regal, keeps the brand alive, there seems little chance a made-in-Britain BSA motorcycle will ever see volume production.
