#BSAisBack, but is the 2022 Gold Star a good start?

The 2022 BSA Gold Star is a blast from the past.

 BSA is back, reborn last weekend in the form of a retro-style 2022 BSA Gold Star created by Classic Legends, a subsidiary of India's big Mahindra Group.

 Classic Legends means "to reintroduce once iconic, but no longer existing motorcycle brands to the world. We've already witnessed the revival of Jawa, while BSA and Yezdi are the other notable bike brands on the brink of being brought back to life," explained OverdriveIndia.

 VisorDown was happy to see a 2022 Gold Star evocative of past glory.

 "Placed next to the original, you can hardly tell them apart," it wrote.

"This 2022 model is classically styled, with spoked rims, a rounded headlight with DRLs, chrome used throughout and a classic teardrop styled tank. Stylistically, it stays true to the Gold Star..."

It's true to the past in other ways as well, with a big, single-cylinder motor like the one that made the original BSA Gold Star the Bad Boy of British motorcycles of the 1960s. It's water cooled now (although meant to appear air cooled). 

The old ammeter position in the headlight nacelle is now used for warning lights. The reverse-sweep speedometer and tachometer are an interesting retro touch that probably will take some getting used to for today's riders.

2022 BSA Gold Star has fins as if air cooled, and a big radiator.
One critic complained the radiator looks like it came off a lorry.

The most emphatic claim to originality came from Anupam Thareja, co-founder of Classic Legends:

“The new BSA Gold Star was designed in the UK, engineered in the UK, industrialized in the UK but most importantly, imagined in the UK. We have envisioned this bike as an ode from UK to the world," he was quoted, in LiveMint.

"BSA is not a motorcycle, it's a thought, a liberating feeling, a philosophy, it's love. That's a love we want to transfer to you. This is an avatar that celebrates BSA's true motorcycling spirit."

That certainly speaks to sincere effort to create a Brit-style bike. But the 2022 Gold Star is, of course, built in India. Mahindra acquired the BSA name back in 2016, and its first BSA motorcycle emerges only now.

They've opened production with the Gold Star, a famous name for a famously outrageous motorcycle of the past. It's a superb move to attract media attention, but will it work for customers?

Royal Enfield took a different approach to reaching 650ccs, with the parallel-twin INT 650 and Continental GT 650. The Royal Enfields are retro looking products that behave like modern motorcycles. They have, for instance, six speed gearboxes (the 2022 Gold Star has five speeds) and their speedometer needles swing in the now familiar direction.

BSA made attractive, practical twins back in the day. The reborn BSA could have chosen those for inspiration. 

And then there is this: BSA has been "back" before, a famous name alone is not DNA, and there are others with a direct claim to descent from the motorcycles of Birmingham.

BSA is back, this 1979 ad proclaimed.
(Courtesy of John Donlon)

Reader John Donlon, of Illinois, notes that Japan's Meguro, now part of Kawasaki, built original BSA motorcycles under license. There is the chain of DNA, John believes.

His thoughts: 

"Hello: I just saw the 'new' BSA Gold Star revealed to the press today on YouTube. I'm still shaking my head that anyone would do something like this. They (whoever they are) made a machine for 2022 that is supposed to emulate a machine last produced in 1963...

"They just put Kawasaki's Meguro K3 right in the driver's seat as the 'real BSA' legacy bike and don't think for a second  Kawasaki will not exploit that fact. The laughing in Tokyo can be heard here in LaGrange Park. Yep, they are going forward with the bike and a full court press marketing effort that will show when you drop your money on a Meguro K3 you ARE buying the real deal of a BSA pedigree and legacy and Kawasaki already has the material to back it up...

"Where the new BSA really screwed up IMHO is that they could  have taken the engine/gearbox/frame platform and easily have made three machines from that platform; four if you include the 'Gold Star' redux. Those three  machines are based on the 1971-72 BSA B50 SS, MT and RS models...

"This is not the first time there has been a BSA 'resurrection.' I was at the 1979  Earls Court Motorcycle Show and picked up a Daily Mail motorcycle special edition in which it was proudly proclaimed that 'BSA is Back.' Those pieces are attached. They are from the  Daily Mail Motorcycle Show Review magazine I picked up on my way out of Earls Court Exhibition Hall in 1979.

1979 attempt to revive BSA with small but willing looking bikes.
(Courtesy of John Donlon)

"What I witnessed today in the new BSA rollout are prime examples of poor research on the product, undercapitalization and short-sighted goals; screw it, just get the damn thing out there already. Sorry folks, but it's been done before and failed before...

"No, BSA ain't back and if they insist on building 'repli-bikes' like Jawa, Yezdi (especially the new Yezdi ADV which is a blatant copy of the Royal Enfield Himalayan) and BSA then at the very least they've already pigeon-holed their operation into a niche market...

"What probably bothers me the most is that these folks worked very hard to produce the new BSA Gold Star; so much so they could have spent the time and money better going after what BSA was working on when it collapsed that never really saw the showrooms. That would have built a continuum of thought, more machines on a same platform and more options for potential customers."

Here's BSA's Gold Star release video. Notice the attention it gives to the history of the make.

BSA bobber owes a little something to Royal Enfield

BSA bobber has a surprising Royal Enfield feature.

Donald McMahan writes from snowy Minnesota about his BSA bobber. He previously shared the story of his Royal Enfield Interceptor and Royal Enfield Indian Chief  with us. The bobbber looks great, thanks in part to his familiarity with fiberglass work.

He explains why the motorcycle may look familiar to someone accustomed to Royal Enfield motorcycles:

"I saw the mention of a '60s BSA single on your blog and couldn't resist presenting my latest project, completed this last summer.

"I wanted to buy a 1968 BSA B44R 441 Shooting Star new, but couldn’t afford it. Instead, for my first real motorcycle, I bought a 1968 Yamaha YM-1 305cc for a little more than half the price of the BSA single. A friend of mine had a 441 Victor, the “scrambler” version with a high pipe. I loved riding behind him, listening to that fine British single-cylinder exhaust note.

"Again, in 1970 I looked at a used Shooting Star, but had enough experience by then to know that I wasn't fully capable of doing all of the maintenance to keep it running right and couldn't afford paying a shop to do it. I ended up with a Honda 750; the only maintenance required was oil changes and chain adjustments. Those, I could do.

"I found a used Shooting Star in 1986 for about the same as I would have paid for a new one in 1968. Either it held its value or inflation has beaten up our dollar, depending on how you look at it. The bike was completely stock with the fiberglass gas, oil tank and side cover. The single cylinder starting procedure intimidated me for a long time. I would ride it only on weekends and never go anywhere I would have to shut it off for very long.

"Over the years I learned to take the carburetor apart with a screwdriver and a pliers in a ditch alongside the road — don't ask, it got me home. Before we had cell phones, my wife would remind me to carry change for a phone call every time I rode the BSA.

"George Helm put in an electronic ignition and the mysteries of adjusting points and timing came down to a simple twist of the plate. I got tired of the fiberglass and fished the Victor oil tank out of the bottom of a pile in a motorcycle junk yard.

"For a while I went with a dented chrome A-65 (650cc) BSA gas tank that I got from George. I painted over the bondo-filled dent for a mostly chrome look. With the stock chrome fenders it didn't look too bad.

"Life gets busy and I never did rely on this bike as a daily runner, and it sat. It hadn't been run in eight years when I started working on it again.

"I've always loved the bobbers of the '40s. That was my goal, but I didn't want to do any major cutting on the frame. I removed most of the bosses and bracket for the stock fenders, horn, etc.

"There have been a few occasions when I rode without a front fender while I was working on different bikes; that's one bit of pure bobber design I know I can't live with. A face full of road grit isn't my idea of a fun ride, so I made a fiberglass front fender that hugs the front wheel and is as small as possible. A year and a half into the project I retired. Soon, the BSA was coming together.

Did you spot the Royal Enfield influence?

"I imagine that you may have guessed the gas tank is from India and would be at home on a new Royal Enfield. I scrubbed the Royal Enfield script from the knee pads with a razor blade and a light sanding.

"Both fenders and battery box are fiberglass, taillights are LED. The battery box holds a gel cell. I created other various bits using stainless and some aluminum. I think that the big stock headlight looks right, a personal preference. That's what bobbers are all about.

"I would like to change the pipe and muffler for something smaller, but as I get older I don't like loud and I don’t think there’s a quiet option that would look better.

"After much fitting and refitting I bolted everything down tight, put some fresh gas in the tank and plugged in the battery. After a couple of priming kicks I turned the ignition on and it started on the first kick, no kidding.

"I trust it now and love taking it out, stopping and allowing people to see it, then go through a bit of a show kicking it through to get on my way.

"Call me a criminal if you must for destroying a stock Brit, but I like it and I ride it."

Slow down to Royal Enfield speed Friday and remember those who sacrificed

The greatest advantage of a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle is that it affords you a view of the world around you. There is very little danger, on a Royal Enfield, that you will be going too fast to take in your surroundings.

As a commuter taking the same route at the same time day after day, I took note of changes I otherwise would have missed: changes in the hour of sunrise and sunset, royal poinciana trees blossoming, flocks of ibis nesting and then moving on when their young had grown.

Sadly, as a Floridian, I also watched our late construction boom displacing fields of cows with tracts of homes. The false front  of an old building was ripped off, revealing that it had once been the little store for the area. You could still read the old signs on the walls. The entire building was then ripped down, leaving a vacant lot when the building bubble burst. Such is "progress."

In the UK, a remnant of the Small Heath factory where BSA motorcycles were built is in danger of being hidden behind a false front. Jorge Pullin's recent item in My Royal Enfields on the effort to save the building was both inspirational and sad. Sad, because so many of the motorcycle plants in Britain have been lost.

It's a cliche to say this, but it's true: what the Luftwaffe could not manage in 1940, progress has accomplished.

Friday, Nov. 19, is the 70th anniversary of an air raid that killed 53 BSA workers and injured 89. The workers had remained at their machines "until the last moment." Fire crews pumped a nearby canal dry in an effort to put out the fire. Fourteen rescuers were decorated for their courageous efforts.

I count the names of at least 10 women among the dead.

Four acres of the factory were destroyed. But BSA would produce 126,000 military motorcycles in World War II, along with immense volumes of weapons (including many anti-aircraft guns). There is no marker at Small Heath to take note of that accomplishment, or its cost in lives.

It's worth taking a look at the website of the BSA Trust, which wants to save a bit of what remains, not by forbidding its use but simply by preserving its outward appearance.

The old factory would be worth a nod, every morning, from passing commuters — even those on Royal Enfields.