BSA is Back

But I won’t be buying one. Looking at the new Gold Star, I feel that an opportunity has been missed. This bike is pitched entirely at nostalgia to the point where it is a straight copy of a 1950s motorcycle. As a potential purchaser, I don’t want a 1950s motorcycle even if it does have disc brakes and ABS. What I like is a modern motorcycle with a retro flavour – as say, my Z900RS has. It is unmistakably a modern machine with just enough hints of the past to give it that retro feel.

Polaris resurrected the Indian brand a few years back and like Kawasaki have traded on the heritage, but have produced machines that are thoroughly modern. They are not a copy of earlier machines, despite the model names and similar styling.

So, the Gold Star. If I wanted a ’50s bike, that’s what I would buy – an original, not a modern copy.

Now, if they had taken the Fury concept and updated that, there might have been some mileage. As it is, this will be niche. Even the Royal Enfields are more modern looking than this.

So, on balance, a shame.

21 Comments

  1. There was a feature is a Classic bike mag recently on the subject of the Bandit/Fury. My understanding had always been that it was a modern design for its time but it wasn’t really. I thought the fact that disc brakes, electric start and indicators were optional extras was laughable. The bike was supposed to be competing against bikes that had had such equipment fitted as standard for almost twenty years.

    The BSA looks nice. I couldn’t tell from the video whether it is actually a new design or a heavily modernised version of the original.

      • “Even the Royal Enfields are more modern looking than this.”

        Really? What about the Bullet, a bike still made with the original tooling? Enfield have only recently started to branch out into truly modernized models.

        I take your point about retro models in general though, retro machines are not everyone’s cup of tea. Personally I like them having grown up with them, my own choice being the Bonneville. Although its hard to tell the current air cooled range apart from the original, the new ones come without the vibration, oil leaks and with all the mod cons, though I wish it still had the kickstart. I’ve never been a person who goes for all the ABS bullshit but appreciate things like EFI.

        • Really? What about the Bullet, a bike still made with the original tooling? Enfield have only recently started to branch out into truly modernized models.

          They retooled the Bullet some years ago. However, the main point is a fair one. I had the twins in mind when commenting. They have a classic flavour while being a modern machine, rather than a straight copy of a fifties bike. Why is it that these manufacturers think we want something that picks up where the brand left off forty or fifty years ago? I’d like to see a modern machine with the BSA branding, not a straight copy of an obsolete design.

          You mention the Bonneville. Not my thing, but again, it’s a modern machine with a retro flavour. Likewise my Indian is a modern machine with a retro flavour. I like retros, but not a straight copy.

          • When I said that Enfield used original tooling I didn’t mean they used the very same machine tools – I meant that the bike, as you say, is a carbon copy of the original to date. My brother had a 13 plate Bullet and the only difference between that and the 50’s original was that it had indicators and fuel injection. A very primitive bike with only 27 horses but cheap to own and run, and very reliable.

  2. A friend had a Goldie scrambler. He kicked it on full advance and it opened his leg to the bone. Classics!

    • That is what was known as an anti theft device … One of my mates had a 600 Panther (Cleckheaton’s finest product – this was over 40 years ago) and left it with the ignition fully advanced. He reckoned that you could see the local kids appear above the hedge as it spat them 10 feet into the air when they tried to kick it over. He was a bit of a bugger like that.

      • The Panther only fired every gas lamp.. I like the old kickstart because it doesn’t rely on battery power, something that the new Bonnie lacks – on the EFI models, if the battery voltage falls below 12.6v the ECU says no and hitting the start button just produces a click.

        In general, people don’t know how to use kickstarts, which is why they get flung over the bars.

        • I knew a guy who broke his leg trying to kick over a Bonnie. Another mate had a ’78 Bonnie,(party trick – I could get onto the centre stand whilst on top of the bike – ruined the lino though). Starting = Ignition on, tickle the carbs, clutch in, kick it over two or three times (to loosen the clutch plates???), clutch out, then boom.
          Also saw an interview with a modern racer – may have been Ben Spies, talking to an old two racer. Ben was romantic about the two strokes – saying he’d love to ride one. The old boy said “The frames are shit, the brakes are shit, the suspension is shit and they’ll have you off in a second. You’d hate it”. I’ve got a ’78 Suzuki GT380. You have to think when riding it

  3. A late friend of my late Father in Law (always referred to by my wife as Uncle Arthur), drew the cutaway illustrations for the Goldie manual. I have one in the house somewhere. I have never been attracted to bikes myself, I preferred being warm and dry.

    • The beauty of the Z900RS is that it is a thoroughly modern motorcycle to start with. Kawasaki gave it a flavour of the past with its styling, but it is not pretending to be a carbon copy of the Z1. I know some purists complained about that – four into four exhaust, period indicators and mudguard for example, but there are aftermarket products if people really want to go down that route, but I’m not seeing any Z900RSs with this stuff on. The point being, retro means a homage not a straight copy.

      Had BSA remained in continuous production, they would not be producing Goldies preserved in aspic. The Fury (Stony’s points notwithstanding) were a hint at the direction they were taking. Also, the Fury is remarkably similar to the scrambler models from Triumph, Ducati and BMW that are selling well today.

      So I’d have liked to see a 650 twin with a modern engine and frame with a slightly retro style to it. Could have called it the Gold Flash…

      • Kawasaki are now doing a 650cc Twin styled like the Z900. Looks the part and if you are not wanting a fire breathing 900 or 1 litre, might be just the ticket:

        https://www.kawasaki.co.uk/en/products/Z900RS/2022/Z650RS/overview?Uid=07A0ClleC15ZWQpdX1xcXFxdXlBdXVgKUVhcUF0OWV1YXgs

        Plus it doesn’t look like a cross between a Transformer Power Robot and an insect, like a lot of the modern bikes. Dear God! Who designed them and who was stoned out of their heads on acid to sign the design off for production?

        Myself, I’m considering an Enfield Interceptor – a good looking bike and at least you can work on it yourself and do basic stuff …

        • The Z650RS is a nice looking machine, but I would have prefered it to be a four rather than a twin.

          The Enfield is designed to be home serviced because it is aimed at the Indian market where dealers are far and few between in rural parts of the country.

  4. I can remember when the Enfield 350 Bullet was first imported from India. The heading on the article in Superbike magazine was “It ain’t half slow mum”.

    I’m no sure how practical a kickstarter would be on a modern machine. I suspect that the larger engines and higher compression ratios would make them of limited use. My parents actually owned a couple of cars that you could start by hand.

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