You might think of BSA as the Austin-Healey of the motorcycle world, a legendary brand that for whatever reason, never properly brought itself into The Sixties, and therefore signed its own death warrant. Much has already been written on this subject by far more detailed researchers than I can count, so I shall just hit the high points of the story as they apply to Tiddlerosis. The engineering of both A-H's sports cars and the motorcycles built by Birmingham Small Arms was a product of an earlier time. The Austin-Healey 3000 was phased out after 1967 due to the more stringent safety and emission requirements placed on cars beginning in the '68 model year. Although the Austin-Healey Sprite would continue into production through 1971, I believe the last ones imported into the U. S. were 1970 models. British Leyland controlled MG and Austin-Healey at the time, and the Healey name would be phased out, although it would make one last appearance as the short-lived Jensen-Healey. The whole story was roughly parallel to that of BSA and Triumph. The two brands would become more and more alike under the same corporate ownership as the model years continued. The only fluke in this story is that, although BSA had originally bought Triumph, the BSA brand was never as popular in the U. S. as Triumph.
This story could be told from several different viewpoints, but I have chosen the last hurrah of the BSA tiddlers in the U. S. as the focal point for this Tiddlerosis version. The official, original BSA tiddler was the 175cc two-stroke Bantam, built from 1958 to 1969, and based on the even earlier 125cc and 150cc, low-production models. The Bantam was sold alongside the heavier, more expensive 250cc and 350cc four-stroke singles during the same general time period. The claim to fame of the final Victor and Shooting Star models is that these were exceptionally big sellers for BSA in the U. S. The 441cc Victor was marketed as BSA's final enduro model in the trail-crazed USA market. The BSA brand would not survive to be included in the final Triumph attack on the American tiddler market with its Trail Blazer in 1972. The smaller 250cc Starfire was somewhat less successful, although it looked almost exactly like the Shooting Star, and it, too, would disappear after 1970. Americans seemed to generally favor the Triumph styling cues of the Trophy 250, as they did with most of the larger models competing with BSA equivalents.
There are two more sides to this story and they are both true, although they may seem to be diametrically opposed. I clearly remember drooling over a 441 Victor, alongside a Yamaha Big Bear, in the Columbus, MS, K-mart; not in the parking lot, on a pedestal in the showroom. I was in awe of its clean styling, compact design, and relative light weight. The Big Bear looked positively bulky in comparison. I loved the idea of that big, thirty-horsepower engine in such a small chassis, unhampered by something as sissified as an electric starter. But we all know there is a downside to all this fawning over styling, don't we? A long-stroke, 441cc single would shake a python's grip loose from a rat. It took the powerful kick of a kangaroo to start that beast, too, and that was when it was in a good mood! I'll take that Big Bear instead, thank you, and so did everybody else. Go back to making guns, you limey bloke, and don't let the stiff kickstarter hit you on the way out!
The Shooting Star pictured here is the best photo I could find of the catankerous, but lovely, beast. When you click the link below to the Wiki page, you will find the same beautiful photo and the same homage to its lovely styling and U. S. sales success. When you click the link to the 441 Victor page, you will get what I think is a very accurate, but entertaining, version of the opposite viewpoint from one who has actually owned, and kickstarted, one of these things. In the back of our adolescent minds, we all knew it was true, even back then. The Big Bear actually did not have an electric starter, but with its two-stroke twin and Japanese (read modern and effective) electrics, it didn't need one.
See Also: The Shooting Star Wikipedia Page
The EMU BSA Photo Galleries
The Real Story from a Real Owner
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