I ride around on a much modified BSA A10. SRM rebuild, including their well regarded upgraded crank bearings. Boyer ignition. Lead-free valve replacements. Hayward belt primary drive conversion. Lightened valvegear. And much more. Most of this was done by the previous owner who had a pile of bills that totted up to almost two grand.
It wasn't the bills that impressed me but the way the motor started up first kick, was almost miraculously smooth for a big twin, didn't leak oil and roared along in a thoroughly invigorating way. One ride was all it took for its charm to get deep within my psyche - quite an achievement given that I'm a Commando fan!
The appearance's a bit shabby but that's all part of the fun. I like the idea of riding around on a street sleeper. It ruins the confidence of cagers to find that some 35 year old motorcycle can burn them off in no uncertain terms. It's also fun to shock Jap riders by revving the venerable twin until the smoothness does a runner and the valves come close to bouncing on the pistons - I know when to back off by the way the footpegs shake so fiercely that my feet start to fall off.
Wound on through the gears, the A10 tops out at around 110mph - maybe more but my vision was going so blurred that I could barely see the road ahead. 90mph cruising, though, isn't impossible in top, although the bike is running a bigger gearbox sprocket than stock (up one tooth), to give taller gearing. At that kind of speed there's a bit of thrumming from all points of contact with the machine, but nothing someone brought up on British bikes would object to. Those still in awe of British twins probably wouldn't do more than 80mph, when the much modded twin was as smooth as most Japanese 500 twins!
Despite its somewhat neglected appearance - I spend more time riding than polishing it - the suspension is much modded. Taut, well damped Hagon shocks out back and a set of equally excellent Cerrani forks out front (with gaiters to stop the susceptible seals going down) combine to give the 400lb machine a nicely together feel that whilst on the heavy side compared to modern bikes doesn't have an ounce of evil within its tubular trellis (late model A10 frames are good stuff, not to be confused with earlier plunger efforts).
The result was well matched to the power. Happy to plod along but also capable of being taken to the edge and thrashed within an inch of its life. Those big wheels and thin Avons reacted to hazardous or extreme conditions without any of frenzied violence of modern bikes and I kept finding myself pushing the plot further and further over the edge.
Ultimately, the undercarriage digs in and the BSA grinds itself off the road. It only takes one such fall from grace to re-educate the rider into respect for the machine's age. Fortunately, the denouement merely scratched the BSA and bent the bars, and I rolled with the fall, just ended up tearing my jeans and adding some more street credibility to my leather jacket. I was very lucky, actually, as it was an early morning blitz and I wasn't wearing a crash helmet - silly, but you have to get into the mood with these old machines, and they come from an era when shades and hair in the wind were normal.
One reason that I was thrashing the BSA beyond sane limits was that I'd sold all my Japanese bikes and was still yearning for the near black-outs experienced on a tuned Yamaha Vee-Max. Nevertheless, bear in mind that the A10 was old in design if rebuilt to more modern standards, and it says something about its basic concept that it can be so heavily abused.
There are still thousands of A10's, and its 500cc brother (the A7), on the road. Engine parts are readily available, a lot cheaper than the Jap stuff. The only motors you'll find that are totally stock are in concour bikes, which rarely turn a wheel. Most owners improve them as they go along, use better parts when something breaks, though it's generally a tough engine, the weakest part the stock main bearings.
The level of abuse that my mill has to take is the exception rather than the rule. Not that bikes aren't hard ridden - I know many BSA owners who slog on through the winter, the odd one even attaching the mighty mule to a sidecar - such is the torque that the engine puts out that it can still slog away reasonably rapidly.
It does need a TLS drum conversion if it's going to stop all that mass, or if you want to ride fast. The stock SLS front brake, even with upgraded shoes and linings, defines the experience of fading very quickly. Fortunately, the forks came with a double sided drum, which had two sets of TLS's acting on the hub - more power than many of the older discs, no wet weather lag and no fade, with a good amount of feedback.
Those addicted to mild riding and maximum economy on British twins, would probably be better off on the A7. The relative lack of cubes adds up to a large degree of somnolence, but it's smooth and economical, can still crawl along at 80mph. Economy can be very variable. My A10 does 60mpg despite being thrashed, but I know of others that don't better 50mpg even when ridden mildly - I haven't had the head off but suspect mine has been gas flowed with unusual precision. It's relatively easy to get 70mpg out of the A7. These figures aren't exceptional compared to modern cages, but given the bikes' age and the pathetic economy of even small Jap bikes, it ain't bad going.
Look for a 12V conversion (even bikes with dynamo's can be upgraded), the 6V stuff just isn't up to modern road speeds and conditions. Anything with Lucas on it should be chucked before it has a chance to break down and strand you in the middle of nowhere. Jap switches are a good idea, but the purists insist on later A65 stuff, which is tolerable.
There's a huge disparity between the condition of bikes on offer in the used market. Dealer prices are stupid, so it's a good idea to ignore them! There's still the odd rat roaring around for under a grand, which is better than buying a pile of boxes as the basis for a rebuild. Stuff with good engines and adequate chassis start at around two grand, going up to three thousand notes for the really nice ones. Given their low running costs, the ability to keep them on the road for decades (due to the ease of rebuilds and availability of spares), and the general fun involved in riding them, this seems like a reasonable deal. Those on a strict budget can buy a good A7 for around the £1500 mark.
Having bopped around on the A10 for about a year, I had the chance of buying an A65. No ordinary BSA this one, a fire breathing, rip snorting, monster Spitfire motor with nearly 60 horses on hand. A 1967 model but with earlier Rocket Gold Star cycle parts, siamese exhaust and Triumph T140V front end. This bitza nature meant I was able to buy the bike for only £1750.
Again, the motor had an SRM crankshaft upgrade, but the rest of the mill was pretty much as BSA had intended. It was a weird old thing, mind. Grumbling through town with a bellowing exhaust and spluttering motor I was only thankful that it hadn't gone all the way with rear-sets and clip-ons. At junctions it needed the throttle twirled to 3000 revs to stop the engine conking out. With its high compression pistons it was a pig to start, hot or cold.
The amount of effort needed on the kickstart soon had me bathed in sweat and swearing my head off, despite having trained on a tuned Commando. Reluctant starting is normal on the Spitfire so if you buy one you'd better be fit.
The whole nature of the engine was fixated on the rush of power at 5000 revs. This absolutely defined everything that was good about British motorcycles, with a thrilling kick that snapped my head backwards...and everything bad. See, the Spitfire was so highly tuned compared to the stock A65's 40 horses, that nasty vibration was ever present. The more the throttle was used the angrier it became and I never really found a smooth spot, just a frenzied, eyeball popping buzzing.
One high speed ride I ended up with the cylinder studs coming loose, the cylinder jumping up and down. I couldn't believe it, though I shouldn't have been that surprised. Easy enough to tighten them down but there was no way the Spitfire could match the relentless nature of my A10 over long distances.
I didn't keep the A65 long. Fitted a BSA front end and sold the bike off before it blew up on me, got £2600 for it. If I'd hunted around for proper Spitfire cycle parts I could have got £3500, so oddly is the market skewed by Sunday morning only riders and collectors.
A brief blast on a stock A65 Royal Star followed. Nothing really wrong with it but its handling was heavy going and its performance a touch constipated. These bikes aren't so popular, something in really nice nick turning up for around two grand, an awful lot of machinery for the money but a bit too staid for my taste. Nothing really wrong with it, just not inspiring in the same way that the A10 manages. Unfortunately, the A65 ain't an engine that takes well to even mild tuning exercises, goes too vibratory and fragile. The A50, 500cc version's cheaper, less vibratory; tougher but ever so boring.
Also experienced was a 1972 A65, housed in the infamous oil-bearing frame, with its extravagant seat height and the possibility of the saddle tube cracking up! Not well received by BSA fans who had experienced better handling than rival Triumph twins in the sixties, which now shared a similar frame - why wasn't the Bonnie engine force-fitted into the better BSA trellis? Who knows, figure that by then the people running the British motorcycle industry had gone thoroughly mad!
Late A65's lacked the integral styling of earlier versions, didn't embrace the rider with an immediate feeling of oneness, but burped up the road without any real nastiness. I thought the vibes were heavier than on the old engines - but time and rebuilds take them so far from stock that it's impossible to take a definitive stance.
The thing to bear in mind about the last models is that they were made in the dying days of the BSA empire. Some emerged from the factory in reasonable shape, others were Friday afternoon jobs that didn't make it out of the guarantee without major trauma. A lot have been fixed but there are still some out there that manage to run but are a waste of time for serious riding. Easy enough to spot on the back of excessive oil leaks, rattles and vibration. No need to pay more than a grand for the rough stuff, £1500 can secure a reasonable example, although the really immaculate ones fetch twice that, and more.
It's all horses for courses. The A10 has the biggest fan club, but lots of people swear by A65's rather than at them. The 500's also have their adherents. There's some good in all of them, properly rebuilt and upgraded examples having a lot to offer.
Johnny Malone