BSA FIREBIRD
This BSA Firebird Scrambler was raised from the dead, but now it’s good enough to spark a burning desire in any Brit bike fan – and it’s big fun to ride, too
A US Scrambler model, built up from a bare frame and engine
Whether you regard BSA’S Firebird Scrambler as a thing of beauty, or is it just another road bike dressed up as a desert racer, there’s no doubt in my mind – Jon Jolley’s 1968 A65FS is a stunning looking motorcycle. But when the Firebird was launched, not many folk shared this opinion strongly enough to put their hands in their pockets and buy one. Maybe some weren’t convinced that a 400lb, 650cc twin made the ideal recreational off-roader.
In fairness, though, the reasons behind a lack of sales success for the Firebird Scrambler were certainly not all to do with style – or performance in the dirt. Maybe the real stumbling block was the price – well in excess of what the Japanese manufacturers were asking for their the new wave of middleweight street scramblers. The Firebird struggled to fly out of BSA showrooms as the young riders targeted by BSA’S advertising campaign for the bike opted to save some of their cash for all that other stuff young men craved in 1968.
Over the next few years, development of the Firebird Scrambler was swift... but also brief. For 1969, the Firebird got a high-level siamesed exhaust system with a wire ‘barbecue grill’ heat shield on the left-hand side and a new steel fuel tank (the 1968 tank is glassfibre). Late the following year, the new oil-bearing frame was adopted, as were new forks, and new conical hub brakes appeared along with carbs down from 32mm to 30mm. Another big advertising campaign pushed the largely unchanged Firebird Scrambler for 1971, but that proved to be the final year of production for the street scrambler version of the A65. And by 1973 the factory’s production lines had fallen silent for the last time. It was the end for the Firebird – and for BSA. I’m not sure if any of that makes a jot of difference to the average classic bike fan these days, though. We like what we like – and, while that’s usually something we
‘IT WAS JUST A FRAME AND ENGINE – IT SAT IN A CONTAINER BEHIND OUR UNIT FOR YEARS’
lusted after back in the day, it isn’t always for sound and logical reasons. It certainly seems that BSA’S big street scramblers are more popular today than they ever were in 1968. Jon thinks so, too. “A lot of people seem to love the street scrambler look – and I think the Firebird is right up there with the best,” he says. “This bike came as part of a container load of spares and bikes we imported from America in 1997. We bought the job lot, because there were a lot of A65 engines in with it. They were what we really wanted. To fill the container, we packed a few incomplete bikes into it – and this Firebird Scrambler was one of them. It was really just a frame and engine – it sat in a container behind our unit for years. When I finished building my Spitfire, I thought I might fancy taking on the Firebird and I started on the restoration in 2004.”
Jon has rebuilt the engine, but he managed to resist the temptation to go over the top with tuning. “I wanted to keep it nice and responsive in the bottom and midrange,” he says. “I’ve used a crank from a 1971/72 engine, which has a lighter flywheel. That helps give it a lovely revvy feel. Naturally, I’ve fitted the SRM ball/roller main bearing conversion and new billet rods, and an SRM 750cc big-bore kit boosts torque. For the same reason, I haven’t gas flowed the head and, though I’ve replaced the stock Amal carburettors with Mikunis, I’ve kept to the 30mm choke size to maintain the bottomend urge. I’ve fitted an SRM high-delivery oil pump to improve lubrication, though – and an SRM sump plate with a drain bolt.”
With the bike being in an incomplete state when he started the project, some of the hardest parts to source proved to be some of the cycle parts – and a handful of components unique to the Firebird Scrambler. “The most difficult thing to track down was the black main/dip push button in the headlamp shell,” Jon reveals. “I think it’s only used on the Firebird and maybe the 1967/8 B44. I found one in America in the end, but I had to pay £50 for it. Still, it was in its original box. The headlamp mounting ‘ears’ are another rare part. They’re curved inwards to meet the small headlight used on the Firebird. And the correct forks were hard to find, too. They’re unique to the 1968 A65 range and I had to collect all the parts to build a set up – it took a fair bit of time and effort to get it all together. They have quite a complicated damper rod arrangement.”
In contrast, some of the other missing parts were surprisingly easy to locate, including the pattern seat which was used across other A65 models – and although the twin high-level exhaust with its solid, oval heat shields was only used on the handful of 1968 Firebird models manufactured, Burton Bike bits came up with a replica system off the shelf. The clocks are Smiths electronic and the tyres are Avon Distanzias – adventure bike-type tyres that are no longer in production, so Jon reckons he might struggle to find a suitable replacement for the 19in front.
“The tank is an alloy replica fabricated just up the road by TAB II Classics,” adds Jon. “I have got the glassfibre original, but I daren’t use it because of the ethanol in modern fuel. I also have the original sump guard, but I need to modify to fit with the SRM sump plate – it fouls the drain bolt at the moment.”
Jon’s Firebird is undeniably a handsome machine, with its two-tone red and white paintwork, acres of polished alloy engine cases and that gleaming, chrome high-level exhaust. But, like all Jon’s bikes, it gets used. And today
is going to be my turn to get it dirty.
I’ve been admiring the Firebird since we arrived at SRM’S workshop. While I’m not sure I’d like to tackle any serious off-roading on the big BSA, its looks alone are enough to sell it to me. And, swinging a leg over the broad, deeply padded seat, the riding position feels as comfortable as a favourite armchair. The handlebars may have been styled to catch the eye of the American buyer – and fuel dreams of cow trailing or desert-bashing in the wide open spaces – but they combine with the stock footrests to provide a near-perfect riding position for the narrow, twisty lanes that criss-cross SRM’S back yard. Despite the rain-slick road surface, the Firebird has that confidence-inspiring balance and poise that makes the conditions irrelevant. This is a bike I know I’m going to enjoy.
And so it proves. The engine – or rather the exhaust note – brings out the kid in me. Zipping along tight, twisty back lanes gives me all the excuse I need to blip the throttle as I change down before opening up again to revel in the delicious rasp from the twin pipes. Childish? Maybe. Fun? Definitely.
The big-bore engine isn’t just about sound, though. The way it delivers its 50-plus bhp brings a smile to my face, too. In deference to the Firebird’s quasi-off-road persona, its overall gearing is lower than a street A65’s. Period road tests reckoned top speed to be around 105mph, but that’s an almost meaningless statistic on a bike like this. This isn’t the sort of machine for a ton-plus blast – there are plenty of better bikes for that. The Firebird rips up to 70mph in a surprisingly sharp fashion – and does it magnificently. The engine is incredibly responsive from right off the bottom. It’s the perfect tool to fling round a tight bend and squirt out with the throttle pinned, before hitting the brakes, banging it down a cog and diving into the next corner. Throttle... change... brake... change... repeat. And, if you tire of that, short-shift and let the extra torque of the 750cc big-bore kit do the work of maintaining momentum. The choice is yours.
The rest of the bike is exactly what you’d expect from a well-sorted A65 (I certainly expected it, because all Jon’s bikes are well-sorted, by the way). The twin-leading-shoe front brake is the excellent eight-inch BSA unit, while the rear stopper proves quietly competent and the precise handling of the twin downtube, fullcradle frame is the perfect foil for that wonderful engine. For a bike ostensibly designed back in the late ’60s for the fire roads and cow trails of the American wilderness, the Firebird does an excellent job of ironing out the twists and turns of rural Wales more than 50 years later.
If all this sounds like the Firebird is the consummate motorcycle, it isn’t. What bike really is? It would almost certainly be a finger-numbing nightmare on a long motorway run. It can’t muster the sort of outand-out speed to help it keep up with its Spitfire stablemate on fast, sweeping roads. And it really wouldn’t be much fun on anything but the gentlest of off-road conditions. But what it does do, is put the pure fun back into motorcycling. It’s the sort of bike you just want to jump on and ride – just for the smile it brings to your face. Pick the right roads and I defy anyone not to come back from a ride on a Firebird as nice as Jon’s with their love of bikes refreshed. And it just looks so cool, too. I’ll settle for that.
‘THE FIREBIRD RIPS UP TO 70MPH IN A SURPRISINGLY SHARP FASHION’