‘Beezers’ still have plenty in the tank
BSA MOTORCYCLE owners are known as ‘‘old geezers on old beezers’’ and for BSA Motorcycle Owners’ Club president Ashley Blair, riding one of the vintage bikes is literally riding a bit of history.
‘‘Everybody knows about BSA motorbikes but what a lot of people don’t realise is that they were the company that did so much to save the British Empire. BSA – the Birmingham Small Arms Company – arguably saved the British empire twice, once in the First World War and once in the Second World War, because of the guns they manufactured.’’
The first BSA motorcycle came out in 1911, and over the years the company produced a huge variety of models, ranging from a 50cc Winged Wheel clip-on motor for a bicycle to the three-cylinder 750cc Rocket 3 which was last manufactured in 1973.
It was seeing a 1912 photo of his grandfather on a Humber motorcycle which sparked Blair’s interest in old motorcycles and led him to buy his first vintage bike, a 1927 Model L BSA, 12 years ago. ‘‘I bought off Trade Me. ‘‘It is the most stupid thing you could do – sight unseen, an unrestored 1927 motorcycle and it happened to be a BSA.’’
Blair’s oldest bike is a 1914 Humber motorcycle, which he found while looking for parts for the BSA. He rode the bike from Waipori in Central Otago to Nelson last year, doing a trip his grandfather made more than 100 years ago.
‘‘It was over six days, 1000 kilometres, and it never missed a beat. There were three guys on modern bikes with me – one of them had to rebuild his clutch, another one had to get new bolts because his sidecar was coming off, and the guy with the BMW Expedition bike had to push it off the ferry when he got back because it wouldn’t start. The old Humber just kept chugging on.’’
Blair also owns three more recent BSAs, a rare 1936 Empire Star with sidecar, a B33 from 1951 and a B31 from 1952.
‘‘When I stop at a petrol station with my 1952 or 1951 bike people say ‘that is an old bike’, and my usual saying is ‘actually this is my modern bike’. They look at you as if you are a bit strange.’’
Going for a ride is a return to an age when motorcycles were more like bicycles and were started, not by a tap of the electronic ignition, but by a run and a jump.
‘‘My Humber is almost a beefed up bicycle with an engine. The kick start is actually a bicycle pedal. On the trip last year I had a support crew and when I would stop I would either kick start it, or they would push me. Or you do what’s called a running mount, you run along beside it, drop the clutch, or drop the valve lifter, start it, and then jump on – and that’s quite alarming both for the rider and for onlookers.’’
The old motorcycles have led him on many an adventure, including an encounter with the Australian police in 2011 when he took his BSA Model L over for a veteran and vintage rally.
‘‘I got a wee bit lost leaving Mount Gambier in South Australia and I accidentally went through a couple of orange lights, one more accidental than the other, and a police car came cruising very slowly past me. I thought ‘I hope he didn’t see me’ and the next thing the flashing lights go on, and he pulled me over. He said, ‘you know why I pulled you over?’ and I said ‘no’, and he said ‘I’ve got a 1926 BSA just like yours’.’’
Blair says the BSA club is a great source of advice and information to anyone restoring an old bike.
‘‘When I started restoring my 1927 bike, I didn’t know anything about BSAs or getting parts. I got parts for that bike from all over New Zealand, from Australia, from England, from Holland, from Germany – and the front mudguard came from New York.
‘‘There is an international network of guys interested in BSA and they all help you out.’’ For more information go to: bsa.org.nz