Original is best
The new BSA Gold Star is good. But this unrestored 84-year-old version is in a different league of drool-worthiness
With immaculate timing, just as Bike tests the new BSA Gold Star, the world’s oldest matching-numbers Goldie comes up for sale. This beautiful 1938 500cc single is in Bonham’s Stafford Show auction – 16 October – with an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.
We reckon it’ll go for more than that though. It’s the second Gold Star ever made by BSA, and the oldest surviving one with matching engine and frame numbers. With a known history and the patina of an unrestored 84-year-old bike, it’s bound to attract massive interest.
It belonged to the late George Wander, a retired surgeon and world authority on pre-war Gold Stars (model designation: M24). He bought the bike in 2000, rode it extensively and maintained it rather than undertaking any restoration, so it’s completely original. These first Gold Stars were designed to liven-up BSA’S image. A profitable armaments-to-vehicles company in the late 1930s, BSA
‘The oldest survivor with matching numbers’
produced a wide range of motorcycles from commuter lightweights to big V-twin sidecar pullers. They were sturdy but the company lacked the glamour of Tt-winning rivals such as Norton.
Technicians at the Birmingham factory set out to rectify this by tuning a 500cc M23 Empire Star ohv single. Retired racer Wal Handley lapped Brooklands at 107.27mph, collecting a prestigious British Motor Cycle racing Club (BMCRC) Gold Star, awarded for laps at over 100mph.
In 1938 BSA capitalised on the achievement by launching the M24 Gold Star high-performer against other makes’ 500s, including Triumph’s more radical new Speed Twin. Trumpeted as ‘the world’s finest sports 500’ the M24’s most obvious feature was the aluminium cylinder head and barrel, for light weight and improved air cooling, when the vast majority of production motorcycles had cast-iron components. More weight was saved by using ultra-light Elektron magnesium alloy for the casing of the separate gearbox. The frame was similar to BSA’S existing 500 type, but of light and resilient Reynolds 531 tube. As normal for the time, the rear end was rigid and the front forks were girders.
An estimated 64 pre-war Gold Stars survive. World War Two halted M24 production and BSA began a new Gold Star line in 1949.