BASE MODEL
As the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world in the Fifties, BSA could make the boast that one in four motorcycles sold worldwide originated from its factory. Its range covered pretty much every aspect of motorcycling, from beginners to much more sporting needs. Though the company was pretty down on racing and specialist models required for Grand Prix events – it’d had its fingers burnt decades earlier – where production machines could be promoted BSA was interested.
Its A7 500cc twin, for instance, brought great kudos to the factory by the incredible 1952 ISDT success – three gold medals on standard machines and ridden to the event in Austria too. Nor did eight BSAS finishing in the top 10 at Daytona in 1954 hurt its sales and of course it virtually owned the Clubman TT. Ostensibly these successes were achieved on motorcycles which a private owner could buy – though it is likely members of BSA’S PR department had their fingers crossed behind their backs as this claim was made – but it was in the traditional off-road world of trials and scrambles where its bikes excelled most. In those days the whole point of sporting success was to promote standard models and the factory-supported riders would ride lightly modified roadster machines which perhaps had some of the tinware removed or replaced with lighter stuff: smaller fuel and oil tanks, a bigger diameter front wheel, basic ignition-only electrics so the bike still resembled the roadster but was higher, lighter and, more importantly, hadn’t cost BSA a lot to do.
When the company introduced the C15 Brian Martin did some testing of one in trials form, realised it would be the natural successor to the Goldie trials bike and pretty soon the 250 was winning awards. It was a short step from there to it being catalogued as a trials bike and then a scrambler too.