A BSA Commander – a BSA what?

I was recently Googling for information on the BSA Clipper – an American market only model I think – when I came across this useful magazine advert from

1957. But it also advertised a BSA model I had never heard of; the Commander 600. So, what was that?

Well, the picture clearly shows that the Commander has a BSA M series side valve engine with an alloy head, and it’s described as “a full sized 37 cubic inch motorcycle” (that’s 600cc) so it’s an M21, not an M20. There’s an Amal Monobloc carb fitted – quite recently introduced then – with a pancake-shaped filter.

What else? The frame has a rigid rear end and looks like it’s M series, with a rear stand of course. The engine would have fitted into a lighter B31/33 frame – but it looks as if there’s maybe a sidecar lug at the top of the front downtube – which makes the frame an M type.

The forks are simply the ones of the period, with the ugly BSA cowl headlamp mounting at the top. But the front brake is the rather good eight-inch one – not one of the seven-inch “joke” pressed steel single-sided ones.

The mudguards are valanced, as on the home market M21s – not skinny, sporty ones as on all other US market models of the period (even our home market cooking model B33 had narrow chromed ‘fenders’ in the US and was sold as the B33 Sport Single). There are a couple of concessions to American tastes though, high ’bars and a small gas tank (sorry, petrol tank!).

So, what was our M21 – surely the ultimate of all cooking models – doing being sold in North America? Perhaps there’s a clue in the wording of the advert. This refers to “the price surprise of the year!” – so were they almost giving them away then? And if so, why?

Well, it’s surely not unknown for makers to cobble together bikes and other products to use up parts bins full of old bits from superceded models? And I’ll even risk the wrath of BSA devotees by suggesting that the BSA Rocket Gold Star was a prime example of a parts-bin-special – even though that produced one of the best-looking and most covertnessinducing bikes that ever turned a wheel! The RGS was, after all, produced after the introduction of the unit-construction A50/A65 successors.

So okay, the Commander may have been an attempt to clear some parts bins back at Armoury Road. But what appeal would it have had for North American buyers? Well, it wasn’t sporty, but perhaps it might have been seen as posy. Harley-Davidson was still selling side valves back in

’57 – and surely they were more for posing on than winning races on.

I can’t see that a bargain price would have been much of an attraction. After all, if you couldn’t find the price of a new bike of the sporty model you wanted, surely you’d buy a used one, not a cooker – even if it was brand new and factory fresh.

Perhaps the Commander could have been made more attractive if the posing theme had been pursued and developed – something like fat tyres, wide mudguards and a colour other than black, like the Sunbeam

S8 – which were sold in the US, I believe. All quite possible, of course, because at the time the BSA company actually owned Sunbeam. But that would not have achieved the objective of emptying parts bins – if that was indeed the intention.

As a BSA owner and fan myself, I’d love to know more about the Commander. How many were sent to America and how many of those were actually sold? At what price were they sold, as compared with other bikes at that time? Are there any still left in existence and can any OBM readers, in the UK, US or anywhere else, say any more about them, from memory or from records?

David Quainton, Weardale