A little history
Before all that, Dave sold the Bandit to a friend, Steve Neel, who rode the bike for the summer months. Steve moved to Gloucestershire and stored the Bandit, pretty much forgetting it as the years went by. However one of Steve’s friends, Henry Balfour, certainly remembered it. Henry recalls that ‘the Bandit was the largest capacity motorcycle in our provincial teenage world and delivered fantastic performance and fundamentally beautiful lines.’ Henry was then riding a BSA C15 – ‘not brilliant, but it was a pound dog I learned to love’ before graduating to ‘a BSA B50T from Elite Motors in Tooting – part of a cancelled export order at the time BSA went under the breaking waves of better Japanese bikes.’
Henry moved across the world to Australia, developing a fondness for the /6 range of BMWs but, not forgetting his Small Heath roots, also acquiring a 1969 BSA Firebird from Baxter Cycle in Idaho. The engine from the Firebird was sent to SRM for blueprinting and, during this work, the Bandit was discussed with John Jolley at SRM. This prompted Henry to contact Steve about the 1970s special ‘and put my thoughts to him. Better by far that the Bandit was raised from the dead than it rust
away in a damp barn. After a few years of this pressure, Steve agreed to sell.’
Twenty-odd years in a Cotswold barn had had its inevitable impact on the Bandit and Henry recorded its condition at the time: ‘I photographed the barn scenes. Literally scraped off the pigeon poo.’ Clearly some major restoration was required, as Henry explains.
‘ The Bandit went up to SRM,’ who had acquired Devimead in the mid-1980s, ‘and the motor was stripped, blueprinted and a Mikuni carb was specified. I’ve done enough time with Amals to know something better when I see it. SRM then shipped the bike to Sydney where I broke down the cycle parts and began to re-manufacture them. I was still in touch with Dave Akhurst, and I compiled his oral memories of the bike into a provenance file. The majority of the custom parts manufactured by Dave were used again but I chose a few modifications to suit my vision of the Bandit.
‘I do, now, regret that I over-finished a lot of the components with chrome in the wrong places. So much of the chassis had polished aluminium billet and the Akront rims were also raw – I wanted to make the bright parts easier to maintain! In retrospect too much chrome won’t help if you can’t ride.
‘I’ll mention one modification that I feel every conical hub owner should consider. I replaced the BSA brake arms on the 2LS front brake with extended ones that gave higher leverage on the brake shoes. It’s such a simple mod, and transforms the sometimes-weak conical hub brake system used on BSA / Triumphs at that time. The front brakes work extremely well with this simple change applied.
‘ The rubber-mounted cowhorn handlebars that John Nutting mentioned were replaced by solid-mounted Renthal bars of shorter span. The small BSA headlamp – and therefore the billet ears made by Dave – were replaced by a superb 7” Bosch H4 unit out of my BMW parts bins and I used the BMW mounting ears on their rubber grommets. In addition, my parts bins provided a set of BMW /5 control levers and switches, replacing the very basic original BSA hardware. These /5 perches, levers and switchgear not only worked extremely well, they gave the Bandit a more vintage style.
‘ The use of non-BSA parts here meant I needed a set of custom Bowden control cables made up. I used the loom off a BMW /6 to rewire the bike. I restored the petrol tank; it’s a 1971 export Rocket Three tank, and I had the tank badges gold plated (as in real gold) before re-applying the paint colours using Humbrol and a tiny brush.
‘The instruments were serviced and calibrated by Dennis Quinlan, a legendary Velocette man now retired, who has done all my instrument work. Smiths clocks were a bit sloppy by the late 60s, but Dennis knew the tricks to improve them. Dave had used an original A65 sidestand on his first iteration; this made the bike lean over at an impossible angle for kickstarting. I ground off the BSA lug, and welded on a shorter and more “engineered” sidestand from an Aprilia; a significant improvement to the street manners. I also had to bin the original two-into-one exhaust system, as it had not weathered the several decades of storage at all well. A stainless header and megaphone combo was bent up and welded for me in Sydney.
‘Still a work in progress, the Bandit was moved, along with all my other manusha over to Nelson in New Zealand, in 2005. The BSA project stalled while I renovated the family home, and then again when an orphaned Ducati 450 took priority. Finally, the Bandit was benched and finished. It now had modern electrics, good ergonomics and a set of fresh tyres: boy, tyre technology has dramatically improved since the 1970s! I was able to finish this project with the help of an experienced local mechanic, Murray Schwass, who needs to be commended for finding and correcting the off-line chain run to the rear sprocket and a few other niggles. Murray fitted a spin-off oil filter and also fabricated an improved oil tank that makes changing oil so much easier.
‘All in all, I took far too long, and spent far too much, but really did enjoy the Bandit. We were connected over many years by many friendships, and getting the work done to the point where Roger Josling could purchase and ride this amazing and beautiful custom BSA was a pleasure. Dave Akhurst’s original conception and design deserved all that’.
So, back in Blighty and here and now, how does current owner Roger get on with the Bandit?
‘When I first got it I couldn’t start it because I didn’t know which way the choke went – up or down. It will not start without that choke. I had to email Henry a couple of times’.
Starting does involve a certain amount of rider input, as Roger explains. ‘Raise the seat and switch the fuel on; no tickler. Fumble around to find the choke lever and press it down. As there’s no centrestand you have to shut the seat, straddle the bike with it on the sidestand, no throttle, and kick it. Normally, if it’s been used regularly, it will start first time. Let it warm up. On the choke it’s quite coughy and spluttery so you have to rev it a bit. Lift the seat and fumble around again for the lever – obviously with no gloves – pull the lever up, hope it doesn’t stall and then sit there until it warms up’.
Is all this effort worth it? What’s the 750 Bandit like to ride?
‘Great! It could be on rails–the handling is superb. I’m not very brave and I’m not someone who will want to go out and ground the footpegs but you feel you could – easily. Really, really good. It’s ever so torquey; sometimes you just stick it in second gear and off it goes’.
Roger has not needed to do anything mechanical to the Bandit during his time of ownership other than the basics, reflecting the excellent work done by his predecessor.
‘It starts, it goes,’ says Roger. ‘I’ve changed the oil which is a bit of a pain – the oil is supposed to drain out when the filter is removed but it doesn’t. You need a pump in the oil tank to suck it out’.
Apart from that it’s just been a case of having the chaincase off to check the chain tension and the clutch for adjustment. Roger is clearly very happy with his Bandit right now, but would he ever think of selling it?
‘I would sell it but not today. I’ll get this summer out of it, use it – we’re not getting any younger and if I find it too hard to get it in and out of the yard and kickstart it then I’d probably go for something a bit lighter.’ Another Britbike? ‘No – I’d have the Italians!’ The Bandit has certainly been on a trip during its five decades – Stony Stratford, Kent, Gloucestershire, Australia, New Zealand and then back to Britain. The special that Dave Akhurst and Jerry Poole built to such exacting standards back in the 1970s is a remarkable feat for two young men and they deserve to be applauded for making a successful motorcycle from BSA-Triumph’s rather less successful venture. A huge tribute is also owed to Henry Balfour who spent so much time, energy and money to ensure that the Bandit made it into the 21st century in such fine fettle.
I have no doubt that the Bandit will continue to be treasured in the expert hands of Roger, who will make sure it is ridden and enjoyed. Perhaps, in 20 or 30 years from now, another article will be appear about this remarkable machine, bringing its history up to date once again…