GeneThiessentribute
One of the men who was key to establishing BSA in the United States, he achieved much success in the early to mid-1950s.
One of the few surviving BSA ‘wrecking crew’ that achieved BSA’s historic win at Daytona in 1954 has left us – Gene Thiessen died on
July 12, 2021, aged 93.
Gene may not be well known to many vintage motorcycle enthusiasts, but he played a critical role in establishing BSA in the USA in the late 1940s and early 50s, when US sales were so important to their economic survival post-Second World War and establishing the Gold Star in the US.
He on the West Coast, along with Tommy McDermott on the East Coast, were the riders first adopted and sponsored once BSA had appointed US distributors. It was Thiessen’s and McDermott’s early racing successes that promoted BSA as a brand in a market where BSA was not well known, but that became BSA’s biggest market by the mid 1950s. It is not inaccurate to say that without Gene – and the riders like Al Gunter and Dick Mann who were initially put under Gene’s wing by West Coast Distributor Hap Alzina – BSA may not have survived through the 1950s.
Gene Thiessen’s racing career lasted from 1948 to 1958 and was only ever on a BSA. Because Gene lived in Oregon, his location and the enormous trips required to attend the major races on the West and East Coast and his trips to Daytona (going from the top left to bottom right of the continent) had to be undertaken as his work vacation.
His first time at Daytona was in 1948 as an amateur, placing 33rd out of 119 with a punctured lung and broken ribs received from a crash earlier in the race. Subsequent Daytona outings resulted in six top 20 placings.
In 1954, when BSA won the first five places, Gene came 17th on a bike with a damaged frame that wouldn’t stay in a straight line. However, Cycle World magazine recognised the magnitude of Gene’s struggle when they reckoned his was the best ride of the race.
“It couldn’t be kept in a straight line … but he rode it the full distance like a man riding a rattlesnake!” they reported and nominated him for a medal.
If you had to choose one result that established the BSA Gold Star in US dirttrack racing I would nominate Gene’s win at the Portland National in 1954. While Daytona had shown the Gold Star had long-distance reliability, most US races were on relatively short dirt tracks where torque and acceleration were the qualities needed, both of which the Indian and Harley V-twins had in spades, but after the Portland National, you start to see US racers riding Gold Stars. For years, the UK National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham had a picture of Gene Thiessen on his national championship Gold Star in the entrance.
BSA held Thiessen in high esteem and offered him a position in the UK as one of BSA’s factory riders, to race alongside people like Bill Nicholson, Jeff Draper and Fred Rist, but with a full-time job and family, Gene declined and stayed in the US.
One particular event that Alzina promoted heavily was a speed record attempt at Bonneville in September 1951, where a new Class A record of 143.54mph on a 650cc Golden Flash and a new Class C record of 123.69mph on a 500cc Star Twin were achieved, wearing only tights, tennis shoes and an aviator’s helmet. In the US,
BSA were promoted as speed machines.
Gene hung-up his racing leathers after the San Jose mile in 1958. He’d finished ninth in the National tables that year and with the constant travelling of thousands of miles to attend events, plus he was getting older, he was simply tired of managing all the travelling with a full-time job (he was a cabinet maker by trade) and family, and so quit.
I came to know Gene through my work first researching, then restoring, a couple of 1954 BSA Daytona bikes. Initially corresponding by letter and telephone calls, I had the great pleasure to meet Gene in 2004 when the completed bikes were displayed at Daytona with as many of the original riders in attendance for a 50th anniversary party. Fifty years after the event, some riders’ memories were not so clear on the kind of details a restorer wants to know about, but Gene’s was pin sharp – I still have all the notes I took from our chats and they’re still a source of information about BSA in the US that I refer to. He was quietly a great rider, a great part of BSA’s history – and a lovely man.