The Two-Buck-A-Cc Bsa

The Two-Buck-A-CC BSA

LEANINGS

PETER EGAN

SO, THERE I WAS, MINDING MY OWN business this week with life going pretty well, when the phone rang. It was my old friend, Scott Dell, a Vincent buff who lives in New Jersey. I met Scott at the Mid-Ohio Vintage Festival about 12 years ago when he kindly let me take a ride on his beautiful Series A Vincent Rapide. A rare treat, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.

Anyway, Scott called me this week and said, “Hey, you like BSA Victor 441s, don’t you?”

“Yes...” I said, guardedly. This is kind of like having someone ask if you are interested in a blind date with a really neat woman he just met at the methadone clinic. You’ve got to think. The date part sounds all right...

Which is to say that the 441 Victor has always been, to my eye, one of the most clean and starkly beautiful shapes in British big Single scramblerdom, but friends who have owned them always warn me that they are not exactly paragons of anvil-like reliability. Not for nothing, apparently, were they called “441 Victims” when I was in high school. But back to Scott’s phone call.

“Why do you ask?” I said.

“Well, my friend, Kenny, is cleaning out his garage, and he’s had a Victor sitting there for many years. He was going to sell it to a couple of neighborhood guys who have no idea what it is, but I told him we should find an owner who appreciates its history. And I’m coming out your way in a couple of weeks to drop off a Vincent in Wisconsin. If you’re interested in the BSA, I could drop that off, too.”

“How much does Kenny want for the bike?

“Two bucks a ce. So I guess that would be $882. That’s what he paid for it some years ago when he bought it used from a local dealer.”

“Does it run?

“No, but it turns over. It’s missing its front fender, chainguard and muffler. Otherwise, it looks complete and in pretty good shape. It’s a 1969 squarebarrel model. It has all its original decals, and the frame doesn’t even look like it needs repainting. Might be an easy restoration. Are you interested?”

“Sure,” I said. “Always wanted one, and this is my big chance.”

After I hung up with Scott, I went over to my massive wall-o’-bike-magazines bookshelf on our front porch and started digging out old, well-thumbed issues with Victor road tests and cover photos. I also pulled out my three or four hardcover BSA history books by Roy Bacon and Don Morley for a quick refresher course in 441 Victor lore.

Strangely, the old Cycle World and Cycle magazines in my Sixties repository of great literature didn’t spill a lot of ink on these bikes, given their popularity at the time. The only full road test I could find was in the April, 1966, Cycle World, which ran a very cool cover photo of the 441—a close-up of the engine, distinctive yellow-and-polished-aluminum tank and a rider’s buckle-style motocross boot, with speed lines coming off them.

The road test was reasonably enthusiastic but not effusive. The editors were a little disappointed that the production bike was not a closer replica of the factory GP models on which the great Jeff Smith had won back-to-back world motocross titles in 1964 and 1965. Smith’s bikes, of course, had many special alloy parts, a hand-built frame of Reynolds 531 tubing (later, titanium) and an aluminum barrel with a liner of chrome instead of cast iron. In order to be affordable to the general public, the road-legal “Enduro” model understandably had to be made from less-exotic materials.

Still, the guys here at the magazine liked the bike pretty well—except for the cursed Lucas Energy Transfer ignition system, which required perfect adjustment between contact points opening and crankshaft position for the bike to run at all. They said it was a “beast” to start, and more or less echoed author Roy Bacon’s comment that “If it starts it won’t run, and if it runs it won’t start.”

Even in high school, I was amazed that England could build Merlin V-12s for Spitfires in 1939 but couldn’t come up with a better ignition system for a single-cylinder pushrod engine in 1966. There was no explaining British technical progress.

But, with a 302-pound curb weight and 34 horsepower, the medium-big Single did a fairly respectable quartermile of 15.5 seconds with an 83-mph terminal speed. Its most notable trait, though, was instant throttle response and big torque from almost zero rpm.

And that was my lasting impression of the Victor when I’d ridden one, just once, in the summer of 1968. My girlfriend’s cousin was dating a guy who had one, and we both showed up at her cousin’s house on our motorcycles—me on my Honda Super 90 and him on his 441 Victor. Somehow, my manhood survived this withering contrast, and he let me take the BSA for a short ride. I happily lunged down the street and couldn’t believe the arm-jerking, Big Bang nature of the engine. I told him, “This thing only fired five or six times going all the way around the block.”

So, if I ever get this new project bike running, it’ll be interesting to see if it still exudes that same aura of awesome grunt, or if it just seemed impressive after riding a Honda Super 90 all day.

In any case, the 1969 square-barrel version of the 441 Victor I’m buying is a somewhat improved version of the early round-barrel model we tested in 1966. For one thing, it has battery-and-coil ignition instead of the dreaded ET system, as well as a larger front brake, a good-looking dual seat with the classic BSA bum-stop, and various other small technical improvements. The best-developed of the series, essentially, right at the end of the era. And almost at the end of BSA’s existence.

I don’t have any illusions that this BSA will be a daily rider, a long-distance touring bike or even a rational replacement for a good used trailbike, such as a Suzuki DR350. But the 441 is a blessedly (we hope not deceptively) simple bike that should be fun and rewarding to restore. It’ll also be great to look at in the garage, whatever its state of tune.

To me, it’s one of those special old bikes—like the Bultaco Metralla or Ducati Mach 1—that can easily double as both art project and transportation. And sometimes, you just have to take the leap and invest in Art. Especially at two bucks a ce. □