Table of contents

• On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica Best of
• The BSA twin followed
• The chassis is really great

Fred Siemer

8th pictures

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BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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Characteristic: The Siamese manifold leads from the light metal cylinder head to the individual silencer

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Only one carburetor, okay, but the A10 makes up for that with its well-designed combustion chamber

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Man sized: A lot of force creates a lot of effect. The heavy drum hardly knows fading

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For many years Brit Bikes required a lot of fiddling with removing the rear wheel. Not so with the BSA, whose thru-axle system even maintains the chain tension

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The quick tank fastener with the clever vent is RGS cult, and actually also individual instrument holders. But the owner disliked them

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What BSA did, the fans could too – build a Rocket Gold Star off the shelf

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On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica
Best of

Content of

At the beginning of the 1960s, BSA combined the much-praised chassis of the Gold Star with the 650 twin-cylinder A10 Super Rocket, which was underestimated by many. Hit: One of the greatest sports motorcycles of its time was born. And one of the most recreated.

Fred Siemer

December 8, 2016

It is not only at German regulars that the opinion prevails that England’s motorcycle industry fell into a permanent slumber clouded by satiety at the end of the 50s. What is true. And also not, because while they were indeed arrogantly ridiculing the efforts of the Japanese manufacturers, BSA, Norton and Triumph fought a very attentive competition with one another. The big three followed – and Honda later took advantage of this – common and unchangeable principles. One of them was that a sports motorcycle for the road had one or a maximum of two cylinders. Had early BSA and Triumph complements their 500 cc ohv twins with 650 cc. Norton stayed at 600 cc for a long time, only to shoot the bird down in 1960 with the almost 50 hp 650SS.

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The BSA twin followed

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Pictures: On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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Against this visually sharp burner as well as the world record-fluffed Triumph Bonneville, a BSA Super Rocket looked slightly sedate and lagged behind with its 40 hp. We should apologize that the two-cylinder cylinders from Birmingham had up to then fulfilled tasks that we would call touring today. So you were sovereign in the best sense of the word, but for greedy country road knocking or the popular club races, the customer should, please, go for the Gold Star. The fact that it was recently in Classic (issue 10/2015) had a very powerful single-cylinder for its time, which could already compete with the in-house twin as standard. When it was sharpened, the 500 even ran away in its lighter chassis, but then came up with the manners of a real athlete: A high compression required getting used to starting behavior, under 3500 tours never happened.
One of the most intimate connoisseurs of the Gold Star scene was dealer Eddie Dow, whose own sports career – Eddie had won the 500 Clubman race at the TT in 1955 – soon resulted in a big business around the BSA single. From Banbury, Oxfordshire, he supplied special parts to racers, crossers and trialers all over the world, and what his customers said suggested a real longing for an even stronger but friendlier sports motorcycle. So he did the same for the fans of the Cafe Racer and created a bastard in 1960: In the sufficiently wide frame of the Gold Star, modified mounting plates simply took a performance-enhanced motor from the Super Rocket. The rest of the festival was also provided by the fixed single, i.e. the suspension elements, the wonderful tank, the front brake, tightly held mudguards, the sporty seat and the driver pegs that were moved back.

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Only one carburetor, okay, but the A10 makes up for that with its well-designed combustion chamber

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Pictures: On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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Eddie Dow had good contacts in the BSA management and reported there on the enthusiastic response – in a short time, around 20 Gold Star Twins should have emerged. Actually, the company directors didn’t have time for extra sausages, because they were working feverishly on the block engines that had already been announced. On the other hand, this eye-catcher that can be realized from the shelf would make the waiting time more bearable and snatch away some customers from Norton and Triumph. So fresh to work. Slightly modified A10 frames were chosen for the supporting structure, but otherwise Dow’s concept was implemented well and production started in February 1962. As with the single-cylinder Gold Star, the customer had tons of options. If you wanted to race in the street, you not only got a suitable gearbox and a really sharp front brake, but also a more airy damper for the optional and lighter two-in-one exhaust system. Scrambler fans in the USA enjoyed the raised exhaust system of the Spitfire and a “short” gearbox.
Nobody had developed the sporting ability of the British co-star better than these guys with their tuned Spitfires. They beat them in long rallies through the desert and scored many successes. Unlike the Bonneville 650s, the BSA A10 twins only had one common intake port, which then forked in the light alloy cylinder head. So you couldn’t ventilate it with two carburetors. But a fat Amal monobloc also brought good throughput, the Spitfire camshaft did the rest, the overall package was sufficient for around 50 hp with the pipe open – and went completely into the Rocket Gold Star. In addition, the compression increased slightly to 9.1: 1 compared to the Super Rocket, and so in the end 46 hp jumped out for the RGS series.

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Pictures: On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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Wow, that’s all a Bonnie had! And the BSA looked at least as good. By the end of 1963, a total of 1584 units (including 272 Scramblers) were built, with frame number GA10 101 and upwards and Rocket engines DA10R 6959 upwards, but guaranteed not to have sold 50 when the first A10s were redesigned regardless of stupid numbers. The material was available from the BSA dealer; if you couldn’t pay for it all at once, you would first convert it technically and then optically. Somehow this is how Albert Teeken’s Golden Flash came to be a golden star. He doesn’t know, took it over from an officer in the British Army around 20 years ago. Visually, he likes his instrument console better than the “real” individual shots that were mounted previously. Technically only the really big Amal is missing. He doesn’t care if he just wants to explore mountains and valleys in style.
Today Albert lets find out, we’re allowed to drive: After a conflict-free starting procedure, the engine takes on the gas immediately, the multi-plate clutch disengages cleanly, and first gear engages reliably. Why, 50 years ago, was everyone able to build fairly silent transmissions, except BMW? Well, a few more. Nevertheless, the comparison with a boxer is constantly on the move, because the white-blue high-flyer R 69 S, with its 42 hp, was the measure of all things in this country. In fact, the BSA does not necessarily seem more fixed, even if, as a long-stroke synchronous rotor, it accelerates more powerfully from very low speeds. A Bonnie can do that a little better. On the other hand, this Langhuber increases very steadily and never loses his strong will. It doesn’t turn up in a flash, but it does so with emphasis, and that is almost demanding. You can also roll around in the fourth and last, but it’s just not that much fun.

The chassis is really great

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What BSA did, the fans could too – build a Rocket Gold Star off the shelf

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Pictures: On the move with BSA Rocket Gold Star replica

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Over 50 years ago, such an A10 was a damn fast bumblebee, even when testing an early Super
Rocket asked the enthusiastic Ernst “Klacks” Leverkus who actually needed 40 hp. Just as today’s testers point to sovereignty with a four times more powerful device, the old man also concluded in MOTORRAD 19/1957: “The reassurance of still having a reserve available where others have long since whistled at the last hole, creates in traffic a tremendous superiority. ”Well, time has melted this bonus a little, but this wonderfully rumbling, angry trumpeting engine from 4500 rpm still conveys a sense of calm. With changing speeds on curved country roads, its vibrations are negligible, at a constant speed of 100 it tingles moderately, just above it then significantly and even higher again less. You adjust to it when you absolutely have to.
But it doesn’t have to, it remains tight and winding today, and that’s where the BSA can show off its wonderful handiness, a trademark of many British twins. Made for the right-angled hedge paths at home, it follows steering commands as quickly as it is precise, keeps a clean track and joins the corner as if pulled on a string. That’s great today. 50 years ago that was world class and cannot be compared with the steering behavior of a full swing BMW. The comparison is a little more difficult when it comes to comfort: On today’s roads, the crisp spring struts of the BSA are sufficient, which, by the way, combine with a rather weakly damped fork; in the past, that would have been a problem on secondary routes. Which the Rocket Gold Star didn’t care, because she never wanted anything but the heart to warm up.

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