Ultimate warrior
In a variety of guises which included scrambles, one and six-day trials, touring, racing and clubman’s trim, there is little doubt that the bikes which carried the name of Gold Star on their petrol tanks were amongst the greatest machines that ever rolled off the Small Heath production lines.
Most enthusiasts will know that the name of the iconic British single was earned when Wal Handley lapped the famous Brooklands circuit at over 100mph in 1937 on his BSA Empire Star, a feat which inspired BSA to produce the M24 Gold Star. This was a 496cc alloy-engined machine with an electron alloy gearbox and a rigid frame made of light tubes, devoid of sidecar attachment lugs. The model was to run in 350 and 500cc forms until 1963, when due to the demise of the Lucas magneto, production of the hand-built engine was brought to an end.
Much of the technical history of the Small Heath single has been written about in hundreds of articles in the motorcycle press and it was down to reading one of these that I handed over £169 of my hard-earned apprentice’s money in 1971, for a 500cc DBD34, carrying the registration number 228 BTT. The sound of the twittering
