Readers’ Letters

Defending the Dandy

Regarding Steve Wilson’s excellent ‘The unloved’ feature (August 2019)... poor Dandy! Will no one defend another of BSA’s heroic failures?

Well, I’ll have a go. Firstly, the Dandy was a clever, economical-of-material design, conceived by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele – hardly muppets in the design world. The pivoting U-shaped engine/clutch/gearbox unit wrapping round the rear wheel with the swing-arm/secondary chaincase bolted-on was an innovative solution.

Secondly, you don’t take the gearbox off to get at the points; you leave the gearbox in place and start at the other side. Rear wheel spindle nut off, two bolts off to undo suspension unit, three screws to remove carb cover, pull carb off rubber mount complete with fuel pipe and throttle cable, disconnect flywheel mag connector, remove six bolts and the complete engine/swing arm plate and silencer comes off leaving the gearbox and secondary drive in situ. Ten minutes max if you know what you’re doing.

Okay, unorthodox and hardly a roadside job, but you do end up with a very accessible flywheel mag and clutch.

Thirdly, according to his ‘Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry?’ Bert Hopwood had jumped ship from BSA to Associated Motor Cycles in April 1955, long before the Dandy was announced in November 1955. In the following year, BSA was in turmoil with the ousting of Bernard Docker at main board level in August 1956, James Leek stepping down in September 1956 and the ‘arrival’ of Edward Turner as managing director of BSA, although by all accounts he showed no interest in managing or directing anything at BSA. The Dandy then went into production in October 1956 with little evidence of any serious development in the interim.