V FOR VICTOR

After all, it had cost the company a great deal of money, but was the world ready for an overhead valve single that had been progressively enlarged to reach a ceiling of just 441cc? Indeed, with the booming US market in mind, big twins were what was in vogue, and not just BSA, but AJS/Matchless, Norton and Royal Enfield were doing their utmost to snatch a share of that market.

The 441 had grown from the 250cc C15, not a bad little bike at all, with engine dimensions of 67mm x 70mm; a well-mannered road bike that made a neat trials machine and a more than handy scrambler as well. Without the C15, BSA’s balance sheet would have looked fairly grim. Continuing the growth spurt, the C15 engine was punched out to 343cc by increasing the bore to 79mm to become the BSA B40 in 1961. Military versions of the B40 followed too, seeing service in the Australian army as well as the British, where it remained in service until 1978. A 420cc Scrambler followed, fitted with an iron barrel, and finally, the 441, which Jeff Smith took onto the World Championship trial in 1964, the works machine fitted with a frame built by Reynold’s steel tubing guru Ken Sprayson. In honour of Smith’s victory-against-all-odds, the production versions (officially B44s) were marketed using his middle name as the Victor Scrambler and Victor Enduro, which appeared for 1965 and were