Tall in the saddle

So, there you were, eagerly awaiting the all-new BSA range being shouted about in the press at the tail end of 1970. New bikes were promised as well as the latest versions of familiar favourites.

Unfortunately for BSA, it was a known fact at the time the once giant company was on the back foot, with little available funds to redesign things such as engines, and the budget it had was going on the triple and Edward Turner’s project for the group – the Bandit or Fury, depending which camp you were in.

Their much-heralded super sports 750cc triple had received rave reviews but been trumped at the last moment by Honda’s 750/4 with a much more exotic spec. Still, big things had been promised as the BSA group embraced the new ideas and designs heading out of their Umberslade Hall design and research department.

Much has been written about the facility and its place in the downfall of the British industry, but was it the total villain of the piece? Comments like ‘an expensive money pit’ and ‘waste of resources’ are frequently seen in features about the end of the British industry and stories of it being impossible to fit built up engines into frames designed there are true, but was it all Umberslade Hall’s fault?

The answer in such things is never as simple as it seems, and while this feature isn’t about the research facility, it has to be mentioned because of its place in the company’s story at