What Might Have Been!
As India’s huge Mahindra Group conglomerate gears up to commence manufacturing its born-again BSA Gold Star 650, unveiled in the UK last December, for the past 15 years on the other side of the world a dedicated Australian BSA enthusiast has been creating a series of unique models with the historic badge on their tanks.
Emu Engineering’s owner Doug Fraser has literally created with his own hands, with minimal outside assistance, not one, not even two, but no less than three completely different V-twin tributes to the historic BSA marque, in the form of motorcycles he’d like to have seen the British firm produce at one stage of its history or another. The M46 late 30s sports model; the middle one, the B66, early-70s disc-braked roadburner; the third the E120R, the kind of bike that BSA might have made to go Superbike racing with, had it stuck around that long. Except it didn’t. What might have been, if only…
Doug Fraser is a friendly person whose enthusiasm is infectious. He’s a man for whom the glass is perpetually half full, whose passion and energy for every task deliver an enviable sense of positivity. He’s a toolmaker by trade who today is an electrical engineer focusing on heavy duty industrial electric motors, and the design and manufacture of related switchgear – so his large but crowded suburban factory, on the road to Phillip Island, is packed with an array of lathes, grinders, milling machines and related equipment, all of which can also be used to make a motorcycle from the ground up.
It’s fair to say that sixty-something Melbourne-born Fraser is somewhat smitten by vehicles Made in England. Parked outside are his company wheels, a 1970s Hillman Hunter workhorse that’s done over 900,000kms and is on its third body, while garaged inside the workshop is his daily driver, a V12 Jaguar E-Type Coupé of the same vintage, that’s
