Small Heath’s 1971 A65L Lightning 650 was born under a bad sign.
It issued from a company that had been running out of money since 1969; had been designed at an uncoordinated R and D centre; and was produced at a factory still recovering from the throes of a major physical reorganisation.
Small wonder that it substantially missed the all-important six-week selling season in the majority US market at which it was targeted. After 12,000 oil-in-frame (OIF) A65s had been produced featuring the original Dove Grey cycle parts by July 1971, just around 3750 more black-framed examples were built for the 1972 model year, until the model’s end had come on May 19, 1972.
The irony was that these 650s, part of BSA/Triumph’s ‘Power Set’ for 1971, had been largely well received by US dealers, magazine testers, and young riders – Cycle found that “most people were impressed by the styling and paint treatment.” The short-stroke (75x74mm) A65 engine, despite retaining its potentially vulnerable plain timing-side main bearing, had a fair record for reliability. The twins in Stateside competition were boosted by the BSA team under Dick Mann taking the AMA # 1 plate for 1971, helped by some of the 200-odd long-stroke 750cc A70L versions produced for homologation.
BSA warranty man Geoff Danher was quoted in Peter Crawford’s recent excellent
