I HEARD IT WAS CALLED THE BATTERY HEN, THIS remarkable little electric sort-of classic, the bike that won Most Technical Interest at the Bristol Classic Show. It’s a BSA Bantam, but not as we know it – it’s a BSA Bantam brought up to date. The electric Bantam has a frame from a D1 Plunger Bantam from 1954, which at some point was converted into a schoolboy speedway bike, shortened and lightened. The bike’s creator, Bill Dutton, decided to stick the electric motor from a Sur Ron electric off-road motorcycle into the D1 frame.
Bill said: “I got the idea from an article I read about a luxury yachtsman who wanted a bike he could carry on board so he could get from ports to town, and he didn’t want to carry petrol and keep filling it up and draining it.”
Restrictions are placed on petrol vehicles being carried on board yachts due the flammable nature of the fuel. The process of keeping within the rules is a lengthy and dirty one, resulting in the bike having to be stored empty of fuel, topped off if you want to ride it around, and the fuel tank having to
