I happened upon an episode of American Pickers at the gym this morning, and one of the marquee finds was a mint-condition tank from a BSA motorcycle. It looked even better than the one on this 1970 Lightning, which was apparently restored and then left to sit in the garage you see it in now. Seems like a waste of a restoration, but hopefully the next owner can enjoy it. Find this dusty BSA here on craigslist for $6,500 or go here if the ad disappears.
BSA was certainly a fixture in the 1960s and 70s motorcycle scene, and the Lightning was a prominent model that provided inspired performance. Unfortunately, build quality and high-speed composure were two qualities the BSAs lacked and the Lightning mustered only so-so reviews in the motoring press. This example was restored 13 years ago and has been sitting ever since; in fact, it hasn’t been run once since being stored.
The Lightning achieved fame on the silver screen in the James Bond film Thunderball. A Lightning with a gold fairing and equipped with missiles was used to torch the Ford Fairlane of Bond nemesis Count Lippe, with the BSA unceremoniously shoved off a cliff when the job was done. This one should obviously be spared such a fate, but it does make you wonder why the current owner never rode the bike he had freshly restored.
While this one may have undergone a thorough restoration, there’s more than a few Lightnings to choose from on craigslist for about half the price of this one in running, driving condition. The seller says the owner is motivated and may consider a lower offer, but not to waste their time with low-balls. Fair enough; what do you think this restored-once Lightning is worth?
Sure is dusty for being covered. Funny the gators are rotted too after only 13 years of storage. This one needs a bit of paint work and some surface rust removed but if it isn’t stuck it should be ok. Clean out the tank and the carburetors, then tickle it good and give it a few good kicks. If Joe Lucas is a good boy it should start. I was always a Triumph man (Bonnieville and a Trident) and never cared for the looks of the featueless BSA “Water Melon” engine, too Buck Rogers, I liked the exposed pushrod tubes on my Triumphs prettier engines. Same reason I like my Harley and could never warm up to Victory’s featureless engine. I would Replace the Amals with Mikunis so you don’t have to run gas over the engine when cold starting. Joke used to be no smoking within 50 feet of my old Bonnie due to constantly weeping bowl gaskets and or tickling. Tickling by the way is the art flooding a cold engine by holding the float(s) open by means of a button on the carburetor’s float bowl. When properly flooded gas runs out of the vents, down the carburetor and drips on to your nicely chromed up engine side cases. Tickling the Triple you usually only did the outside carburetors because the only way to tickle the Tridents center carburetor was to use something like a pencil to reach in there. Those clever Brits :)
Hi Joe,can you please explain the reason for flooding the engine? To me, flooding has always been a bad thing.
Tickleing the carbs means not bashing the plungers thus poking a hole in the float which would indeed flood the engine.
Rather, we viewed it as priming the carb with a little fuel going into the intake at the very most.
Now for the left brake/right shift; You had to be smarter than the motorcycle when switching from Jap to Harley, to Limey bikes. My 67 Sporty was a non-issue since it was a right shift. Can’t tell you how many times I have braked with the shift lever on BMWs of the time. DOH!
@Glen. That was the only way you could guarantee that the engine MIGHT start. I have owned several Beezas, Triumphs etc. and they all needed a tickle to start them. The secret was not to let them overflow the float bowl excessively so as not to coat the nice shiny chrome bits with petrol as Joe Howell stated.
Some of the 930 Amals had a drain screw of plastic at the base and they leaked. Tickling just gets a head of petrol mist into the inlet venturies increasing the opportunity of a first time start. Witt T150s and T160s as long as one cylinder fired it should start.
Problem with these BSA A65 twin motors they have a bush on the RHS instead of a main roller or ball bearing. Oil pressure could be a problem resulting in a lot of basket cases. A conversion by Devimead rerouted oil feed direct. Also there are needle roller bearing conversions available.
http://www.srmclassicbikes.com/unit-a50-a65/bsa-unit-a50-a65-engines
I was wondering how many knew what “tickling the carbs” meant. You forgot to mention, while tickling the carbs, you usually got a hand full of gas,,
High bars and shorty mufflers…. bound to have be flogged..I wonder if the original air cleaners are there and the lack of decals.
Beautiful, classy bkes but the right hand shift is a deal breaker for me.
What’s with you guys. Lhd vs rhd. Lhd stick vs rh stick manual vs automatic. Time to man up and learn something different. After all its not rocket science is it?
“[Hey,] don’t blame me, I ain’t no rocket surgeon.”
My favorite man-cave sign.
Don’t forget the bikes we started on; Harley’s left hand tank shifter vs Indian’s right hand/left throttle. Confuse that with a manual spark advance on the opposite hand grip for a fun ride. Somehow, most of us lived.
My Harley Servicar was a left- hand throttle, right-hand spark advance. Just about the time I was really getting into the groove and calling myself an expert rider, I’d jump on the starter and crank the advance on full; it woke up the dead, or at least the guys in the coffee shop…
The Brits had Air Lever for a choke they suck. It’s the same as priming an old Harley. Tick the bowl, few good kicks, key on, she’ll fire right up. Have
T-100, T-120, Enfield 500
This is a great find, price, as usual, is nuts. When I was a teen, early ’70’s, a friend across the alley had a bunch of cool bikes, a Honda 305 Scrambler, a BSA like this, only the Thunderbolt( single carb, get it? Lightning with 2 carbs 1st, then the Thunderbolt behind), and a Kawasaki 500. BSA was the coolest one, and the single carb had plenty of power. I’d lose the “ape hangers”, it, I feel, would make it more of a chore than it already is, to ride. I had a Bultaco with a right shift/left foot brake, takes a bit of getting used to, but you shift so much with these, it doesn’t take long. I guess if you simply must have a Limey, this is what it will cost you. After restoration, you’ll have $10g’s into it, and when done, you’ll have a 1970 BSA Lightning. I guess that would be pretty cool. Just be prepared, if it doesn’t fire after a few kicks, it might be a while.
Today most people couldn’t steal an old Brit bike if you let the keys in it, same with an old Sportster. Everybody these days is used to pushing the button, kick starting a stubborn Sportster on a hot day would separate the men from the boys quickly. Left/Right shift brake thing keeps you on your toes for sure. I had a 67 Harley Sprint in my modest collection for years, a 250cc single they were made in Italy for Harley. Kick stand was on the right side, as was the shifter. The kick starter was on the left, the choke operation was ass-backwards and the shift pattern was one up and 3 down. Momma Mia!
$6,500? Damn! I just sold my 1970 BSA Starfire Scrambler (much rarer than this bike) with only 2,000 miles on it for $500 a couple months back. Granted, it needed full restoration, but still……
Have had several with just a 441 Victor left. Back in the sixties I had a Enduro Star and a Lightning. Didn’t have worry about anyone stealing the Enduro because very few knew how to start them. The lightning was sweet and fast. Restored a 650 Firebird Scrambler a few years back had it running good sold it to a guy that drove over a thousand miles to buy it and it wouldn’t start. I recall it was $1500 I discounted on the agreed price!!
I guess old Joseph Lucas was getting one last laugh. As a kid one of the Brits I lusted for (other than Julie Christy) was the 441’s predecessor the 500cc Gold Star. They were the single to have, winning at road racing, flat track and scrambles. Then came the Japanese…………
@ Joe Howell.
I have owned more than 50 motorcycles and I was lucky enough to have owned a 500cc Gold Star which had the GP (Grand Prix) carburettor and a close ratio gearbox. It had previously been circuit raced by a friend of mine in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). He managed to prang it and bent the frame. The local agents replaced the frame and I then bought it. It really was a magnificent motorcycle and my favourite daily trick on the way to work was to keep the throttle wide open at 90 mph and then drop it down to third gear (Imagine the overrun noise!) to enable me to slow down enough to take the right hand curve at the end of the access road into the industrial sites where I worked. After a couple of weeks of this people would stop whatever they were doing to watch the event. Great fun.
I could only dream of having a Gold Star. I remember Sammy Tanner (Slidin’ Sam) on the flat tracks on one back in the 60s. I had a ’59 B33 Sportsman, a 500 single with cast iron cylinder and head. It was seized when I got it (left outside for a winter with the spark plug out) but I worked at it and got it loose. Went through the entire bike and had things working real good. I loved the old thumper; it was one of those old bikes I wish I’d hung onto….
I used to have a shop for Brit bikes and still have a pile of them, Including a bunch of BSAs from Preunits singles and twins to a bunch of unit thumpers and twins. Nothing complicated on these and easy to work on. (Back when people took care of their own vehicles) These CAN be set up to be totally reliable. Not hard at all. But show me a Harley people leave stock? And then there is the HD tax of stage1.2.3 & 4 tuning so dont laugh about a BSA needing a few tweaks to make reliable.
This one might have been rebuilt but far from “Restored”. But no way at $6000 OBO unless it got a full service, detailing and some parts to correct the bars, air cleaners, and other wrong parts. I have a few 67s for $1500 that need total rebuilds, but keep in mind, 1966 BSA 650 Lightning WAS the fastest production motorcycle sold to the public and you can read the magazine articles if you care to look. These things were also prized race bikes back in the day, BSA vs Triumph is no different than Ford vs Chevy.
Proud member of the BSAOC
Anyone needs advice, or a rebuildable project ping me.
Now I know what’s wrong with all of us. Time to watch “On Any Sunday” again, just so I can relive the Tramp, Beezer, and KR sounds that still rattle around in what’s-left-of-my-brian, er, brain. My steel shoe slider is around here somewhere.
Severely glad to see so many purists left at one site.
I’ll keep my 67 Bonnie but back in the day I would buy these bikes because most couldn’t time them correctly, they were always running on one cylinder. The Triumph engine is easier on the eyes IMO. I used to say the Bezza engine looked like it was carved out of a rock. Too much needed on this one for what he is asking.
Sammy Tanner .. the Flyin’ Flea
While I am a big Triumph & Norton fan as well, BSAs are super cool and at one time were the number #1 motorcycle manufacturer in the world (1950s thru early 60s) and at that time it was said “One in Three is a BSA” of every bike sold in the world. Bad mgmt and greed killed what was a fine company. But the original company was diversified into a lot of different areas and still in business today. (Guns to optics to wheels and variety of metals). The BSA motorcycle brand has been revived though in India and there is new models coming out, It is expected they will be better than some of the other attempts to revive the brand.
But in the mid 60s, BSA was good for 120 mph out of the crate stock, which made them top dogs at the time.
@Sluggo.
I very much doubt that any BSA could ever do 120mph straight out of the box! My 500cc Gold Star certainly couldn’t even when it was raced. I don’t think a late model Triumph Bonneville could make 120 either.
I call this one “Boat chicks” and typical advertising in the 1960s as its pretty clear, the other tosser might have a nice boat, But Pretty girls dig dudes on bikes.
See: http://www.classic-british-motorcycles.com/bsa-motorcycles.html
Tons of material out there, funny thing is, A lot of shows I go to there is a LOT of young guys who are into these as well and especially customizing them. While many like to say young millenials dont like wrenching or mechanics, you just need to get out more and attend events.
only asking bout 5000. to much.