It is a star

WORDS BY ROB DAVIES PHOTOS BY BARRY TAYLOR (OLD PRINTS), MODERN PICS FROM BARRY, ROB, AND ROBIN HORTON

Fifty-one years and still going strong. The story of one man and his A65…

BSA had the canny – you might even say crafty – knack of making many bikes out of one product.

Oh, they changed the size of the bores to make the 500 and the 650; the gear ratios were tweaked by producing differently sized cogs; there were high or low compression pistons, and high or low rise cams, and they played with the cosmetic elements of tank, seat and side panels, but in essence they were all pretty much the same bike.

For instance, there were the A50 and A65 Star; the A50 Cyclone Road and Cyclone Comp; The A65 Rocket, Thunderbolt Rocket, Lightning Rocket, Spitfire Hornet and Clubman models, not forgetting the more exotically decorated models such as the Firebird Scrambler that mostly went to the US, designated a ‘desert sled’ with its high rise glittering exhausts, exhaust guard, and latterly an oil in the frame novelty.

However, this is Barry Taylor’s own account of his fifty-one year relationship with his very own
well-cherished A65. He’s got to know it well.

Read more in October’s issue of CBG