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A new BSA motorcycle will be unveiled Saturday for the first time in almost half a century.
The once mighty British brand, which went out of business in the 1970s, was passed around and the large Indian conglomerate Mahindra obtained a majority share of ownership. BSA is now part of the Classic Legends company Mahindra formed, which also owns the former Czech brand Jawa. Last year, company Chairman Anand Mahindra said the brand would be revived to build both gas-powered and electric motorcycles in Britain.
The company has indicated that one new model will be unveiled Saturday at the Motorcycle Live show in Birmingham, England, where the company was born, but it's not clear what that motorcycle will be. Motorcycle media in India have reported seeing prototypes of a classically styled, gas-powered single-cylinder bike, perhaps one harking back to the BSA Gold Star that was one of the marque's most iconic models. While Classic Legends sells Jawa motorcycles in India, BSA is expected to be focused on more developed markets. The company received a grant from the UK government to support the development of the research center that will presumably design the electric motorcycles to come.
The brand's web site currently consists only of a countdown to the unveiling but it has been posting historic ads and other photos on Instagram to try to start building interest.
Many riders in the United States who knew BSA only as a motorcycle manufacturer did not know that the acronym stood for Birmingham Small Arms, or that the company had been part of a conglomerate that over the years made everything from bicycles to car bodies. The name dates to the company's founding in 1861 as a gun manufacturer. It was an early attempt to manufacture guns by machinery, instead of by hand, using interchangeable parts. BSA later branched into bicycles and built its first motorcycle in 1910.
By the 1950s, BSA was producing more motorcycles than any other company in the world, but it failed in the 1970s, along with the rest of the British motorcycle industry.
While there may be room alongside Royal Enfield for another classically styled motorcycle (funny how the British colonized India and now the Indians own the old British brands), the more interesting news will not be what is unveiled Saturday, but whether a revived BSA really does fulfill its promise to innovate with new electric motorcycles and whether those new motorcycles can compete in today's world market.
