BSA A50
The BSA Royal Star was a Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) motorcycle whose new engine design paved the way for a range of successful unit construction twins. As well as giving a clean look to the engine, with the pushrod passages part of the cylinder block casting, unit construction reduced the number of places oil could leak from. Development The decision by Lucas in the late 1950s to switch production of motorcycle electrical components (from magneto/dynamo systems to alternator/coil systems) forced British motorcycle manufacturers to completely redesign their engines. Triumph and BSA took the opportunity to move from pre-unit and semi-unit construction to full unit construction, that is, with the engine and gearbox together in an integrated casting. At the same time, Bob Fearon, Managing Director and General Manager of BSA recognised the need for an updated look that built on the best features of the A10 but which would succeed in the potentially lucrative but competi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1969 BSA A50
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to London's Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants. * January 14 – An explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS ''Enterprise'' near Hawaii kills 27 and injures 314. * January 19 – End of the siege of the University of Tokyo, marking the beginning of the end for the 1968–69 Japanese university protests. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States. * January 22 – An assassination attempt is carried out on Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev by deserter Viktor Ilyin. One person is killed, several are injured. Brezhnev escaped unharmed. * January 27 ** Fourteen men, 9 of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel. ** R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Birmingham Small Arms Company
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand tool, hand, power tool, power, and machine tool, machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process. After the Second World War, BSA did not manage its business well, and a government-organised rescue operation in 1973 led to a takeover of such operations as it still owned. Those few that survived this process disappeared into the ownership of other businesses. History of the BSA industrial group Machine-made guns BSA began in June 1861 in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham, England. It was formed by a group of fourteen gunsmith members of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association specifically to manufacture guns by machinery. They were encouraged to do this by the War Office which gave the BSA gunsmiths free access ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
BSA A7
The BSA A7 was a 500cc motorcycle model range made by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at their factory in Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. The range was launched in 1946 using a long stroke engine. An improved version based on the BSA A10 engine was launched in 1950. The various A7 models continued in production with minor modifications until 1961/2 when they were superseded by the unit-construction A50 model. Development After the 1938 launch of the Edward Turner designed Triumph Speed Twin, BSA needed a 500cc twin to compete with the Speed Twin. Designed by Herbert Parker, David Munro and BSA's chief designer, Val Page, the BSA A7 was the first of the BSA twin-cylinder motorcycles. The outbreak of World War II delayed the launch and several prototypes were built during the war years. The model was finally launched in September 1946 when hostilities had ended. The very first A7 off the production line was flown to Paris for the first motorcycle show after the en ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
BSA B50
The BSA B50 was a single-cylinder ohv motorcycle, produced by BSA at their factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. The last of the big capacity unit-construction singles from the Birmingham Small Arms company, it had an alloy engine with a bore of and a stroke of . As well as the road version, special models were produced for off-road competition use. Development BSA's earlier 500cc single was the BSA Gold Star, a pre-unit machine with a duplex frame similar to that of the Golden Flash twin. The Gold Star was not considered suitable for the progression to unit construction. The name was revived when the 250 cc BSA C15/Starfire was eventually developed into the 500 cc B50 (via the B40 & B44). The dry sump B50 included features such as "oil in the frame" and the electrics in a single removable 'pod'. BSA kept production costs down by using parts across a range of models, launched in 1971. About 5,700 were built. Some B50s were modified for off-road use by specialist builders ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising, sport (including racing), and off-road riding. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and being involved in other related social activity such as joining a motorcycle club and attending motorcycle rallies. The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Germany was the first internal combustion, petroleum-fueled motorcycle. In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle. Globally, motorcycles are comparably popular to cars as a method of transport. In 2021, approximately 58.6 million new motorcycles were sold around the world, fewer than the 66.7 million cars sold over the same period. In 2014, the three top motorcycle producers globally by volume were Honda (28%), Yamaha (17 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Unit Construction
: ''For the vehicle design where the vehicle's skin is used as a load-bearing element, see Monocoque.'' Unit construction is the design of larger motorcycles where the engine and gearbox components share a single casing. This sometimes includes the design of automobile engines and was often loosely applied to motorcycles with rather different internal layouts such as the flat twin BMW models. Prior to unit construction, the engine and gearbox had their own separate casings and were connected by a primary chain drive running in an oil bath chaincase. The new system used a similar chain drive and both had 3 separate oil reservoirs for engine, gearbox and primary drive. Triumph and BSA were already using cast alloy chaincases and started converting to unit construction in the 1950s. A driving factor behind the BSA/Triumph change was that Lucas had declared an intention to abandon production of motorcycle dynamos and magnetos, and instead produce only alternators. By contrast, V ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Straight-twin Engine
A straight-twin engine, also known as an inline-twin, vertical-twin, or parallel-twin, is a two-cylinder piston engine whose cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. Straight-twin engines are primarily used in motorcycles; other uses include automobiles, marine vessels, snowmobiles, Jet Skis, all-terrain vehicles, tractors and ultralight aircraft. Various different crankshaft configurations have been used for straight-twin engines, with the most common being 360 degrees, 180 degrees and 270 degrees. Terminology The straight-twin layout is also referred to as "parallel-twin", "vertical-twin" and "inline-twin". Some of these terms originally had specific meanings relating to the crankshaft angle or engine orientation, however they are often also used interchangeably. In the United Kingdom, the term "parallel-twin" is traditionally used for engines with a crankshaft angle of 360 degrees, since the two pistons are in the same direction (i.e. parallel to each o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Lucas Industries
Lucas Industries plc was a Birmingham-based British manufacturer of motor industry and aerospace industry components. Once prominent, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was formerly a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In August 1996, Lucas merged with the American Varity Corporation to form LucasVarity. After LucasVarity was sold to TRW the Lucas brand name was licensed for its brand equity to Elta Lighting for aftermarket auto parts in the United Kingdom. The Lucas trademark is currently owned by ZF Friedrichshafen, which retained the Elta arrangement. History Foundation In the 1850s, Joseph Lucas, a jobless father of six, sold paraffin oil from a barrow cart around the streets of Hockley. In 1860, he founded the firm that would become Lucas Industries. His 17-year-old son Harry joined the firm around 1872. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Triumph Engineering
Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the 1980s and is now one of the world's major motorcycle manufacturers. Origins The company was started by Siegfried Bettmann, who had emigrated from Nuremberg, part of the German Empire, to Coventry in England in 1883. In 1884, aged 20, Bettmann had founded his own company, the S. Bettmann & Co. Import Export Agency, in London. Bettmann's original products were bicycles, which the company bought and then sold under its own name. Bettmann also distributed sewing machines imported from Germany. In 1886, Bettmann sought a more specific name, and the company became known as the Triumph Cycle Company. A year later, the company was registered as the New Triumph Co. Ltd, now with funding from the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. During that year, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Amal Monobloc
AMAL was a British engineering company servicing the motorcycle and other light-engineering motor industries between 1927 and 1993Amalgamated Carburetters Grace's Industrial Guide. Retrieved 2013-07-09 based in . AMAL is a British trademark. Amal was the supplier of carburettors to many marques within the British motorcycle industry including the largest of British manufacturers, such as [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Amal Concentric
AMAL was a British engineering company servicing the motorcycle and other light-engineering motor industries between 1927 and 1993Amalgamated Carburetters Grace's Industrial Guide. Retrieved 2013-07-09 based in . AMAL is a British trademark. Amal was the supplier of carburettors to many marques within the British motorcycle industry including the largest of British manufacturers, such as [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
BSA A65 Star
The BSA A65 Star was a Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) motorcycle aimed at the US market for unit construction twins. As well as giving a clean look to the engine, with the pushrod passages part of the cylinder block casting, unit construction reduced the number of places oil could leak from. A range of A65 Star twins was produced between 1962 and 1972. Development The decision by Lucas in the late 1950s to switch production of motorcycle electrical components (from magneto/dynamo systems to alternators/coil systems) forced British motorcycle manufacturers to completely redesign their engines. Triumph and BSA took the opportunity to move from pre-unit and semi-unit construction to full unit construction, that is, with the engine and gearbox together in an integrated casting. At the same time, Bob Fearon, managing director and general manager of BSA, recognised the need for a new look that built on the best features of the A10s but would succeed in the potentially lucrative, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |