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BSA Gold Star
The BSA Gold Star is a motorcycle made by BSA from 1938 to 1963. They were 350 cc and 500 cc single-cylinder four-stroke production motorcycles known for being among the fastest bikes of the 1950s. Being hand built and with many optional performance modifications available, each motorcycle came from the factory with documented dynamometer test results, allowing the new owner to see the horsepower (bhp) produced. The Gold Star was almost continuously developed over its lifetime by BSA's engineers and riders, who improved its capabilities and increased output from its essentially simple push-rod petrol engine than had been thought possible. It was highly successful across almost all areas of motorcycle sport for well over a decade and is still regarded as a design icon of its era. Origin In 1937, Wal Handley lapped the Brooklands circuit at over on a BSA Empire Star, and was awarded one of the traditional Gold Star badges. That inspired BSA to produce the BSA Gold S ...
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BSA Empire Star
The Empire Star was a standard motorcycle made by BSA at their factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. Named to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V of the United Kingdom and advertised as ''The Masterpiece of the Industry'', the Empire Star range was produced between 1936 and 1939, when it was developed into the BSA Gold Star and World War II stopped production. Development Developed from the popular BSA Blue Star and designed by Val Page, the Empire Star range had the benefit several ideas Page had been developing at his previous employers, Ariel and Triumph motorcycles. With a heavy frame and iron barrelled pushrod valves the Empire Star still had the legacy of the earlier BSAs however, and Page continued to lighten it and introduce engine tuning ideas throughout production. The overhead valve Empire Star was available as the ' 'B22', the ' 'R5' and the 'Q8' models. Based on the standard Blue Star the 'Empire' featured an alloy primary chaincase with a special hig ...
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Wal Handley
Walter Leslie Handley (5 April 1902 – 15 November 1941) born in Aston, Birmingham,
Kolumbus.fi Walter Leslie Handley (Retrieved 10 December 2006)
known as Wal Handley, was a champion British inter-war motorcycle racer with four wins at the Races in his career. Later he also raced cars in the 1930s, and died in a World War II aircraft accident while serving as pilot with the .


Biography

Walter Leslie Handley was born on 5 April 1902, son of John Thomas Handley and his wife Clara.
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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 ...
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Manx Grand Prix
The Manx Grand Prix motorcycle races are held on the Isle of Man TT Course (or 'Snaefell Mountain Course, Mountain Circuit') every year for a two-week period, usually spanning the end of August and early September. New for 2022 is a period reduction from 14 to 9 days. The MGP or Manx (as it is more commonly known) is considered to be the amateur rider's alternative and a learning experience for the Isle of Man TT races held in May/June. The event differs from the TT in that it does not cater for Sidecar TT, sidecars. A 'Classic TT' race category for historic racing machines was added in 2013 as part of the Manx Government Department of Economic Development's expansion to create what is termed ''Festival of Motorcycling''. These new races also allowed for professional and experienced riders to compete. The event consists of six four-lap races of the circuit which begins at the TT Grandstand in Douglas, Isle of Man, Douglas, the island's capital. The separate classes are the N ...
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Motorcycle Suspension
A motorcycle's suspension serves a dual purpose: contributing to the vehicle's handling and braking, and providing safety and comfort by keeping the vehicle's passengers comfortably isolated from road noise, bumps and vibrations. The typical motorcycle has a pair of fork tubes for the front suspension, and a swingarm with one or two shock absorbers for the rear suspension. Front suspension The most common form of front suspension for a modern motorcycle is the telescopic fork. Other fork designs are girder forks, suspended on sprung parallel links (not common since the 1940s) and bottom leading link designs, not common since the 1960s. Some manufacturers (e.g. Greeves) used a version of the swinging arm for front suspension on their motocross designs. A single-sided version of the idea is also used in motor scooters such as the Vespa. The hub-center steering as developed by Ascanio Rodorigo, on a concept associated to Massimo Tamburini is a complex front swingarm alternat ...
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Earls Court Exhibition Centre
Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue just west of central London. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, originally opened in 1887, with an art moderne structure built between 1935 and 1937 by specialist American architect C. Howard Crane. With the active support of London mayor Boris Johnson, in an attempt to create Europe's "largest regeneration scheme", its proposed heritage listing was refused after it was acquired by developers, who promptly in 2008 applied for and were granted a Certificate of Immunity from Listing by English Heritage, and its demolition was completed in 2017. Located in Earl's Court but straddling the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, it was the largest such venue within the capital served by two London Underground stations—one of them, Earl's ...
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BSA B31
The BSA B31 is a motorcycle that was produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company. The BSA B31, introduced in 1945, was the first new model introduced by the company after the Second World War. Based on pre-war designs, it used a single cylinder four stroke engine that displaced . Initially, it had a rigid frame and telescopic forks, the first use of such on a BSA. It developed about , adequate for the roads of the day and enough to deliver a top speed of around .There was a competition kit available for the original rigid model B31 and B33. It was immediately popular and was soon joined by a version, the BSA B33 and competition equivalents, the BSA B32 and BSA B34; the side-car versions, with stiffer suspension and different final demultiplication, were known as BB31 and BB33. Plunger rear suspension was offered later, with a swingarm rear suspension frame available from 1954. The model continued in production until 1959, by which time the traditional Lucas magdyno had been rep ...
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BSA M20
The BSA M20 was a British motorcycle made by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at their factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. Although initially viewed as a near failure by the War Office in 1936, the M20 evolved into one of the longest serving motorcycles in the history of British military motorcycling, as well as becoming the most numerous type produced for World War II with 126,000 in active service. Many are still in use around the world today. Development At the outbreak of World War II BSA were Britain's largest motorcycle manufacturer with a long history of armaments supply to the armed forces. Designed by Val Page the BSA M20 started development in 1937 as a heavy-framed sidecar model with a simple 500 cc single cylinder side valve engine. It had low compression and plenty of low-end torque through a standard BSA gearbox. Early K-M20 models from 1939 were made from standard civilian parts with the addition of military fittings, such as a large 8-inch Lucas DUl ...
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Sidecar
A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. History Jean Bertoux, a French army officer, secured a prize offered by a French newspaper in 1893 for the best method of carrying a passenger on a bicycle. The sidecar wheel was mounted on the same lateral plane as the bicycle's rear and was supported by a triangulation of tubes from the bicycle. A sprung seat with back rest was mounted above the cross-member and a footboard hung below. A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper '' Motor Cycling''. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was granted to Mr. W. J. Graham of Graham Brothers, Enfield, Middlesex. He partnered with Jonathan A. Kahn to begin production. One of Britain's oldest sidecar manufacturers, Watsonian, was fou ...
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Elektron (alloy)
Elektron is the registered trademark of a wide range of magnesium alloys manufactured by a British company Magnesium Elektron Limited. There are about 100 alloys in the Elektron range, containing from 0% to 9.5% of some of the following elements in varying proportions: aluminium (< 9.5%), (5.25%), (2.7%), (2.5%), (1.3%), (0.9%),

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Engine Displacement
Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of the power an engine might be capable of producing and the amount of fuel it should be expected to consume. For this reason displacement is one of the measures often used in advertising, as well as regulating, motor vehicles. It is usually expressed using the metric units of cubic centimetres (cc or cm3, equivalent to millilitres) or litres (l or L), orparticularly in the United States cubic inches (CID, cu in, or in3). Definition The overall displacement for a typical reciprocating piston engine is calculated by multiplying together three values; the distance travelled by the piston (the stroke length), the circular area of the cylinder, and the number of cylinders in the whole engine. The formula is: : \text = \text \times \frac \times ...
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Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, which also became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918, producing military aircraft such as the Wellington and civil airliners like the Viscount and VC-10. The circuit hosted its last race in August 1939 and today part of it forms the Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as a venue for vintage car, motorcycle and other transport-related events. History Brooklands motor circuit The Brooklands motor circuit was the brainchild of Hugh Fortescue Locke-King, and was the first purpose-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Following the Motor Car Act 1903, Britain was subject to a blanket speed limit on public roads: at a time when nearly 50% of the world's new cars were produced in ...
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