BSA Road Rocket
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BSA Road Rocket
The BSA Road Rocket was a 1950s air-cooled parallel twin motorcycle designed by Bert Hopwood and produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at Small Heath, Birmingham. Developed from the A10 Golden Flash it was the first sports bike in the BSA A10 series. The A10 had a reputation for reliability but was struggling to compete against the Triumph engines and the Norton Featherbed frames. Advertised by BSA in 1956 as 'undoubtedly the world's greatest motor cycle' the Road Rocket was discontinued in 1958 when it was replaced by the BSA Super Rocket. Development Launched as the top of BSA's range in 1954 the BSA Road Rocket was the first A10 engine with an alloy cylinder head. Unlike the Golden Flash, the inlet manifold was separate from the cylinder head enabling twin carburettors to be fitted if required. It had a single Amal TT carburettor as standard. New "thick flange" cylinders were introduced: the bottom flange was increased from for improved rigidity and reliabilit ...
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BSA Road Rocket
The BSA Road Rocket was a 1950s air-cooled parallel twin motorcycle designed by Bert Hopwood and produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at Small Heath, Birmingham. Developed from the A10 Golden Flash it was the first sports bike in the BSA A10 series. The A10 had a reputation for reliability but was struggling to compete against the Triumph engines and the Norton Featherbed frames. Advertised by BSA in 1956 as 'undoubtedly the world's greatest motor cycle' the Road Rocket was discontinued in 1958 when it was replaced by the BSA Super Rocket. Development Launched as the top of BSA's range in 1954 the BSA Road Rocket was the first A10 engine with an alloy cylinder head. Unlike the Golden Flash, the inlet manifold was separate from the cylinder head enabling twin carburettors to be fitted if required. It had a single Amal TT carburettor as standard. New "thick flange" cylinders were introduced: the bottom flange was increased from for improved rigidity and reliabilit ...
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BSA A10 Series
The BSA A10 series was a range of air-cooled parallel twin motorcycles designed by Bert Hopwood and produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company at Small Heath, Birmingham from 1950 to 1963. The series was succeeded by the A65 unit construction models. Background BSA, then the largest UK motorcycle manufacturer, was falling behind in the parallel-twin race after the introduction of the 650cc Triumph Thunderbird. Although BSA had a 500cc parallel-twin, the BSA A7, they needed to develop a 650 to remain competitive. Bert Hopwood served an apprenticeship under designer Val Page at Ariel. In 1936, Hopwood moved to Triumph, where he worked under Edward Turner to develop the 1937 Triumph Speed Twin. The innovative Speed Twin became the exemplar of the parallel twin engine layout for British motorcycles in the 1950s and 1960s. In April 1947 Hopwood joined Norton to design the Norton Dominator engine. In May 1948, the factory enticed Hopwood after only a year at Norton, and h ...
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List Of Motorcycles Of The 1950s
This a listing of motorcycles of the 1950s, including those on sale, introduced, or otherwise relevant in this period. * AJS 18 (1949-1963)Total Bike Classics
(accessed 2016-04-23)
* * * BMW R24 * * BMW R25/2 *
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Tachometer
A tachometer (revolution-counter, tach, rev-counter, RPM gauge) is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute (RPM) on a calibrated analogue dial, but digital displays are increasingly common. The word comes from Greek ''τάχος'' (''táchos'' "speed") and ''μέτρον'' (''métron'' "measure"). Essentially the words tachometer and speedometer have identical meaning: a device that measures speed. It is by arbitrary convention that in the automotive world one is used for engine revolutions and the other for vehicle speed. In formal engineering nomenclature, more precise terms are used to distinguish the two. History The first tachometer was described by an Donkin in a paper to the Royal Society of Arts in 1810 for which he was awarded the Gold medal of the society. This consisted of a bowl of mercury constructed in such a way that centrifugal force caused the level ...
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Amal TT
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
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BSA Road Rocket Badge
BSA may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Basketball South Africa * Bearing Specialists Association * Belarusian Socialist Assembly * Bibliographical Society of America * Birmingham Small Arms Company, UK manufacturer of firearms and vehicles * Black Socialists in America * Boston Society of Architects * Botanical Society of America * Boy Scouts of America **Scouts BSA, the flagship program * British Social Attitudes Survey * British Sandwich Association * British Science Association * British Sociological Association * British Speleological Association * British Stammering Association * Broadcasting Service Association, former name of the Australian radio network Macquarie Media * Broadcasting Standards Authority * BSA Company, motorcycle manufacturer * BSA motorcycles, made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited * BSA (The Software Alliance), a trade group established by Microsoft, formerly called Business Software Alliance * Business Services Association ...
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BSA Super Rocket
The BSA Super Rocket was a air-cooled parallel twin motorcycle produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at Small Heath, Birmingham introduced in 1957. It was an improved sports bike member of the BSA A10 series of motorcycles which was developed from the BSA Road Rocket. The A10 had a reputation for reliability but was struggling to compete against the Triumph engines and the Norton Featherbed frames. The model was discontinued in 1963 when the unit-construction A65 was introduced. Development Launched in 1957 the BSA Super Rocket retained the Amal TT carburettor and 356 sports cam of the Road Rocket. Compression ratio was raised to 8.5:1 and a new alloy cylinder head fitted. The cylinder head had a cast in inlet manifold and larger ports and valves. The inlet valves were increased from 1.455" to 1.5". The crankshaft was stiffened compared to the previous models. These modifications increased power output to 43 bhp. A lower 1st gear ratio gave increased accelera ...
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Featherbed Frame
The featherbed frame was a motorcycle frame invented by the McCandless brothers and offered to the British Norton motorcycle company to improve the performance of their racing motorcycles in 1950. It was considered revolutionary at the time,"''As opposition companies strove to develop completely new machines with multi-cylinder engines, far more powerful than the Norton single, Bracebridge Street was content to find new speed in 1950 with a revolutionary new frame which steered and handled so superbly that it immediately earned the now forever-famous tag Featherbed''". Sixty Years of Speed, 1967 a ''Motorcycle News'' publication, pp.41-42 Accessed 26 January 2018Motorcycle handling and chassis design: the art and science by Tony Foale. 2006 and the best handling frame that a racer could have."''Introduced in 1950, the featherbed Norton frame, designed by Rex McCandless, of Belfast, became, and still is, the standard by which handling and steering of all racing machines is judged' ...
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Norton Motorcycle Company
The Norton Motorcycle Company (formerly Norton Motors, Ltd.) is a brand of motorcycles, originally based in Birmingham, England. For some years around 1990, the rights to use the name on motorcycles was owned by North American financiers. From 2008 to 2020, a line of motorcycles was produced under owner and chief executive Stuart Garner. Due to financial failure with large debts, in April 2020 administrators BDO agreed to sell certain aspects of Garner's business to Project 303 Bidco Limited, a new business established for the purpose with links to Indian motorcycle producer TVS Motor Company. The business was founded in 1898 as a manufacturer of "fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade".Holliday, Bob, ''Norton Story'', Patrick Stephens, 1972, p.11. By 1902 the company had begun manufacturing motorcycles with bought-in engines. In 1908 a Norton-built engine was added to the range. This began a long series of production of single and eventually twin-cylinder motorcycles, and ...
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Triumph Engineering Co Ltd
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, ...
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BSA Golden Flash
The BSA Golden Flash, commonly referred to as the ''Gold Flash'', was a air-cooled parallel twin motorcycle designed by Bert Hopwood and produced by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at Small Heath, Birmingham. The Golden Flash was the first model in the BSA A10 series. It was available in black and chrome; but it was the distinctive golden paint scheme that gave The Golden Flash its name. Production continued until 1963, when it was superseded by the BSA A65 Star. Development Background and development Bert Hopwood served an apprenticeship under designer Val Page at Ariel. In 1936, Hopwood moved to Triumph, where he worked under Edward Turner to develop the 1937 Triumph Speed Twin. The innovative Speed Twin became the exemplar of the parallel twin engine layout for British motorcycles in the 1950s and 1960s. In April 1947 Hopwood joined Norton to design the Norton Dominator engine. BSA, then the largest UK motorcycle manufacturer, was falling behind in the parallel-twin r ...
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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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