1969 BSA A50 Bobber Salt Flats Scoot
I am a sucker for Beezers. My fascination started a young boy in my uncles meticulously kept garage. He was a very proud owner of an immaculate 1958 Gold Star that sat like a prized sculpture to the side of his perfectly organized work bench, that no one was able to touch let alone get too close. This beautiful piece of chrome covered machinery that sat there unable to be touched, or god forbid be ridden, has caused me to have a distorted view of BSA's. I think because of my uncle, to me, BSA motorcycles are the most perfectly balanced of all british built machines.
This particular BSA started as a pretty regular old A50 Royal Star with a recently rebuilt, stout running motor. My buddy had picked it up as a bike for his wife to ride along with on the weekend rides. As it turned out, it was much too much motorcycle for his wife as well as her leg to kickstart. When my buddy decided his wife needed something with a push button start, I jumped at the chance and was more than happy to take it off his hands for what he had spent.
I already had a custom cafe'd 69 Thunderbolt in my garage as well as 1960's built rigid bobber frame that I had visions of building. The idea was for a bobber similar to those that used to run around the Bonneville Salt Flats back in the day. Not necessarily a race bike just one that feels at home on wide open sheets of salt. The custom rigid frame used the stock main frame, cradle, and head tube, but had a beautiful stretch, and was perfectly low slung for the bike floating around in my head. Somewhere along the way the frame gussets and joints were molded and shaped in with bondo, as was the fashion in the 70's. Nearly as soon as I unloaded the Royal Star in the garage, I began dismantling it so that it could start taking shape in it's new, lower frame. With bondo removed and motor mocked up in frame, it became a scavenger hunt for the parts that I needed to complete the vision. The parts hunt took a good couple of months scouring the web and visiting all swap meets within a couple hours drive. As luck would have it, just a month or so after completion, two buddies asked if I was interested in heading out to the salt flats and that they had room in the trailer for another motorcycle. "Hell yes, I'm in!" A few days later it rolled onto the salt where it never felt more at home. It wasn't built to break any land speed records, but it sure fit right in among the rest of the machines filling their every nook and crevice with the white granular substance.
The bike couldn't have been completed with out the help and patience from my family and friends. Specifically Tommy T for his late night bike wizardry and Curtis for his metalsmithing skills. It is now time for me to make room in the garage for new visions and I am looking to send the bike to a new home/garage. For Sale $6200. Serious buyers only. For more annoying stories and info email jackson@ironandresin.com
See below list for a few of the key features: Custom Vintage Rigid Powdercoated Frame Black Powdercoated Rims Handmade 14 gauge steel oil tank Wassell rear fender Vintage Bates solo seat Triumph Tiger Cub 5-1/4" Lucas headlight Vintage hand drill brass steering damper knob Vintage fender ornament (headlight wing) Brass kicker pedal Straight headers with baffles added (runs better and keeps me on friendly terms with neighbors) Stripped the paint off the stock tank to reveal nicks, dings, and natural patina aging.