Resurrection At La Quinta
Resurrection at La Quinta
BSA & Triumph Introduce A Radically Revised Line Of Machines To The Press
IT WAS LAVISH. Genteel. Birmingham Small Arms President Peter Thornton. Ex-Ford and Chrysler. Marketing and Product Planning Director Tony Salisbury. Ex-Chrysler. Et al.
The setting was the $80-a-day La Quinta Hotel grounds, where the good General Eisenhower used to roam. Offered pastimes to the visiting press: tennis, golf, swimming and horseback riding. Just put your room number on the tab, boys, and have a good time. It was idyllic and low-key, appropriate to the tenor of these ex-car people who have come to set BSA and Triumph on fire.
Marketing concepts, sales charts, trend lines, company reorganization, rationalization of dealer service regions. It was impressive.
Finally the new models. More changes to the BSA and Triumph lines in one year than in the previous 20 years.
Capping the Triumph day. of course, was the new five-speed dohc 350, described elsewhere in this issue. The only machines left untouched were the 500-cc T100R and T100C Triumphs. The rest, including the 250-cc Trophy models, the 650 Twins and the 750 Three, have been restyled, fitted with 6.75-in. travel telescopic forks and aluminum sliders, and alloy conical brake drums. The 250s and 650s have new frames that carry the oil in a large single backbone tube. The 650 frames are in full double-cradle configuration, and, combined with the new lightweight hubs and suspension units, make that machine as easy to throw around as the 500. The forks on the off-road Trophy 650 work beautifully in the dirt. The Trident has also benefited greatly from these suspension changes, judging by our brief sampling on the road.
The big surprise in the 650 category is the availability of an optional fivespeed gearbox, based on the Quaife racing transmission design.
Both BSA and Triumph have devoted much attention to exhaust and intake silencing. Hence, the appearance of effective megaphone-shaped silencers and big air boxes on the Threes, and big Twins. Big black silencing boxes snuff the blat on the Singles, although these, unfortunately, are not spark arresters.
In terms of styling, BSA got the better deal, indicating that the manufacturers want to give the old Brummage brand a bit of leverage over the wellestablished Triumphs, so that BSA may resurrect itself from the sagging dealer/ buyer situation it has been in tor the last five years. While the Triumph frames and airboxes are black, as usual, splashed with the usual blue, white, black and purple color combinations, the BSA line has gone to ivory colored frames, coordinating airbox colors with beautiful tank patterns.
Triumph’s styling tends to the nittygritty bordering on busy-ness in the frame and mid-section, while BSA's separate components seem more graceful and well coordinated.
BSA’s show-stopper was a preproduction prototype of the new 499-cc Victor motocross Single. It incorporates oil-inframe, the above-mentioned BSA/ Triumph suspension components, tuned for its 240-lb. dry weight, 20-in. front wheel, tapered steering head roller bearings, and eccentric chain adjuster at the needle bearing swinging arm pivot. It bears little relationship to the 441-cc pogo stick introduced to American buyers in 1966. We rode it, found it light, nimble, and flexible. The forks work and it doesn't wiggle in the middle or at the back. Turn the gas on in any gear and it roots cactus and sage in great, hairy clouds.
Equally attractive are lights-on versions of the motocross, one an Enduro Victor, and the other a street scrambler, dubbed the Gold Star SS. There is also a 250 Victor and a 250 Gold Star Single, similar to the 250 Trumpet models.
BSA’s 750 Three looks much, much better, and slimmer. It is more attractive than the Trident, but for some reason did not seem to handle as well.
The 650 BSA Twinsthe twin-carb Lightning, the Firebird street scrambler, and the single-carb Thunderbolt get the same double-loop, oil-in-frame treatment as the Triumph 650s, but have no five-speed gearbox option as an alternative to the standard four speed. Little matter, as they are much sportier and firmer handling than they have been in past years. Both BSA and Triumph 750s will have an optional five-speed transmission.
All in all. the La Quinta preview was a show of force, and a display of new money-the expansionary kind. For anyone who has cast sad eyes at BSA all these years, as well as worried eyes at Triumph, there was definite reason for rekindled hope. Buyers have a fine year ahead.
And the press will have to brush up on its golf.
