Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

THE STORY OF BSA

The Story of BSA by Bob Holliday Motorsports 6115 Gravois St. Louis, Mo. 63116 $21.75

As you can probably tell by these columns, we are trying desperately to build up a library so that the telephone network won’t suddenly go ablaze with questions like “Wot is a TWN?” or “Was there a German Triumph?” or “What in Topet was a Silver Star?” Fortunately, we get quite a few books for review and others we (or me) have to buy. One of these is Bob Holliday’s BSA book, brought out in 1978 approx. and published by the ever cheerful Patrick Stephens in Cambridge jolly old. Bob is a professional and does a considerably more thorough job of this book than he did the similar Norton one, I think, probably because he knew the subject (as a trade journalist) much better. Furthermore he tends to write more easily about BSAs, letting references and cross references do their own thing, rather than boxing facts up on a yearly basis. There is a fair amount of technical reference but nothing like a “mine;” instead he concentrates on the day to day running of the factory and its curious attitude to International racing competition, preferring mostly to get the public’s eye with stunts (across London locked in top gear, up Mt. Snowdon with a 250cc flathead, etc.) and promotions. Competition was left to rallylike events called Trials, such as the ISDT, Scottish, Colmore, etc. plus some of those uniquely English one-dayers through mud and snow. His view is sort of a see-no-evilspeak-no-evil but Bob does document quite carefully the decline of Britain’s largest motorcycle factory (perhaps in the world?) through boneheadedness and bad management, citing the contrast of a 3.5 million pound profit in 1961 vs an 8 million loss in 1971. Ugh.

A good easy read! 125 pp, lotsa pictures and great for winter reading. B9

—Henry N. Manney III