Geezer on a Beezer

The latest news to sweep across the ether is that BSA is being revived in India.  Eh, we’ll see.

I’m naturally skeptical about revivals.  Lord knows Norton has been through a few, and last I checked, like Julius Caesar they’re still dead.  Indian (not bikes from India, but the American Indian brand) should maybe be called the Easter bike based on how many times they’ve been resurrected.   And there was Henderson for a while maybe 20 years ago (remember that flash in the pan?).   Triumph…well you know that story.  They rose again, but it wasn’t really the original Triumph…it was just the name, but then they reintroduced the vertical twin Bonneville, except the displacement increased until the marvelous 650cc we used to know grew to 1200cc and the bike gained a couple of hundred pounds, give or take.   I’d like to see Bud Ekins jump one of the new Bonnevilles escaping from a German POW camp.  He might have better luck getting airborne with a Panzer.

And then of course there’s Royal Enfield, but they’re technically not a resurrection.  They never went out of business.  Well, maybe they sort of did, but before the Japanese bikes drove the final nail in the British motorcycle industry coffin (with a lot of help from the British motorcycle industry, who’s official motto seemed to be “too little, too late”), the original Royal Enfield (the folks in England) starting building bikes in India, and when the Brits went belly up, the folks running the Indian plant watched, shrugged, and kept on building.  I ride an Indian Royal Enfield, but it’s not an Indian like most folks in the US motorcycling community use the word.  Well, okay, it is, but it’s from India.  It’s not a Polaris Indian from America.

Confused yet?

This BSA thing might be cool, though.  I’d like to see it work, and if it works as well as my Royal Enfield (which is as fine as any motorcycle made anywhere), it would be a good thing.  I always wanted a Beezer when I was a kid, and I suppose owning one now would make me a geezer with a Beezer (like the kid’s book, Sheep in a Jeep).

In the meantime, here are a few more photos I’ve shot of BSAs at the Hansen Dam Britbike meet in California, in Australia, and elsewhere over the years.  We can only hope the resurrected bikes look as good.

You know what I’d like to see?  I’d like to see two bikes from the 1960s resurrected…a 1966 Triumph T120R and a 1965 Electra Glide (the last year of the Panhead, and the first year of the electric start).  Those are two of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made.  The HD photo below is an earlier Duo Glide, but you get the idea.  Make them reliable, substitute enough aluminum for steel so that when you add all the smog and other regulatoria the bikes weigh in at their mid-’60s weights, and make them reliable.  Zongshen, you guys listening?

If they did either of those two resurrections, I’d be in.  In a heartbeat.  I’d be Charley on a Harley.  Johnnie on a Bonny.  Whatever.

Hey, if resurrections are what you want, check this out!

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