I provided just a hint of the Motor Museum of Western Australia’s treasures so far, and a few days ago I started that with this teaser of a Beezer photo…<\/p>\n
The bike you see above is a 1950 125cc two-stroke BSA Bantam, and it’s significant to me because in the late 1960s I actually owned one of those bikes.\u00a0 It was nowhere near as beautiful as the one you see here. \u00a0 My Bantam was painted kind of a rattlecan flat black, it had no muffler, and the lights didn’t work.\u00a0 I bought it for $30 with no title, I rode it in the fields behind our place for a month, and then I sold it for $50 after leaving it on the front lawn for a day with a For Sale sign.\u00a0 Grand times, those were. \u00a0 I didn’t even know the Bantam’s displacement back then, but I knew it was a Bantam, and the thing had a surprising amount of power. I guess that’s what two-strokes do, and it kind of explains good buddy Joe Gresh’s fascination with the oilers.\u00a0 It’s the only ring-a-ding-dinger I ever owned.<\/p>\n
The Bantam at the Motor Museum of Western Australia is just flat stunning.\u00a0 I had no idea they came in living color, and I sure like the colors on this one.<\/p>\nColors that would rival a modern Harley. This is a good looking motorcycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Check out the decal on the case behind the engine.\u00a0 I’m guessing it held tools or maybe electrical connections (one of the early Bantam models actually had a battery, but it was located in the headlight).<\/p>\nBSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms. Yep, they started as a gun company, kind of like Enfield. You gotta love the stacked rifles logo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Everything was mechanical and simple back then.\u00a0 Take a look, for example, at the front brake and its adjustment mechanism. Simple. Cool. You could actually work on a motorcycle without an iPhone or a computer. Better times, I think.<\/p>\n
Some of the old British motorcycles of the 1940s, 1950s, and even into the 1960s had magnificent mufflers. \u00a0 This one stood out.<\/p>\nThis, my friends, is a motorcycle muffler!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In researching the Bantam, I found a few facts I did not previously know.\u00a0 For starters, the design was based on a German DKW, and it came to England, Russia, and the US (yep, Harley had a variant) as war reparations at the end of World War II. \u00a0 Incredibly, the British redesigned the engine as a mirror image of the German original to put the shifter on the right side (or, as they might say, the “correct” side).\u00a0 They did a few other things, too, such as converting everything to English units (from metric) and incorporating English electrics (think Lucas, the Prince of Darkness).\u00a0 The 1950 Bantam only had a three-speed gearbox, but it would hit 50 mph. Interesting stuff.<\/p>\n
So there you have it. \u00a0 Classic bikes galore.\u00a0 And there’s more.\u00a0 Stay tuned to the ExNotes blog, as we have a few more photos from the Motor Museum of Western Australia to share with you.\u00a0 There’s good stuff coming and you’ll see it right here.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190426_1248-600.jpg\")
The bike you see above is a 1950 125cc two-stroke BSA Bantam, and it’s significant to me because in the late 1960s I actually owned one of those bikes.\u00a0 It was nowhere near as beautiful as the one you see here. \u00a0 My Bantam was painted kind of a rattlecan flat black, it had no muffler, and the lights didn’t work.\u00a0 I bought it for $30 with no title, I rode it in the fields behind our place for a month, and then I sold it for $50 after leaving it on the front lawn for a day with a For Sale sign.\u00a0 Grand times, those were. \u00a0 I didn’t even know the Bantam’s displacement back then, but I knew it was a Bantam, and the thing had a surprising amount of power. I guess that’s what two-strokes do, and it kind of explains good buddy Joe Gresh’s fascination with the oilers.\u00a0 It’s the only ring-a-ding-dinger I ever owned.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190426_1246-600.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190426_1251-600.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190426_1268-600.jpg\")
Some of the old British motorcycles of the 1940s, 1950s, and even into the 1960s had magnificent mufflers. \u00a0 This one stood out.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190426_1267-600.jpg\")