BSA Gold Star 2022: First Look

Right, so the legend is back! BSA have just lifted the cover off the all-new Gold Star and I went straight over to the NEC in Birmingham over at Motorcycle Live to have a look at this bike in the metal. In this video we're going to talk all about it. Right, so straight away off the bat, if you're in a bit of a hurry and you haven't got time for all this chit-chat, it is a modern classic motorcycle. It is a big thumper, a 650cc double overhead cammed, liquid cooled, 45 horsepower bike. Yes, you can break every speed limit in the country on it and it's probably going to cost you around five and a bit thousand quid, although we don't know that yet. But if you want to know a little bit more, well we're going to talk about it in this video. First thing to say is that it was a little bit odd almost walking around the NEC. It's a massive venue and for Motorcycle Live, don't know if you've ever been before, but you know all the big brands turn up to it. So the likes of your Suzuki's, Triumph, Harley-Davidson, Ducati, they're all there. And in amongst all these massive names of modern motor biking, we had of course the one that your granddad talked about, BSA. And it was just a little bit of a surreal experience just walking around and seeing this this big logo up in lights and you know walked up to their stand where they were all set up. And I've got to say it was just a massive, massive deal. These guys were definitely there to prove a point. They had a huge amount of space and you know that they were there in force, not just for new motorbikes but the whole lineup. You know your jackets, luggage, everything's ready to go. This is a brand that is back. They've got big bucks under their belt and they definitely mean business. So this video we're going to talk all about the bike. I got up close and personal with it. I've seen it in the flesh and I can tell you what I think about it. I've got some photos and video clips to show you of the all-new Gold Star which is coming out early next year. But first it's worth having a little bit of a reflection on this whole thing. Talk about BSA a little bit and talk about why I think this bike is going to find its place in the market. The first thing to say about BSA is that it's a very special brand for British manufacturing. This thing really was back in the day a jewel in the crown for so many things, not just motorbike manufacturing. You know they made everything. BSA stands for the Birmingham Small Arms Company. They made guns, they made buses, they made cars, you know they made all kinds of different things. Motorbikes and bicycles were just part of what they did. I think their first motorized bicycle, the motor bicycle as it was probably called back then, rolled off the production line in around 1910. So a long time ago they were putting out these kind of small engine powered bikes. They moved up to motorbikes. By the time we got to the 1930s we had the Gold Star and it didn't actually stick around for very long before we had the war. And during the war I think they sold about 500 of them or something like that, not many. During the war of course they got a knock on the door from the government who said we will have all of your stock, thank you very much, and we'll place some big orders for the British forces and our allies. You know you're going to be one of the motorcycles that we use, so get on with it. I think they put an order in of about 8,000 bikes or something like that and that of course kept BSA very busy during the war times, but they didn't make any civilian bikes. It wasn't until after the war where you know BSA really found themselves in a very good place when it came to their bikes. Not only had they been tested on the battlefield, but they were probably fairly flush with cash as well as you can imagine having just one of those big contracts with the military. And I think they spent that money pretty wisely. It was pretty obvious that they invested heavily in dominance on the racing track. You know the original name Gold Star back before the war was stamps on the bike after it broke one of the lap records at Brooklyn, doing a lap average of about 107.5 miles an hour. So BSA already knew the power of leveraging success on the racetrack in order to sell units in the showroom. So this is exactly what they continued to do after the war. They were dominant in the TT, absolutely smashing it in terms of winning all the big trophies that mattered and it really was the bike to be seen with. It was an expensive bike, don't get me wrong, I mean these things after the war they were handmade to order. Every single bike was dynoed for its individual customer so you'd know exactly how many horsepower the thing put out. You know if you were riding around on a BSA Gold Star in the 50s you'd obviously done pretty well for yourself. It was a premium machine and it was the bike to be seen on absolutely 100%. If you had a BSA Gold Star, happy days. So this success and this run of success really stayed with BSA throughout the 1950s but you know getting in towards the early 60s they had a few problems. One of them was the sudden emergence of all of these faster lighter two-stroke bikes and then of course we had the refinement and the competitive price points of the twin cylinders, the twin bikes. So all these things kind of happened and then the final nail in the coffin for BSA and the Gold Star was when Lucas turned around and said well we're not making this Magneto anymore so it stopped and by the time we got to the 70s like so many great British manufacturers it was all over Red Rover. For BSA the shutters came down and we didn't hear a peep out of them until 2016 and that's when the Indian billions came in, big investment commitments and suddenly BSA was back. Now why would they do that? Well it's a pretty interesting thing meaning you know I've worked in marketing and advertising for a very long time and people when they're making big purchasing decisions they don't just buy products, they buy into brands. You know when you buy something you want to feel like you're part of something so of course it makes perfect sense for people who want to sell motorbikes to a particular market. One strategy is to get on board with that heritage and you can't fake that, these kind of brands take decades or centuries to build. So you've got all of that brand richness tucked away within BSA and now of course they can unlock it by sticking the legendary Gold Star badge and that beautiful chrome tank up on this new bike. Now of course the argument will go on forever as to whether or not this is a real BSA or whether it is sacrilege. The big question is whether or not the new investors Mahindra Group can actually pull this off now and they're going to need to pull a couple of tricks and the first one really is being respectful to the legacy. The badge will only get it so far but this needs to be a bike that lives up to its name and I think they've got a pretty good chance of having looked at it, having seen it. So let's jump into a few pictures here and videos of the bike that I took down at the NEC and talk about what I first noticed when I saw the bike. Now the big one is of course that this is a big thumper. It's a big single, they've managed to do it. Of course with a 499 single cylinder engine and here it is. Of course with a few iterations to make it compliant with all the regulations around the world at the moment. One of them of course is the fact that this thing is going to have to run lean as hell so it has got a massive radiator up front. Of course this thing is liquid cooled. It has to be because it ain't going to be getting through compliance otherwise. We've seen what happened to the Royal Enfield Classic 500. It's a goner thanks to Euro 5. So the only way manufacturers can make these bikes work is by, as I said, leaning them up. That increases the temperature therefore you have to cool them down before they explode. So it is unfortunately liquid cooled. So for some people that's going to be a deal breaker. It's not ideal but it's life. What they could have done, which they didn't do, was actually start with the 350 because they probably could have got away with that. We've seen that in Royal Enfield's new Classic 350 in the Meteor. That's still air and oil cooled so maybe they could have done that but obviously they chose to go with the horsepower. This thing putting out around 45 horsepower. But looking at the bike it is absolutely beautiful. It really has that silhouette of the one of the BSA that everybody wants, the DBD34. That's the one, the classic chrome tank and that beautiful red badge up there. It's got those big spoked wheels, aluminium work on the engine covers. Looks lovely. That will give you something to do on a Sunday afternoon. It has that classic flat bench, you know, kind of British style seat. And this particular model with the lovely white piping all around it. And there's a few kind of modern-ish things on there as well. So this bike has dual channel ABS so it's safer. It's got things like a USB. It's got twin clocks. You know, it's a really nice combination of the old and the new coming together. But I do think looking at it, it does look like a bike that properly pays homage to its bloodline, which is really good. There's a few things on the bike that I don't really like if I'm being critical. Some of the things in the build quality lead me to believe this is going to be a fairly budget machine, probably a little bit cheaper than the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650. We don't know yet. But if you look at things like these downpipes, you know, at face value, beautiful brushed stainless steel, right? But on this bike, they're just covers, you know, they're just covers that are kind of hiding a slightly uglier pipe underneath. Now this is a pre-production unit, so I don't know whether that's going to be the case as they come out of the factory. I think it probably is, to be honest. Other areas where I'm not a big fan, things like the kind of fake carbs and all that, you know, these kind of waffled things on the side. Yeah, not a big fan of those, to be honest. I'd rather they just said, well, it hasn't got carbs. Obviously it's fuel injected. Let's just not bother with all of that. And a few little tiny bits and pieces like, you know, you can see around the headstock, you know, things like the loom and all that haven't really been tucked away particularly well. The brake lines and things, always hard things to hide, but maybe they could have done a little bit of a better job. But I'm really picking on it. I'm picking on it. It's not going to be a massively expensive bike, I don't think. I think they're going to go after that kind of Interceptor-ish type market. So 5,000-ish, I think, I hope. Apart from that, everything looks in order. Oh, apart from one weird thing, the sprocket's on the wrong side. Why? Maybe somebody more technically minded can tell me why that is, but it's on the wrong side. So there you go. The suspension, I think it's got five levels of preload adjustment on the shocks, the sticks on the front. Nothing you can do about those unless you re-spring them. Same story with the Interceptor, not a big deal. But there it is, you know, and look, to be honest, if you're in the market for a Gold Star at the moment and you want to pick up something like that DBD34, I mean, you're talking, you're talking selling your kidneys kind of money. Honestly, it's completely inaccessible. So what this does is it gives riders of a new generation, and even of an older generation that remember this bike, the opportunity to get back on one and to have and to own and to enjoy the closest thing that you can to the original. And you can't really argue with that. I mean, it's just a, it's a rebooted brand. You know, my Indian is a rebooted brand that is now owned by Polaris. It has 1901 written on the side of the bike. It has almost zero bloodline back to the originals. You could argue the same for an Enfielder though, that's a little bit different because they did continue out in India. Norton, that's currently getting rebooted at the moment. And it's just the way the world is, right? So deal with it. But I'm pretty happy to see this bike back on the market. The other thing that also makes me happy about this bike is the fact that it has not only been designed in the United Kingdom, but here's something for those who are a fan of British built, it is going to be built here as well. That's what I've heard. I've heard this bike is actually going to be produced here in the UK. Now I don't know if they're going to make all of them here, just some of them. I don't know whether it's just domestic models going to be made over here, but that's the idea. BSA also very interestingly have got a four point something million pounds grant from the UK government to develop an electric bike as well. So I don't know if this is going to be the last petrol bike that we see from BSA, but we are inevitably going to see, if all goes well, a new range of electric bikes as well. So it's going to be very interesting to see if they continue down the kind of retro modern classic look, but bring in the electric element to it. That could work. It could be interesting, or they go for something completely futuristic and try to do what BSA were doing back in the day, and that was setting the benchmark, setting the lap records, breaking the barriers. Maybe BSA wants to step up and do that kind of thing again in the electric space. We don't know, but what I can say is it's for me just a great bike to see out there on the showroom forecourts. Would I buy one? Yes, I possibly would, but I'd really like to test ride one. I can't wait to see and feel what that big 650 thumper is actually going to be like on the road. I bet it sounds absolutely amazing. Can't wait for that. Do I think it's a competitor to the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650? Inevitably, yes, it is, but I can also see this being a stablemate, right, because they're so different. These are going to be very, very different bikes in terms of feel. The 650 being the smooth parallel twin, this one being the big thumper. Very, very different feel in how they ride. This has got twin balancing shafts, so it is going to be a little bit smoother than you might expect, but we don't know yet. Nobody's ridden one, but I can't wait to do it. Now, elsewhere down at the NEC, talking of Royal Enfield, I did get to see their new concept bike, so I'm going to bring you a full video on that very soon. I was also down at the Norton stand as well, so some interesting metal down there to have a look at, and a few other bits and pieces as well that are definitely just interesting talking points from Motorcycle Live, one of them being the huge presence of electric bikes. We're going to have a little chit-chat about that as well in a future video, but for now, let me know what you think of the all-new BSA Gold Star down in the comments below. Would you have one? Is it just a badging exercise, or do you think this is a legit new 2022 Gold Star, something that you would proudly own and have in your garage? Comments down below. Until the next one, ride safe.