BSA Gold Star
BSA Gold Star Background & History
The BSA Gold Star was in production from 1938 through the 1963 model year. It was one of BSA’s biggest selling and most famous products. At the time of the BSA Gold Star’s inception in 1938, the motorcycle world was ruled by big 500cc single-cylinder bikes. It is ironic that the1938 launch of the Gold Star was the same year that Triumph introduced it’s game-changing 500cc Speed Twin, which very quickly began to eclipse the dominance of singles. However, there was plenty of life left in them, and big British singles continued to be a major part of the motorcycle landscape up until the very early 1960s.
This 1938 BSA Gold Star has the plunger-style rear suspension.
BSA Gold Star is Something Special
The BSA Gold Star was exceptional among the big singles of the day. First off, it was an all-alloy engine at a time when most bikes had cast iron top ends (cylinder and head). It was heavily finned for cooling. It was a robust engine that made big power and held together despite copious abuse. It was BSA's goal to have the fastest big single on the market and they accomplished this with aplomb. Each BSA Gold Star engine was hand assembled by an expert, tested on the dynamometer and the documented test results provided with each new motorcycle. Hand assembly also allowed for customization and modifications otherwise unheard of in a mass-produced product. Over its long life, the BSA Gold Star was in a constant state of improvement. Racing certainly improved the breed, as did the high-mileage street bikes that lived in day-to-day traffic.
This 500cc 1956 BSA Gold Star shows the detail and quality of workmanship that went into one.
Origin of the BSA Gold Star
In 1937, Wal Handley lapped the Brooklands racing circuit at over 100 on a BSA Empire Star. As a trophy, he was awarded a traditional Gold Star badge, which inspired the name of the new bike. The first BSA Gold Star started out as a BSA M24 with an aluminum barrel and head, displacing 496cc. The Electron gearbox had a magnesium case for weight reduction, and the rigid frame and girder front forks were constructed of lightweight, high-strength Reynolds 531 alloy steel, again in the interest of reducing weight. This prewar BSA Gold Star remained in production until World War 2 ended all civilian production. These early machines made around 30 hp. Fewer than 600 were built. Some were used by the British military during World War 2.
This side of the 1956 BSA Gold Star engine shows the Lucas magneto, which lives behind the cylinder, chain driven off the timing side.
Postwar BSA Gold Stars
After the war, in 1946 BSA introduced a new pair of iron engines (with cast iron cylinder and head, rather than aluminum) the B31 in 350cc and the B33 at 500cc. In late 1948 BSA showed the new 350cc ZB32 BSA Gold Star at the Earls Court Motorcycle Show in London with a long list of performance options. Where the prewar BSA Gold Star had bolt-on rocker boxes, the postwar bikes used a one-piece head with the rocker boxes cast in unit with the alloy head. A new frame with plunger-type rear suspension was adopted as a stopgap solution while the world waited for swing arm rear suspension, which arrived at BSA in 1953.
This 1960 BSA Gold Star is finished in Clubmans trim, but street legal. A very popular configuration in the UK.
Every BSA Gold Star engine was hand-assembled, tuned, then dyno’d to confirm that it produced the prescribed horsepower, or it wasn’t released to the buyer. The magic number was 25 hp, depending upon specification. This compared well against BSA’s own B-series singles, that only made 17 hp and were 20 heavier than the BSA Gold Star, and still had a cast iron top end.
This 1955 BSA Gold Star shows what could be done with one. This one has been stripped to the bone for open class motocross.
BSA Gold Star Wins Races
The BSA Gold Star was both an outstanding desert racer and road racer. A 350cc BSA Gold Star won the Manx Grand Prix Clubmans 350 class every year from 1949 through 1956 when the class was discontinued. The BSA Gold Star was also versatile, and could be oufitted as a tourer, trials, ISDT, scrambles, motocross, road racing or Clubmans trim, and they proved to be competent and competitive at all of them.
This 1958 BSA Gold Star is all fitted out for road racing.
BSA Gold Star gets a Swing Arm
Swing arm rear suspension hit the BSA Gold Star in the 1953 model year in the form of a new frame with twin front downtubes. Interestingly, buyers could still opt for a rigid frame or the plunger rear suspension. Continual improvements and refinements were made on virtually every aspect of the bikes until they had probably reached their zenith around 1960.
The World is a'Changin'
By this time the world and the market were changing. Of course Britain’s own vertical twins look a huge bite out of the singles market, however in the end it was the onslaught of cheap, reliable, fast, high-quality machines that rendered the BSA Gold Star and every other big British single like it (ie: Norton Manx, Royal Enfield Bullet, etc.) obsolete.
This 1954 BSA Gold Star Clubman was set up for serious track day events.
Around this same time, Lucas Electrics (aka “The Prince of Darkness” because the lights often didn’t work), supplier of electrical components to all the classic British motorcycle manufacturers of the day announced that they would discontinue production of their line of magnetos and dynamos which provided spark and lights to nearly every British bike in existence. It forced the Brits to redesign all their engines to accommodate the new system of alternator and coil. BSA and Triumph used it as an excuse to completely redesign their 650 twins, changing them from non-unit to unit construction, and using the new electrical components. While BSA did the same thing to the Gold Star, it didn’t turn out nearly as well. The non-unit Gold Star was replaced by the unit-construction
BSA 441 Victor, which was a decent bike, but never achieved the level of success as the classic BSA Gold Star, not on the track, on the street or in showrooms. The classic BSA Gold Star was a legend, and still is to a devoted legion of fans.
BSA Gold Star Catalina Scrambler
Chuck Minert won the Catalina Grand Prix on 1956 on a modified BSA Gold Star (ie: a larger fuel tank, an air scoop on the front brake and a 19-inch front whee). The Catalina GP was a 100-mile race around Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles CA. More than 1,000 riders started the race that year. After this success, US West Coast BSA Distributor Hap Alzina persuaded BSA to produce a replica of the bike named “Catalina” after this famous race. The BSA Gold Star Catalina Scrambler was produced from 1959 through the 1963 model year.
1959 BSA Gold Star Catalina Scrambler
The Catalina got all the best BSA Gold Star parts, hand-assembled as always. They came equipped from the factory with a racing number plate and with the lighting system deleted. And the whole thing was topped off with a cool decal on the top of the tank that showed a silhouette of the island with ‘BSA Catalina Scrambler’ scrawled across it. Today, Catalinas are so popular that BSA Gold Star owners often covert their bikes into “Catalina Replicas” or tribute bikes or whatever you choose to call them. If you’re shopping for one as an investment, just make sure it’s an authentic BSA Gold Star Catalina Scrambler, and not a clone.
This unique decal was applied at the BSA factory to the top of the tank of every BSA Gold Star Catalina Scrambler. They even reproduce these decals, making it even easier to replicate one. That's OK, as long as you're honest about it. But, when you're the buyer, just make sure that if you're paying authentic prices, that it's really authentic.
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