Talk:Birmingham Small Arms Company

Untitled

The whole article is poorly worded, with many ambiguous sentences. The punctuation, in particular, is dreadful.

Opening

Note that the article's first sentence gives a misleading impression that the Crimean War was still going on in 1861. It should be phrased to reflect the fact that the company was founded in 1861 by a group of 14 gunsmiths who had *earlier* associated with one another to sell guns to the government during the Crimean War (1852-1854). Any company formed in 1861 in order to sell arms for the Crimean War would probably not have survived a month, let alone over a century!

Sorted. GraemeLeggett 12:51, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC) (A BSA Bantam Owner)

General Edits

Removed: If you see a BSA motorcycle be glad you did because you wont see many in your life. BSA's are usually a vintage looking cycle , very classic , very cool. Perfectly reasonable, but it's not in line with the NPOV policy, I fear. -- April

Lost & Found/Non-Article Items

Lft.Major Perkins

To whom it may concern: I am looking for a Lft.Major Perkins, who was an engineer on motorcycles before WW2 began.He had two daughters by one marriage. One of his daughters married an American, B.B. Langenstein. Out of this marriage there were two children. Any one knowing information of this person please contact me at chocolatelynn@msn.com

Date Ageing a Rifle

I have a b.s.a. single shot .22 bolt action rifle.It is obviously quite old.It was received about 40 years ago.Is there anyway that I can ascertain it's age?

Check around the metal breach - there should be a number stamped into it. Then telephone theBritish Museum and they will tell you where the physical record is kept - some in Birmingham, some in London. You can date it from there. Rgds, --Trident13 19:29, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Some information on models, model No.s etc on this page:http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Site_Map.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.89.161.162 (talk) 17:28, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Was?

BSA was a .... company? BSA still exists. Can the opening paragraph be corrected to show that it is still trading as an airgun sport company. 86.7.209.101 17:26, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, I was outside the BSA factory in Birmingham only a few days ago. It is still very much active, though sadly no motorcycles are being manufactured there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.0.84.33 (talk) 21:34, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

BSA and central heating systems?

My father worked for BSA in the mid/late 1960's and I'm *sure* I remember him talking about BSA producing a line of central heating equipment - radiators, pipework, etc. Perhaps the 'Products' section ought to make some reference to this?

http://www.thecareerengineer.com/interviews/2006/04/an_old_modern_apprenticeship.php includes a reference to this:

"BSA came out of the war with a strength and ability to pursue a programme of innovative design that would be highly regarded, even today. This diversity embraced steel works, drop forging and press shops, metal components, engineering products, machine tools, central heating equipment, a gun division, and even Daimler motorcars"

Does anyone know how I can trace former employees from the BSA gunmakers in the late 1890/1900's?

My Great Grandfather, John Docker was a gunworker in Birmingham in this era and I am trying to build a picture of his life for publication. I was wondering if anyone knew if it were possible to trace employee lists from that far back? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.98.34.151 (talk) 20:57, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Millers Classic M/cycles

It would appear that the early days of BSA are not well known, here are the rather sparse historical details on BSA at "Millers's Classic Motorcycles Price Guide 1995 Volume II, p.21. Consultants Judith and Martin Miller, general Editor Valerie Lewis". They disagree considerably with this article on the exact start-point of motorcycle manufacturing.

BSA (British) Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) started life in 1906 as a supplier of cycle parts to British and foreign factories. It was not long afterwards that they began to produce motorised bicycles and then motorcycles. By 1921 their first sv V-twin 770cc was built and successfully marketed. This led to an extensive range of models — which included versions of ohv, sv, round tanks, singles and 2 strokes which could be supplied with vertical or inclined engines — produced throughout the 1920s and 30s. After WWII the Gold Star became one of the most popular sports machines built in England. Yet despite the introduction of several new models and having once held the title of being England's leading motorcycle manufacturer, USA ceased production in 1971. The company was reconstructed in the late 1970s to produce lightweights for export and replica Manx Norton frames.

I've inserted only mention of the 1921 V-twin into the article. MalcolmMcDonald (talk) 19:53, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Miller's Classic Motorcycles Price guide is wrong on fact. The Model E, 770cc 50 degree V twin was launched at the 1919 Motor and Bicycle Show for the 1920 season. There are a number of primary sources which could confirm this fact. The erroneous reference has been removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grubb1937 (talk • contribs) 17:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

John Bowkett

I am trying to create an article on John Bowkett, the designer who has worked so closely with BSA - if anyone has any suggestions for input, or input please post here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stephenjh/John_Bowkett Stephenjh (talk) 18:29, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Odd motocycle

If I could prove it, I would add it! But I had one! It was a C15G - crankcase of a C25 (points inside), and C15 barrels and head. Crankcase had 2 plain roller bearings - what a pig to get apart, shop in Leytonstone, London had never seen one like it (it needed a new big end), and I had to wait while they rebuilt my one. Can't remember the date (I had it in 1972), we came to the conclusion it was one of the last C15s and BSA were using up all the surplus C15 barrels and heads. Anyone seen 895HOO (strange what one does remember).  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 23:16, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

It is a pity that some of the output of the former British motorcycle industry was non-encyclopedic in nature. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 23:46, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

File:BSA most popular logo.jpg Nominated for Deletion

	An image used in this article, File:BSA most popular logo.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests July 2011 What should I do?
	A discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. If you feel the deletion can be contested then please do so (commons:COM:SPEEDY has further information). Otherwise consider finding a replacement image before deletion occurs. This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 18:03, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

Decline & fall of BSA Marque

When Maganese-Bronze took over, BSA motorcycles no longer were made; only Triumphs. It was BSA themselves rather than Maganese-bronze (Norton-Villiers) that dropped the BSA motorcycle brand. BSA maintained it's own brand motorcycle until 1972 when, after the calamities of the 1971 season, only Triumph motorcycles were marketed (hence the proposed BSA Hurricane becamse instead the Triumph Hurricane). The disasterous 1971 season was simply because the much hyped and anticipated BSA-Triumph range for that year never reached the USA showrooms in time for that country's short but massively lucrative and criticl selling season. The over-ambitious re-designs simply stretched BSA's logistical abilities too far and it was left with too many late-arriving unsold bikes which it had to discount. 213.123.135.235 (talk) 20:17, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Why not note this in the article. I suspect the article, being about the once large business, is most concerned about ownership of the trademark. regards, Eddaido (talk) 21:01, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

With the Flag Through German East Africa pamphlet

There is a pamphlet "With the Flag Through German East Africa" published by Birmingham Small Arms Company, LTD in 1918. It was not easy service with a motor bike in that country at that time. From [23] --Dennis Bratland (talk) 22:30, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Birmingham Small Arms Company. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180305/http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/news/2004/DaytonaBSA.asp to http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/news/2004/DaytonaBSA.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 23:52, 20 July 2017 (UTC)