The beer nerds out there (myself included) don't use frosty mugs because they diminish flavor and aroma on hop forward beers, like IPA's. But ultimately beer is about your enjoyment of it, so do what makes you happy and don't feel bad about it! Great BSA's and great to see you and your dad having fun, motorbikes can be generational fun!
Also my favorite year for the Spitfire; just detuned enough to be street legal and fairly reliable. It has that iconic "gutteral, growly" sound that only a slightly muffled, hotrod, 360 degree/4-stroke parallel twin can produce! That front brake, aluminum control lever assemblies, and sholdered aluminum rims are the icing for the iconic cake.
This is just cool! Seeing those 2 old bikes that have been sitting, being brought to life! I should drag my 1968 Greeves 360 Challenger out and fire it up! It is a polished/chromed/painted show bike of a Greeves, all done in 1969.
I had a 66 A65 Lightning that was constantly ending up with the same appearing no start issue. I’d pull the carbs and clean them and it was fine, but a day or two later it’d happen again. Later found out the tank petcock corks were dissolving and plugging the pilot jets. Pretty simple repair, but ever since I’ve always traveled with a piece of guitar string and a little screwdriver to probe the pilot jets on Amal’s at least to get me home in a pinch. Really love the series!!!
I was 13 in 1967 and owned a BSA Bantam, the Spitfire was, and still is, my all-time favourite. What a gem that one is. As for the Victor, what a slug. AND, the best part of it is the Mikuni Carb.
@@jeremyatkinson4976 Like Rick Seimen )Super Hunky) from dirt bike USA said, the '67 441 Victor is the worst dirt bike he ever rode. And I agree, I've ridden one in the early 70s with the intent to buy it, but actually laughed whilst testing it, it was so bad. The B50 however is fabulous.
I bought the first Mk11 special in the spring of 66 in Lawton Oklahoma while stationed at Ft. Sill. It was the first version of the new Spitfire with Amal GP carbs but it had some teething problems. The engineers at BSA didn’t quite get the piston to valve clearance correct and it ate a cam follower at 99 miles. The 2gal. fiberglass tank was good for about 60 miles which I discovered while riding home to Delaware. Just outside of Memphis the pin holding the float in place (the Amal GPs shared a single float bowl attached to the frame) vibrated loose while entering the interstate on a rainy November afternoon dumping gas over the rear tire- someone forgot to safety wire the pin! I managed to get back to a gas station and used a cotter pin and electrical tape to fix the problem. The next day I found the local BSA dealer who had a new Spitfire apart for the cam follower issue and he told me to take what I needed from the “piece of junk in the corner!” I got home with no more problems than a split battery which dumped acid over the left side of the bike. I rode it to NYC for the night and left it on the street in mid Manhattan! My adventure with the Spitfire was short lived as I soon shipped out to Germany for a 3 year tour and my father wouldn’t let my brother keep it after he dumped it in a parking lot. I still think about that bike as it was probably the best looking 650 made… even though the magazines didn’t give it much of score.
I just finished restoring a '69 BSA Victor Special, upgraded to aluminum Sun Rims and '72 B50 alloy front forks. Fun watching your videos, look forward to watching you test start the B44.
The Spitfire is my favourite BSA, I have a Mk II. It is an official record that a standard unmodified Mk II clocked 128mph on Conrod Straight, at Bathurst, Australia, in the 1967 Production Race. Neither Norton or Triumph ever built a standard 650 that went as fast.
Hi from England 👍👍, respect to you !!!!!!!!!!!! Rock nRoll sound !!!!!!!!!!!, the old BSA factory is not far from me in Birmingham , alas all gone except from a very small bit of building, regards Tom from Birmingham England 👍👍👍👍
I have a 1968 BSA Shooting Star 441 I've been messing with for the past year. Same color scheme and has a fiberglass tank, but with knee recesses. I replaced the Amal (which was working, and I still have) with a Mikuni made for Brit bikes from Steadfast Cycles (nice to have a choke). The previous owner installed electronic ignition. I'm looking to sell this Spring if you're interested.
I just love the looks and simplicity of the classic British twins! The only problem is, I can't afford anything halfway decent! That's why I'd probably get a Yamaha XS650. Back in '98, I almost got an '81 XS650 Special for $800, but it was sold the day before I went to buy it. I ended up getting an '82 KZ650 CSR for $500 instead. The Kawi served me well as a year round daily rider (which isn't always easy in NJ) but I never forgot "the one that got away"!
Very cool, your lucky I moved to Oklahoma or I would have been all over those bikes down the street from me in Pebble. Your right about the phone, you gotta call, I just picked up an original 72 Ossa Enduro in Claremore, Oklahoma. so much fun!!
What a lovely film, great to see the process you went through to get it fired up, I'll be looking forward to seeing the 441 making a noise. My T140 has been in the shed for three months, gave it a load of kicks yesterday and eventually it started - looking forward to spring after a long and wet UK winter. Also your Triumph sled is a delight.
Hi Bill, you and your dad should take a trip to see Kyle at CBS, and pop into Dan Routts in Frenso. I met Dan before he passed, an inspirational guy despite his disability with an incredible collection.
I'm English, born 1957, Norton specialist but I had BSA friends. They were addicted to the A10 and especially the Rocket Gold Star. The Unit motor A50 or A65 was not hallowed, more short stoke than the A10 lighter, stronger when they had fixed the faults. The 67 Spitfire did 123 mph on roardtest, more than the 119 MPH of my 1963 Norton 650SS, less than my 750 Atlas café racer. This was a fast bike, the equivalent Triumph Bonneville roadtested at 115 mph. The Spitfire was a HOT bike. That's why they stole it in the 1968 film "IF"
Looks like you got a good deal. I wish my dad had a cool vintage bike collection. What kind of carburator was on the 441? A Mikuni? That seems like a very common swap that people do, especially on Nortons and BSA's. I think these old British bikes run best with Amal carbs, but I've never actually tried a Japanese carb on one.
Always wanted a BSA, almost got a Lightning once but sadly, it didn't happen. Time to star searching again. Cheerio from Yorkshire. Ride safe everyone.
Why, you may ask, did BSA manufacture a "190mm" front brake, originally for the Gold Star, when the British motorcycle industry measured everything (except bore, stroke, and cubic capacity) in imperial, not metric? According to Roland Pike, who was working on Goldie development at the time (see the beezagent blog): "About 1955 the desire developed for a better brake for our scramblers. Since the management wanted to avoid spending money, as usual, it was decided one brake would have to do for both Clubman's TT and racing Gold Stars, and scramblers. Dennis Hardwick wanted a small brake for the scramblers, Charlie Salt and I wanted a big brake for the Clubman. We compromised on a 190mm brake on Charlie’s suggestion, who told me he was banking on a belief that Hardwick would not know how big 190mm really was. As it turned out Hardwick didn’t. So we came out with this fairly large brake with wide shoes which was used for some years afterwards, although in my opinion it was not as good as the earlier cast iron drum with ribs around it. That was the best Gold Star brake. Charlie did not like it himself and he blamed Hardwick for the fact that it was too small, as he would have preferred 200mm diameter. The l90mm brake was designed by Charlie and it turned out to be rather heavy for its size." 🙂
Thank you so much for adding this! I was hard-pressed to find any good articles about it, but this totally makes sense, and I felt like I had heard it before.
FYI, RU-vid did not send me a notification that you have a new video out, But I was scrolling and found this video anyway, just thought I would let you know
Interestingly, I don’t recall ever seeing a Spitfire or even knowing of one when I used to ride my 650 thunderbolt in the 70s…. Nonetheless, brilliant twins, so long as you look after that crankshaft shell, bearing I converted mine to needle roller, bullet proof, thereafter
I don't know if you're aware but your Spitfire should have a Y in the VIN, indicating upgraded charging and oil manifold. The zener mounted at the front was a mid-year upgrade, along with the head oil line coming off the manifold under the engine rather than at the tank.
Faster. Had a 750 twin BSA factory racing motor. Limited number made. Got from Starvin’ Marvin Bell, western USA BSA distributor in Ft. Worth. Lots of work done on it. Teflon pistons, $1500 in bottom end in California, crank and cam, 2 into one pipe, vents to alleviate case pressure, etc. campaigned by Robert E. Lee. Flat track champion. Set record on San Jose Mile. Only used it on long tracks. Said it was too much. Liked the 650 as it was more manageable. After he quit, the engine was on the counter for years. Put in a frame (quite a story) and had a great time. According to helicopter, timing, and Texas State troopers controlling road we finally got it geared to right at 200. Twisted off 175 speedo and still going. Bike in racing museum now due to a ‘friend ‘ who kept it for me when I was indisposed . When I find the title I’ll go get it.
BSA twin carb. is the bike I wanted when I was in high school, but I wanted the bigger tank with the chrome and paint. (1969) But I did get and still have the other bike I wanted~~~ Harley Davidson XLCH.!
Ah, memory lane. So long ago it seems like a different world, a guy with a Spitfire (very unusual in our rural neck of the woods in a highly rural state) asked my dad if he could leave the bike with him for a while. It had broken down. I got to sit on it as a little kid pretending to ride it until the owner took it back. Never did hear it run. I'd love to have a BSA Lightning now. The Spitfire was a little too fussy for maintenance. I'll have to settle for my Yamaha XS 650 Standard, which is in some ways just a better bike but not magical like the BSA.
Sunday morning here in the UK , pancakes and coffee for breakfast , and watching another great episode of Wheel House . Your Dad picked up two great bikes ,well done , they look great .new points and condenser ,set timing , all done . are you going to keep them or sale them on to a lucky person, Thanks for posting , KIWI
You didn't have to remove these carbs and take them apart to clean idle circuit. Next time remove the tank, remove the carb tops with cables and poke with a very thin steel wire into 2 orifices near the slide edge. Spray same part's cleaner through the idle jet ( after removing air idle screw ) and when you see 2 streams of a cleaner coming through these orifices you can be sure engine will start. Be aware gel coating of the tank with tank itself gets diluted by our contemporary fuel and will make a mess inside your carbs in very short time. Remove original tank and leave it on a shelf and use a steel tank in a case you plan to ride a bike.
Good question! All the original advertisements and articles that I studied agreed that they had concentrics. Check out Cycle World April 1967 issue 👍 magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1967/4/1/bsa-spitfire-mk-iii
@@wheelhousegarage I think Amal stopped making mono blocks in 1966 and everything swapped over to concentrics. Lovely to see your B44, I look forward to the video of that. A few months ago I acquired a 1966 B44 very similar to yours. Re-imported to the UK from New Mexico, it appears to have spent a few years parked in a swamp after Billy Bob and Cletus had finished destroying it . She is coming back together nicely now, not entirely original but she still has the proper tank with genuine paint. Looking forward to having it ready for summer now.
I’m a Norton guy so my recollections on BSA’s isn’t great. The 66’s had GP carbs which weren’t great, then they went to Concentrics as you said in 67. Triumph and Norton I believe used monoblocs on their larger displacent bikes until 68. Watch out for those old fiberglass tanks with ethenal fuel.
Hi im a Norton guy as well , but had a 67 hornet with energy transfer ignition and yep it had monobloc 1 1/8 carbs. Its the timing side main bush that lets A65’s down and makes the left rod come out . Saw it happen once and even destroyed the frame as well as the engine.
Maybe stop using so much throttle when starting. So what did you find wrong with the carbs? Amal concentrics notorious for gumming up the pilot, with the passages going through 90 degrees and hard to clean.
The Spitfire never looks right to me with that tiny tank they stuck on for the American market. It just doesn't match up with the huge side panels, which were designed to go with the massive tank the Spitfire was given for the UK market. Don't take my word for it, look for a picture of the UK version on Google. You will see no funny looking gap between the seat and the tank on the UK version. That's because the big tank was designed for it, that small effort was not.
