The Forgotten British Twin That Vibrated Itself To Bits

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:01]Like the dinosaurs who didn't know what was about to hit them when the asteroid was heading for the Yakatan Peninsula 66 million years ago.

[00:00:12]The big old British beasts that were roaming the motorcycle jungle in the early 1970s were also living on borrowed time. The Triumph Bonavville and the Norton Commando were the T-Rexes of the ' 70s bike scene. But there was another parallel twin that's so far gone under the three fields radar. The final version of this bike was so bad that it broke its back on its test runs.

[00:00:50]In 1969, BSA Triumph Chairman Eric Turner stood up at the company's annual general meeting and admitted the previously unutterable. The Japanese were harvesting huge sways of the big bike market, traditionally dominated by the Brits, especially in the US. Not only were sales suffering, quality control was becoming [ __ ] house, too.

[00:01:15]Bikes destined for the North American market were arriving with missing or badly corroded parts. American customers and dealerships were rapidly becoming disappointed and disillusioned. While Triumph and Norton were desperately clinging on to business like dangleberries to a sheep's bum, BSA had something up or on its sleeve that had been lodged there since the 1960s.

[00:01:44]The A65 650, and it had all started well for the parallel twin. Designed to captivate the American market, BSA's A65 was without doubt a good-looking machine. Despite its comparatively ancient roots in 1965, it gained a boost from being featured in a Bond film, Thunderball, complete with working missile launcher and ridden by Bondgirl A lot of vagina.

[00:02:13]Actually, a stunt rider in a wig with a claimed top speed of 110 mph. It was certainly no slouch. But the A65 wasn't without its teething troubles, nothing British ever was back then, with reports of bikes being sent back to the factory multiple times to fix gearbox and piston problems and an initial catastrophic flaw which caused oil pressure to drop rapidly with predictable results as well as inevitably >> the [clears throat] oil leak.

[00:02:47]For a while, US reviews were positive.

[00:02:50]The beeser was described as being as British as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with a special sound that brought the romance of a product from across the sea. Wistful words indeed.

[00:03:03]But already a note of caution was being sounded with Cycleworld magazine bemoning in 1968 the lack of evolutionary development which is apparent among other machines from Germany, Japan, and Italy. Having undergone a few iterations in the 1960s, by 1970 the A65 was looking a bit long in the tooth. The May 1970 edition of Cycle World found a quite annoying level of vibration which was traced to loose engine mounts. Their summary of the 1970 model pleased and disappointed.

[00:03:40]Not only that, but BSA was asking a premium of about 200 bucks more for these machines, which were rumored to vibrate so much that the headlight bulbs would blow compared with similar Japanese bikes. This was a year before BSA Triumph made the disastrous move to the oil in frame bikes, which only someone with the inside leg measurement of a giraffe could straddle. So, not, for example, Tom Cruz. By 1971, it was clear that the poor old 650 parallel twins would, like middle-aged men, require some method of growing yet more cubic cm to keep up with the competition. The Triumph Bonavville was slated for an upgrade to 750cc's, and its BSA stable mate was going to get the treatment, too. Although the 750cc version would only be destined for the American market to meet new track racing rigs there that had increased permitted capacity from 500 cc's to 750.

[00:04:43]>> As the laps went by, Rice number two on the BSA continued to look to the outside.

[00:04:49]There's a spill by number 38 Dallas Baker.

[00:04:52]The upgrade was designated the A70, sometimes also known as the Lightning 75 and 202 were produced for homologation purposes. For those of you who don't know what homologation is, if you're going to race production bikes, that is motorcycles based on ones you actually manufacture and sell to the public, you have to prove that you've made them and sold them to the public. 200 bikes was the minimum number. BSA fell apart before an upgraded A65 could go into full production for the masses, but not before the bike itself fell apart on the test track. That oil inframe design I mentioned earlier was its ultimate downfall. The stiffer frame and the engine's notorious vibes proved to be a catastrophic combination. The new frame was actually much more efficient at transmitting these vibrations to the rest of the bike. And on test runs, the motorcycle would literally shake itself to pieces. Riders reported mud guards cracking, fuel tanks splitting, and electrical components burning out from the constant shaking.

[00:06:06]More seriously, the critical mount that attached the top of the engine to the frame would frequently vibrate loose or even crack. These problems were compounded when an 800cc engine was tried out. The shakes were so bad that entire frames were cracking before a full test session could even be completed. BSA Triumph's engineering guru Bert Hoppwood attempted a lastditch effort at redesigning the frame, even considering rubber mounting the engine allar Commando. But it was too late. By then BSA had reached the end of the road. Probably no bad thing because if these machines had ever got into the hands of the riding public, my learned friends would have had a field day.

[00:06:53]All that said, I do hope I haven't upset you dedicated A65 owners. There are many devotees out there who have lovingly cherished their bezes, and they are, let's face it, fantastic looking bikes.

[00:07:07]These days, you can pick one up for just a few grand. And if it's running right and hasn't shaken itself apart, it'll be the talk of the town.

[00:07:17]I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, then please consider liking, commenting, and sharing to let YouTube know we're doing something right here at Three Fills. And for just 99 pennies a month, you can support the channel by becoming a [music] fourth fill. And enjoy early access to these videos, as well as exclusive access to Wobbly's Weekly Word.