Another one for the Stinkwheel file. When I was young(er) Bantams were everywhere, mostly the D1. You could identify them easily, they were the ones being passed by the Honda 50s. But they survived and by the late 1970s owners were dragging them out of the garden shed with the idea of restoration. And then when classic racing took off in the early 1980s people thought that it a great idea to race them. Not so much in NZ but in the UK there were even some that were converted to water cooling, CDI ignition and disc brake. Who would know that they would actually go fast enough to need to stop that quickly.
This brochure is BSAs Overseas Edition and for such a little machine they are proud to announce it as Cock O’ The Lightweights. Impressed, or a bit cheeky? Who knows. But a grand little motorcycle that was used by thousands in both the private and the public sector (GPO Bantams painted in bright red just could not be ignored).
Two period New Zealand photographs from the Barnstormer Library showing just what owners got up too with their Bantams. The owner/rider of the racing Bantam checking his machine over for a possible podium finish. Checking out the cylinder head and all that finning would make one think that this young man has been reading a few 2 stroke tuning handbooks. And with that megaphone exhaust it must have had quite a cackle.
The second photograph must be what happens when Uncle Johnny visits with his Bantam. Definitely set up for touring with that front screen.
Click on the cover below to see what a teenager could hope to ride only if their mum would let them.
It is small at 600K PDF.
As to really get the juices flowing about owning a BSA Bantam here is an advertisement from the 1948 November 25th edition of the Motor Cycling magazine. Smiles for everyone.
In 1950 the Australian A.C.U. performed economy and performance tests on the BSA Bantam model to see how good they really were. Read on below to see the results.
