BSA Titanium, the $40 million factory bikes

**Ocean1** · 10th June 2007, 12:01

Motorcross, but I thought the story rated a broader interest.

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/Articl...ID=2807&Page=1

**tri boy** · 10th June 2007, 12:57

That BSA committee sounds alot like modern political parties. (push the knowledgeable aside, and impose impossibly unrealistic goals). The cost was horrendous, and besides the forks and little else, the project was a disaster.
All Beehive personal should have to read it.

**toycollector10** · 11th June 2007, 06:27

Thanks for posting that up, very interesting. Why would they take the riders out of the loop? So in the end it was just some bright spark on the board of directors thinking Titanium then dragging everyone else along with him probably....what a disaster.

It reminds me of an article I read where the production of one of their models was limited by the guy whose job was adjusting certain engine pieces by hand using a whetstone. The castings weren't "just right". He could do 3 or sometimes 4 of these per day. So therefore that limited the number of bikes that could be produced in that one day to 3 or 4. Meanwhile in Japan, Honda were rolling 3 motorcycles a minute off their production lines.

**moko** · 11th June 2007, 08:49

This is my mate Phill's BSA B31-based Scrambler replica.He's built this up from basically a frame and a box of bits,a lot of it's one-off custon built stuff,great-looking bike,sounds awesome,value? To him priceless and it's not for sale,probably never will be.

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**Paul in NZ** · 11th June 2007, 09:14

Originally Posted by moko

This is my mate Phill's BSA B31-based Scrambler replica.He's built this up from basically a frame and a box of bits,a lot of it's one-off custon built stuff,great-looking bike,sounds awesome,value? To him priceless and it's not for sale,probably never will be.

Now thats NICE!!!!!!!!

**Ocean1** · 11th June 2007, 10:36

Originally Posted by toycollector10

Why would they take the riders out of the loop? So in the end it was just some bright spark on the board of directors thinking Titanium then dragging everyone else along with him probably....what a disaster.

The social divisions of the time probably had a lot to do with it, certainly the link between the financial and technical resources was typically slim to non-existent in many big companies. Still true today when they get too big.

Interesting study in team dynamics. I can see parallels to a lot of the Americas cup teams. No budget alone is adequate to win, and no amount of engineering genius and skill is either. It’s the successful integration of all of the required resources into a coherent social structure, a true team. Takes a true leader, and the one with the purse strings ain’t usually it.

Originally Posted by moko

This is my mate Phill's BSA B31-based Scrambler replica.He's built this up from basically a frame and a box of bits,a lot of it's one-off custon built stuff,great-looking bike,sounds awesome,value? To him priceless and it's not for sale,probably never will be.

Was a time I would have given my left testicle for that bike.

Ah hell, ask him if he's interested...

**Brian d marge** · 11th June 2007, 13:23

Originally Posted by Ocean1

Interesting study in team dynamics. I can see parallels to a lot of the Americas cup teams. No budget alone is adequate to win, and no amount of engineering genius and skill is either. It’s the successful integration of all of the required resources into a coherent social structure, a true team. Takes a true leader, and the one with the purse strings ain’t usually it.
..

Of all the country's I have worked in , Japan has been the big eye opener for working as a team, I have never felt insecure with either skills or input , when working as a mechanic here. even when I didn't know how to do stuff,

Contrast that to England , NZ where the opposite happens

My dream would be to work in a truly synergistic team, with the people having a range of skills with none of the one up man ship ( with no Italians , too excitable for me !!!)

Stephen

**pete376403** · 14th June 2007, 21:11

Jeff Smith went on to success in the Trans-AMA series on a Cheney BSA. Steel frame, 441 engine and eric Cheney-made forks. I had an article in a Cycle magazine about that bike. Sadly I was in need of storage space and a very large box of Cycle, Cycle World and Two Wheels mags was dumped some years ago.