Still got one at 79 years old, BSA Super Rocket. Looks like a Rocket Gold Star and engine at the same spec! But now it has an electric start. My kids will sell it when the big guy comes to call, road it in the spring real nice, but n9w i have old Jag mk2 as daily driver!
I am a very proud owner of a Triumph Bonneville T120 SR - 1965 - special order from JOMO - USA ordered on the 22nd June 1965 - the SR means " Sports Roadster "
I actually owned a Triumph Hurricane. That is a BSA Rocket 3 frame with styling by Craig Vetter. Super fun. The 3 pipes on the right pretty easily dragged and it needed better brakes. So much fun. Wish I had a 1972 Rocket 3. Even more rare.
The old interceptor was the best parallel twin from the UK. Reliable, well balanced crank, fast and handled too. It was faster and better than the Triumph, Norton and BSA twins of the era but BSA had some of the best styled twins i loved the Norton commando. Handling was rock solid unlike triumph and yamaha 650 twins..
Yeah I caught that. My first bike was a 650 Lightning. It was like losing one's virginity to a beautiful girl with the clap. I loved the bike and yet wish I had never bought it. Should have gotten the CB750. A lesson well learned .
@@kybourbonboy I had one. Over about 60 mph it rattled the fillings out of your teeth. One of the worst bikes I ever owned. My BSA Road Rocket was a much better machine.
Moto Guzzi five-seven. Thanks a bomb! The most advanced feature of the Honda CB 750 was the fact that one had to remove the whole engine in order to retighten the head bolts!
My very 1st motorcycle was a 46 Harley 61 I purchased in '56, and rode four Harleys over a period of 13 years, including 100 miles/day to work for three years, putting a total of 150K on them. I was aware of the Japanese movement, and as the 'motorcycle guru' of my family, neighborhood and where I worked, someone was always bringing their motorcycle by for me to test and evaluate. While I always found something nice to say, but frankly, was unimpressed! Then, my BIL stopped by with a brand new Honda 750. I took it for a short ride....GOODbye Harley and I've never looked back! Now, at age 84, just gave me last Honda ST1100 to my youngest son. BHE
BSA lightning had great handling and were a great bike. The A10 super rocket wasagreat bike too. Norton commando was a lovely bike but the best parallel twin was royal Enfield's last interceptors. Best motor made by the Brits.
@@paulblouin6955 I have a 64 Interceptor and I love it but as for handling and power left a lot to be desired and the gearbox was about 20 years out of date
The Commando replaced the Atlas , it had the isolastic frame and was the fastest bike in the 1/4. The Atlas had low compression and the heavy featherbed frame. The Commando in 1968 could turn low 12s seconds and 100+ in the 1/4 miles. It is legendary for it's speed and in modern vintage racing was as fast as any other.
Well i have to say to you tha Laverdas of the era were a real pain in the arse. i used to own a SF 750/2 and it was highly unrelyble consering electics.
Having owned a new CB750 I think the description of it as reliable and pedestrian is reasonably accurate. The front single disk was next to useless, the rear drum locked up over corrugated bumps, headlight non existent, would go into tank slappers for no apparent reason. But it was reliable.
Someone needs to buy this guy a thesaurus and expand his vocabulary a bit. I lost count of the number of bikes he described as either "timeless", "iconic" or quite often both!
The motorcycles I want again are The BSA 500cc Shooting Star, BSA 650cc Golden Flash, BSA 650cc Super Rocket, The Norton ES2 500cc single-cylinder heavy frame, The Honda CB450cc twin, The Kawasaki H1 650cc twin, BMW R69 S 600cc with a sidecar.
My Honda 305 Super Hawk from 1965 carried a lot of Brit bike riders home to get a pickup truck. How could you forget Lucus the "Prince of Darkness"? The biggest reason to give up on British. I also had a CB 750 with 105,000 original engine miles.
The BSA Lightning was quick, but before I had the Velocette I had a 1967 BSA Spitfire Mk2 special, which was 10mph faster. One magazine test got 123mph from one.
The original Guzzis from 1970 wasbetter than the later ones. The original BSA goldie DBD34 500cc with close ratio RRT2 gearbox was a true work of art like manx nortons almost.
The Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor with single overhead cam was the fastest production motorcycle at one time in the sixties . Was that 1969 ? I forget . There was also the Kawasaki Blue Streak 3 cylinder two stroke . A dangerous bike . I think it also had another name . Those were the two fastest as I remember , when they first came out .
The Royal Enfield Interceptor was just a bored out and modified version of the PUSHROD OHV twin. It also pissed oil out of every orifice. It steered ok and was well balanced and smooth for the time, “ Fast”? Sorry, the Beezer Spitfire was probably the fastest of the era of British production bikes, faster than Triumph’s Bonneville by maybe 10 mph. The epitome of Brit bikes was actually a hybrid, NorVin, a Norton “Wideline Featherbed” frame loaded with a Vincent 1,000cc V twin . The Vincent V Twin has been developed to achieve probably the most power per cc in any pushrod engine, the “ Irving Vincent “ is a serious club racer still today in Australia.
The Isolastic engine mounting system was a bunch of rubber grommets fitted between the engine and the frame so the engine wouldn't shake the bike to bite in the first hundred miles. Necessary but hardly ground-breaking.
My 1st Brit bike and best! It had the small tank, Lucas comp. mag, John Tickle RE TLS brake, narrow line featherbed frame, Road holder forks and the lovely Chronometric instruments, and it didn't vibrate much! I've been trying to find another for years.
And the 750/850 Commando (shown and labeled as an Atlas) was the pinnacle (and sadly, the end) of Norton, besides a couple of rotary powered police bikes & prototypes)
Out of your list we have now few of them running in India like Royal Enfield (almost the same and interceptor too) , BSA Gold Star, Now Norton is also on its way to India.
My Rhodesian surgeon would greet us bikers, relaxing in the orthopaedic ward while getting repaired, with the words, "Good morning future donors!" I was in there so often he got to greet me by my first name! I saw him in a South African orthopaedic ward much later and he recognised me and Jee zuss Ken, don't you ever learn?
I would like to see a modern version of the triple Kaws, with newly designed pistons that eliminate piston slap, direct fuel injection which improves power and gas mileage, and perhaps water cooling. Maybe there should be an air-cooled model, and a water cooled one. I would also like to see an updated Yamaha 400 two stroke. Maybe make it 500cc or more. How about a V6? I also liked the Indian 4.
A friend of mine owned a Benelli 6 cylinder bike that we nicknamed V6 due to the 3 silencers on each side formed a V shape when viewed from the rear. Beautiful bike.
Norton Commando was such a lovely bike. Yes Ducati was a nice bike but the 900SS would blowup within 20000 miles from new. The BSA rocket 3 was very fast at the time and had a better frame than Triumph tridents. BSA frames were always really well designed and made with duplex cradle rather than single tube of triumph twins. 😊
The well informed people who do these should get educated first. Really!
agree! they need to do a post production check before posting. Frankly I doubt that they're even bikers 👎
The guy you are listening to is only reading from a script that some non biker wrote!
Norton Atlas that’s a Commando….
@@kentilly6160 Most like l text to speak, like most posts these days.
The Vincent Rapid was a motorcicle of the 1950th! Trucky.
and the video showed a black shadow
Still got one at 79 years old, BSA Super Rocket. Looks like a Rocket Gold Star and engine at the same spec! But now it has an electric start. My kids will sell it when the big guy comes to call, road it in the spring real nice, but n9w i have old Jag mk2 as daily driver!
Kawasaki H3 500cc with Ram-Air,I don't think so.Suzukis had Ram air.
Ram Air intake system.....wtf 😂😂😂😂
I am a very proud owner of a Triumph Bonneville T120 SR - 1965 - special order from JOMO - USA ordered on the 22nd June 1965 - the SR means " Sports Roadster "
It’s a keeper!
Yes I agree with the person who said bonnevill is his favourite bick 😂❤
I agree with you 💯 ❤
I owned a triumph tiger 100 then a Bonneville back in the 60s
I think the BSA GOLD STAR IS MY FAVOURITE BIKE 🏍
Norton Atlas -- but started off showing the Norton Commando.
And it was really designed as a sidecar puller. The Dominator was the sports bike.
The Commando was as fast as any and faster than most, low 12 s at 100+ MPH.
@@CHRnorton And the Featherbed frame. Nothing better,
Commando and Dominator shown for the Norton Atlas,deceptive.
I actually owned a Triumph Hurricane. That is a BSA Rocket 3 frame with styling by Craig Vetter. Super fun. The 3 pipes on the right pretty easily dragged and it needed better brakes. So much fun. Wish I had a 1972 Rocket 3. Even more rare.
The old interceptor was the best parallel twin from the UK. Reliable, well balanced crank, fast and handled too. It was faster and better than the Triumph, Norton and BSA twins of the era but BSA had some of the best styled twins i loved the Norton commando. Handling was rock solid unlike triumph and yamaha 650 twins..
Hope they bring back the BSA Lightening! Love that motorcycle!
Lightning twin headlights?😂
Yeah I caught that. My first bike was a 650 Lightning. It was like losing one's virginity to a beautiful girl with the clap. I loved the bike and yet wish I had never bought it. Should have gotten the CB750. A lesson well learned .
@@kybourbonboy I prefer the Tunderbolt, bbut just the same fun
@@kybourbonboy I had one. Over about 60 mph it rattled the fillings out of your teeth. One of the worst bikes I ever owned. My BSA Road Rocket was a much better machine.
Smooth ride of the Harley Davidson...................?????????????? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRICKEN MIND?😮😭😳😔😑
Well, they simply "Glide" right? lol
LOL
1930s technology, Harleys of that era were real death traps. Brilliant marketing though.
😂
I had a 74 xlch & it had less vibration than my triumph or my a65 bsa it vibrated even less than my 850 commando .
Moto Guzzi five-seven. Thanks a bomb! The most advanced feature of the Honda CB 750 was the fact that one had to remove the whole engine in order to retighten the head bolts!
Maybe so, but it was hardly ever needed!
My very 1st motorcycle was a 46 Harley 61 I purchased in '56, and rode four Harleys over a period of 13 years, including 100 miles/day to work for three years, putting a total of 150K on them. I was aware of the Japanese movement, and as the 'motorcycle guru' of my family, neighborhood and where I worked, someone was always bringing their motorcycle by for me to test and evaluate. While I always found something nice to say, but frankly, was unimpressed! Then, my BIL stopped by with a brand new Honda 750. I took it for a short ride....GOODbye Harley and I've never looked back!
Now, at age 84, just gave me last Honda ST1100 to my youngest son. BHE
Had a BSA,rebuilt Spitfire Hornet 650,Triumph dual carb.Very pleasant,reliable old bikes.❤
Those Kawasaki 500 triples were popular with sailors in Florida in 1973.
BSA lightning had great handling and were a great bike. The A10 super rocket wasagreat bike too. Norton commando was a lovely bike but the best parallel twin was royal Enfield's last interceptors. Best motor made by the Brits.
I loved my Interceptor. It wasn't nearly as fast as my Commando. I did like it.
@@paulblouin6955 I have a 64 Interceptor and I love it but as for handling and power left a lot to be desired and the gearbox was about 20 years out of date
65 cycle world road test R.E.I interceptor 750.
Called it King Kong.13.66 1/4 et. Series 1" the good looking engine "
I have an interceptor engine to go in a super meteor frame
5 minutes was enough for me... Is this some kind of prototype bot? Needs work.
Two minutes more than I managed.
BSA had the best print advertisement they featured beautiful girls with beautiful bikes
Yum yum.😋
The Kawasaki mach 3 was from the 1970's.
late 1969
I think you'll find that the Norton Atlas is intact a Norton Commando.
The Commando replaced the Atlas , it had the isolastic frame and was the fastest bike in the 1/4. The Atlas had low compression and the heavy featherbed frame. The Commando in 1968 could turn low 12s seconds and 100+ in the 1/4 miles. It is legendary for it's speed and in modern vintage racing was as fast as any other.
They both had the same 750 parallel engine and gearbox but the Atlas had upright cylinders, the Command had the cylinders angled forward.
Where do they get the presenters from - one thing for sure they have never ridden a motorcycle !
Unbelievable: you completely missed Laverda! Also the Laverda S, SF and certainly the SFC were iconic at that time in Europe!!
Well i have to say to you tha Laverdas of the era were a real pain in the arse. i used to own a SF 750/2 and it was highly unrelyble consering electics.
Actually vincent ran a bike in early 50's on a track that hit over 150 M P H
Yes! I think John Surtees used to race them in the mid-50's But do we need to modify everydamnthing with term : " iconic?"
Having owned a new CB750 I think the description of it as reliable and pedestrian is reasonably accurate. The front single disk was next to useless, the rear drum locked up over corrugated bumps, headlight non existent, would go into tank slappers for no apparent reason. But it was reliable.
I had one of those T500s Damn quick!!!
Me too!
Someone needs to buy this guy a thesaurus and expand his vocabulary a bit. I lost count of the number of bikes he described as either "timeless", "iconic" or quite often both!
Jay Leno shown riding his many classic bikes.
The motorcycles I want again are The BSA 500cc Shooting Star, BSA 650cc Golden Flash, BSA 650cc Super Rocket, The Norton ES2 500cc single-cylinder heavy frame, The Honda CB450cc twin, The Kawasaki H1 650cc twin, BMW R69 S 600cc with a sidecar.
1 had a BSA bantam,,,,It was a war reparartions machine redesign from a Wehrmakt DKW 125..
Ram air was Suzuki GT
My Honda 305 Super Hawk from 1965 carried a lot of Brit bike riders home to get a pickup truck.
How could you forget Lucus the "Prince of Darkness"? The biggest reason to give up on British.
I also had a CB 750 with 105,000 original engine miles.
The bonnie was a 50's bike born in late 50's
From South Africa toured the whole of this country on one of these, then i had the privledge of sitting the GT 500....
The BSA Lightning was quick, but before I had the Velocette I had a 1967 BSA Spitfire Mk2 special, which was 10mph faster. One magazine test got 123mph from one.
The original Guzzis from 1970 wasbetter than the later ones. The original BSA goldie DBD34 500cc with close ratio RRT2 gearbox was a true work of art like manx nortons almost.
I owned a Kawsaki H1 Mach III. It was fast!. It also chewed up driveline components, clutch chain, gears, cush drive. Engine was solid though.
I would go for the BMW R 69S or the R 75/5. More power you don't need to have fun. Very reliable bikes.
Proud owner of a R69S. An iconic bike...No plastic and electronics! Runs and drive fine even for todays standards ;-)
The Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor with single overhead cam was the fastest production motorcycle at one time in the sixties . Was that 1969 ? I forget . There was also the Kawasaki Blue Streak 3 cylinder two stroke . A dangerous bike . I think it also had another name . Those were the two fastest as I remember , when they first came out .
The Royal Enfield Interceptor was just a bored out and modified version of the PUSHROD OHV twin.
It also pissed oil out of every orifice.
It steered ok and was well balanced and smooth for the time, “ Fast”? Sorry, the Beezer Spitfire was probably the fastest of the era of British production bikes, faster than Triumph’s Bonneville by maybe 10 mph.
The epitome of Brit bikes was actually a hybrid, NorVin, a Norton “Wideline Featherbed” frame loaded with a Vincent 1,000cc V twin .
The Vincent V Twin has been developed to achieve probably the most power per cc in any pushrod engine, the “ Irving Vincent “ is a serious club racer still today in Australia.
No question...The BSA Goldstar...
Pretty good summary of some bikes I’d like to ride some day …
I never saw that bike in the opening picture back in the sixties!
The Isolastic engine mounting system was a bunch of rubber grommets fitted between the engine and the frame so the engine wouldn't shake the bike to bite in the first hundred miles. Necessary but hardly ground-breaking.
The 250cc Suzuki x 6 Hustler went over a hundred miles an hour damn fast for a 250
There was the 305 Yamaha 2stroke as well clock speed 105 mph.
As well as the 305 Honda SuperHawk and the 305 Suzuki.
NORTON 650 SS WAS A BREAKTHROUGH IN TECHNOLOGY AND MOST POPULAR THAN NORTON ATLAS
My 1st Brit bike and best! It had the small tank, Lucas comp. mag, John Tickle RE TLS brake, narrow line featherbed frame, Road holder forks and the lovely Chronometric instruments, and it didn't vibrate much! I've been trying to find another for years.
And the 750/850 Commando (shown and labeled as an Atlas) was the pinnacle (and sadly, the end) of Norton, besides a couple of rotary powered police bikes & prototypes)
Norton 500/650SS, truely great motorcycles. My two school friends had them. Still a majestic sight.
"Get ready for the smooth ride of the Harley Davidson." 🤣🤣🤣Obviously, he's never ridden a 1960's Harley.
Too many errors in this e.g. AJS7R being used on the road.
Out of your list we have now few of them running in India like Royal Enfield (almost the same and interceptor too) , BSA Gold Star, Now Norton is also on its way to India.
My mom used to call the counter culture 'Trust fund kids' If you bucked the system,they would throw you out of town!
My Rhodesian surgeon would greet us bikers, relaxing in the orthopaedic ward while getting repaired, with the words, "Good morning future donors!" I was in there so often he got to greet me by my first name! I saw him in a South African orthopaedic ward much later and he recognised me and Jee zuss Ken, don't you ever learn?
The first bike in most shots was an 850 Eldorado
who writes this balls? 😂
Where is the MV Agusta which world champion Giacomo Agostini rode to many world championships.
You even showed the Indian 650 BSA wannabe Gold Star.
I would like to see a modern version of the triple Kaws, with newly designed pistons that eliminate piston slap, direct fuel injection which improves power and gas mileage, and perhaps water cooling. Maybe there should be an air-cooled model, and a water cooled one.
I would also like to see an updated Yamaha 400 two stroke. Maybe make it 500cc or more.
How about a V6? I also liked the Indian 4.
A friend of mine owned a Benelli 6 cylinder bike that we nicknamed V6 due to the 3 silencers on each side formed a V shape when viewed from the rear. Beautiful bike.
The BMW R 69 was only looking in the US-version! Trucky.
Nr 1 NORTON COMMADO Best bike ever
Ps .It was Mike Hailwood that road that 6 cylinder honda to victory on the ilse of mann.
I owned a series 1 1/2 Royal Enfield Interceptor. The year before it got a Norton fork. It was sliw compared to the Commando I owned at the same time.
If you talk about fastest motorcycles of the 1960s, where is the Münch?
The Honda 550,released in 1970,was a huge success.
1970 is no longer the "sixties".
Yamaha XS650 reaching 115 miles per hour…….. you are ‘aving a laugh…
I bought one brand new. Top speed just over 80…. Even when run in….
It's OK to say CC, it really is.
You had an A10 rocket gold star 650cc twin in one of the photos. The gold star was a single of 350 and 500cc.
Norton Commando was such a lovely bike. Yes Ducati was a nice bike but the 900SS would blowup within 20000 miles from new. The BSA rocket 3 was very fast at the time and had a better frame than Triumph tridents. BSA frames were always really well designed and made with duplex cradle rather than single tube of triumph twins. 😊
Where's the SUZUKI 750 Water bottle heaps of guts with drum brakes 😵
From the 70’s.
'74 Yamaha TX500
Still quoting many, ridiculously over- exaggerated top speeds. Childish!
The twin headlights on the bsa lightning?
Chrome and brightly coloured paint, mudguards and centre stands, pre-austerity era bikes.
They had just one large headlight.
I want my BSA Gold star again
For years I rode a bike with a custom frame featuring a Gold Star engine....best hill climber I ever had!
You missed out the Matchless?
Wow the Matchless G50 being so fast and refined. 135mph 52bhp isthat correct?
Suzuki T20; Suzuk GT 750.
The top speeds attributed to these M/C bear no relation to the actual Road Tested figures!
Yea rocket 3 no mirrors ,no indicators no electric start,and I think they still ran 6 v electrics
Indicators, yes, 12v electrics, mirrors, no, electric start is for fairies, no need.
The fastest were capable of a rather modest 115 MPH.
When did BSA make AJS?
norton 650 ss
The Motoguzzi? Really?
Bsa lightning never had twin headlights.
BSA 500 gold star was fast.
Where is the 160mph mighty mz
This video is a joke.
Mostly twaddle.
Norton
You cant argue with ignorance!
No bmw r 90s ?
The Bonneville t120 was known to do approximately 95 m.p.h.
Nope I saw 125mph on TT circuit. admittedly the Smiths clocks were infamously inaccurate by about 5-10%.
@@bradcobb3418 Mine would indicate 125 mph
Honda CB77 305cc 28.5HP SAE... 105MPH. The others must probably be cheating...
My Super Hawk told me we were going 105 mph too, but I think it was being optimistic.
IA
Complete Bollox
Certainly NO British shite.