It’s 1966, and I’m standing outside a West Auckland dairy, ignoring the melting ice-cream cone in my hand. The distraction is a brand new BSA A65 Lightning that has just parked up, while its long-haired owner rushes inside to buy cigarettes.
With its bright red paint and chrome tank, a large red and gold star badge on the side, it’s the most beautiful machine I’ve seen.
Little did I know back then that more than half a century would pass before I got to ride a 650cc BSA with a similar gold star tank badge. By 2024, the 650cc BSA that introduced me to the brand was a 652cc air/liquid-cooled single, made in India instead of the British Midlands, with fuel injectors and a catalytic converter where carburetors and hollow exhaust pipes used to reside.
The 21st Century BSA rode well despite a few quirks, the engine having been designed and sorted by Rotax, and it had the requisite astral badge on the tank. It also resurrected the Gold Star model name, a fitting place for a revivalist company like Mahindra-owned Classic Legends to breathe new life into the BSA brand.
Two years later, there’s now a second 650cc single-cylinder model from the factory in Pithampur. Think of it as a Gold Star that has been scrambled.
Compared to the Gold Star that provided the platform, the new Scrambler 650 sits higher on similar 41mm front forks and twin rear shocks with longer wheel travel. The seat height rises 40mm to 820mm, the 19-inch front wheel has an extra inch in rim diameter, and the bike weighs five kilograms more at 218kg with the 12-litre fuel tank full.
Also on the up is the price. At $12,490, it’s roughly the same as the best-dressed Gold Star models. That’s despite the iconic tank badge having been swapped for a decal.
On the plus side, there are no extra dollars charged for the Thunder Grey and Valiant Yellow liveries that are more attractive choices to my eye than the Raven Black of the test bike. There are also some tasty Italian components fitted to the Scrambler. The front disc is a 320mm rotor gripped by a Brembo twin-piston caliper, and the tyres are top-shelf Pirelli Scorpion Rally STRs, currently the favoured multi-surface rubber of many New Zealand motorcycle adventurers.
The visual appeal of the Scrambler 650 is undeniable. It looks like a bike that Steve McQueen would crash while attempting to escape from a posse of Nazi soldiers in The Great Escape. If a time machine could transport it to the start line of the classic Barstow-Vegas desert race of the late 1960s, the Scrambler would fit right in. Ditto the challenging Scottish Six-day Trial, riding up steep highland water courses with a young Sammy Miller standing on the pegs.
The way the 45bhp/55Nm BSA rides does little to dispel these images. The single-cylinder engine isn’t as smooth as a twin, but the vibes aren’t too intrusive, and there’s plenty of riding force available early in the rev range. It feels like there’s plenty of flywheel mass to give the spinning crankshaft momentum, making the Scrambler nonplussed about pulling high gears or trundling along at low cruising speeds. It’ll sip fuel gently at 4.0 litres/100km.
Miller, now 90+ and still riding, would appreciate the low final-drive gearing. It might mean that cruising on the open road feels less relaxed, but it makes the bike more responsive to throttle inputs. It also closes the gaps in the ratios of the BSA’s five-speed gearbox and makes the bike a joy to ride while cruising urban streets, climbing steep hills, or exploring where that tempting gravel side road goes.
It would be nice if there were a sixth gear to follow up the first five on the Scrambler. Also in need of improvement is a quadrant of buttons on the left side switch block that have yet to be assigned functions.
Never mind, because this is a handsome machine from the same brand that made the A65 Lightning that captured my full pre-adolescent attention all those years ago.
Both the Gold Star and the Scrambler 650cc singles are well-considered starting points, but the BSA revival is now gaining increased momentum with the release of the new 350cc singles, the Bantam roadster and the adventurous Thunderbolt. With entry prices starting at $6990, the 350s are new-age BSAs that allow today’s pre-adolescents to dream of owning one day.