The Harley Davidson Sprint was not a two stroke it was an Aermacchi 350 horizontal single hung from a spine frame, Known during the sixties as the Ala D'Oro and the racing model was very competitive against the AJS 7R and Manx norton in 350cc form and is still a go to model in classic racing I once owned one among the many I regret selling like the Norton Mercury had I known at the time that the very last Featherbed framed Norton was made in such small numbers of around 430 units from memory I would never had sold it. Angus has done very well to finally get a Fury up and running and also has the scrambler high pipe variant he has managed to piece together His channel on UA-cam is BSA Power Set well worth checking out.
I was from the UK but now living the dream now in New Zealand. I remember these very well. I picked up the flyers for both the Bandit and the Fury in my local dealer in Coventry. I even went to Vale Onslows bike shop in Birmingham to see them. I went back to my local bike shop and put my order in for a Bandit as I'm a Triumph man through and through I only lived a mile or so from the Meriden factory, now a housing estate. It was the Americam market which was the down fall of the Triumph/BSA/Norton because they were designing bikes for that market; it was BSA that killed off Triumph because they were badly in touble, Triumph was still making money. But Brits wouldn't or couldn't modernize or move away from the primitive sand casting the crank cases, also move to horizontally split cases whick needed less machining. By the way, the central levers on each of the handle bars were indicators and the dip/high beam. There is a guy in the UK making bits for these bikes to enable showroom bikes with no engine internals to run, I saw that on UA-cam.
Yes, Fellow on UA-cam has one. Both the SS version and Grey Frame model. His channel is Angus D. Campbell. Think I put a link to his channel in the video for this BSA. Very interesting looking bike.
To see the 2021 model of this Bike come to life, BSA Power Set (Angus Campbell) Channel. And Bob Rodgersons mostly motorcycles Channel (bringing a BSA to life). The majority of the parts were spirited away from the factory around the time it closed by a worker there. I bought the parts from his Widow after he passed away. Additional parts were acquired either from old stock in Bike Stores, and from fellow Fury/Bandit aficionados. Failure to acquire a Crankshaft of the late design profile resulted in me selling the parts to Angus Campbell. He had the only Spare Crankshaft known to exist so he was the right person to continue the build. Watch the two channels above for a real build experience of a unique piece of motorcycle history.
Thanks for posting this info. If you'd like please post links to this on our Forgotten Motorcycles Facebook page. It's a very interesting motorcycle. I had no idea what it was until someone pointed it out in the background of another video. Love all of Angus Campbell's many great videos. Wahoo!
@@forgottenmotorcycles Hi! It was the American magazine Motorcycle Quarterly Spring '71 Buyers guide, that caught my interest. It did a several page spread on the Bike, it's development and their excitement for its release. The front cover shows the engine looking very good with a touch of black on the covers. I've never found out where this engine ended up. If anyone knows...? I expected the Motorcycle would be launched but after a few years went by I wrote to NVT (Norton Villiers Triumph), about it. They replied it was not and that all the parts had been destroyed. That misinformation meant I didn't get on the Fury path until 25 years later. I checked out a small Bike shop in Folkestone, chatting with the owner about my old yearning for the BSA. He told me he had three Oil Tanks in the stores. Disbelieving, I asked if he would fetch one and immediately I recognised it. So I bought my first part on a long journey of hunting down the rest. I spoken with the Chief Engineer Doug Hele and also the Chairman or Managing Director (can't recall who) of BSA at the time. Sadly the Crankshaft was the one brick wall I couldn't get past. At least I gave Angus a good start to getting it eventually built and running. I can't promise about the Facebook request as I haven't used it in three years. But I might give it a go. Any questions though, feel free. Cheers Bob.
The big problem here was BSA far from being idle at this time was all out on modernisation of Small Heath and their product line up, so against the wishes or wisdom of many, including Hopwood and Hele, the 74 year old Edward Turner ( a man who either got it very right or very wrong, but would never accept criticism of his work) was given the job of designing this bike. He rather predictively made a complete hash of the job, Hopwood and Hele were then given the task of salvaging the situation, Hopwood wanting to scrap it completely and start again, but such was Turners influence this was denied and the impossible task to iron out the many faults on the bike took place. shame because it could have been a nice bike that in both 250/350cc would have seen BSA through well into the 80s, (If they had also not missed the short US selling season of 71, this plunging BSA into massive debt).
At 1:20 you mention Harley had a 350, it was a 4 stroke not a 2 stroke, it was an Aermecchi Made in Italy, it did well in flat track racing due to it's low center of gravity.
You're right. Thank you for pointing that out. I may have confused it with the 2 stroke 250. Would love to find one of those early 350 and take it for a run. Wahoo!
Shame they never made the market. Triumph had 2 versions of the 350, one had the same motor as this and the other had a different motor and disc brake. Saw them both at the Birmingham UK Museum in 2016.
Yes, I saw the pics of them. The second bike looked like the engine had a different top end. Also, the forks had those outside springs. Very interesting.
@@forgottenmotorcycles I think the other Triumph you mention with the slightly different engine, a disc brake and external fork springs is in fact the first prototype DOHC 350 that was originally designed by Edward Turner a few years earlier which, according to Doug Hele, had a very fragile and unreliable engine and an unsafe front fork. Doug Hele reluctantly took over the project and developed it into the bike we see here. BSA and Triumph were to both offer it as a roadster and a street scrambler all using the same engine and rolling chassis as this bike, but the triumph versions having a few cosmetic differences. I think they were mainly aimed at taking a share of the market for the hugely popular and rather good Honda CB350 in particular, which was also produced as a roadster and a street scrambler. Must be an amazing thing to have a BSA Fury in ones possession, whether it is a running example or not.
@@lathejack I actually saw this bike again today. It's really something to look at every time. I think your comments above are correct. Hard to find good information on this bike. Thank you
going by that frame No KE00100 sept 1971 prod No 1 that would make it a 1972 model year bike (model year's august factory shut down to august shut down)
I have friends in their 70/80's, who don't believe me that the Bandit and Fury exist, this video proves they do. Thank you.
It's an amazing motorcycle. Not for sale. Apparently. He ever gets it running. I'll try to get a video of it.
The Harley Davidson Sprint was not a two stroke it was an Aermacchi 350 horizontal single hung from a spine frame, Known during the sixties as the Ala D'Oro and the racing model was very competitive against the AJS 7R and Manx norton in 350cc form and is still a go to model in classic racing I once owned one among the many I regret selling like the Norton Mercury had I known at the time that the very last Featherbed framed Norton was made in such small numbers of around 430 units from memory I would never had sold it.
Angus has done very well to finally get a Fury up and running and also has the scrambler high pipe variant he has managed to piece together His channel on UA-cam is BSA Power Set well worth checking out.
Absolutely love Angus's channel. Noticed he recently dropped another video on this BSA Fury. Amazing man and motorcycles. Wahoo!
I was from the UK but now living the dream now in New Zealand.
I remember these very well. I picked up the flyers for both the Bandit and the Fury in my local dealer in Coventry.
I even went to Vale Onslows bike shop in Birmingham to see them.
I went back to my local bike shop and put my order in for a Bandit as I'm a Triumph man through and through
I only lived a mile or so from the Meriden factory, now a housing estate.
It was the Americam market which was the down fall of the Triumph/BSA/Norton because they were designing
bikes for that market; it was BSA that killed off Triumph because they were badly in touble, Triumph was still making money.
But Brits wouldn't or couldn't modernize or move away from the primitive sand casting the crank cases, also move to horizontally
split cases whick needed less machining.
By the way, the central levers on each of the handle bars were indicators and the dip/high beam.
There is a guy in the UK making bits for these bikes to enable showroom bikes with no engine internals to run, I saw that on UA-cam.
Thanks for all this great info. Love it! Also, someday I'll make my way to New Zealand. Wahoo!
There also was a street scrambler version with high level exhausts, some also came with light grey frames.
Yes, Fellow on UA-cam has one. Both the SS version and Grey Frame model. His channel is Angus D. Campbell. Think I put a link to his channel in the video for this BSA. Very interesting looking bike.
To see the 2021 model of this Bike come to life,
BSA Power Set (Angus Campbell) Channel.
And
Bob Rodgersons mostly motorcycles Channel (bringing a BSA to life).
The majority of the parts were spirited away from the factory around the time it closed by a worker there. I bought the parts from his Widow after he passed away. Additional parts were acquired either from old stock in Bike Stores, and from fellow Fury/Bandit aficionados.
Failure to acquire a Crankshaft of the late design profile resulted in me selling the parts to Angus Campbell.
He had the only Spare Crankshaft known to exist so he was the right person to continue the build.
Watch the two channels above for a real build experience of a unique piece of motorcycle history.
Thanks for posting this info. If you'd like please post links to this on our Forgotten Motorcycles Facebook page. It's a very interesting motorcycle. I had no idea what it was until someone pointed it out in the background of another video. Love all of Angus Campbell's many great videos. Wahoo!
@@forgottenmotorcycles
Hi! It was the American magazine Motorcycle Quarterly Spring '71 Buyers guide, that caught my interest. It did a several page spread on the Bike, it's development and their excitement for its release. The front cover shows the engine looking very good with a touch of black on the covers. I've never found out where this engine ended up. If anyone knows...?
I expected the Motorcycle would be launched but after a few years went by I wrote to NVT (Norton Villiers Triumph), about it. They replied it was not and that all the parts had been destroyed. That misinformation meant I didn't get on the Fury path until 25 years later. I checked out a small Bike shop in Folkestone, chatting with the owner about my old yearning for the BSA. He told me he had three Oil Tanks in the stores. Disbelieving, I asked if he would fetch one and immediately I recognised it. So I bought my first part on a long journey of hunting down the rest. I spoken with the Chief Engineer Doug Hele and also the Chairman or Managing Director (can't recall who) of BSA at the time. Sadly the Crankshaft was the one brick wall I couldn't get past. At least I gave Angus a good start to getting it eventually built and running.
I can't promise about the Facebook request as I haven't used it in three years. But I might give it a go.
Any questions though, feel free.
Cheers Bob.
The big problem here was BSA far from being idle at this time was all out on modernisation of Small Heath and their product line up, so against the wishes or wisdom of many, including Hopwood and Hele, the 74 year old Edward Turner ( a man who either got it very right or very wrong, but would never accept criticism of his work) was given the job of designing this bike. He rather predictively made a complete hash of the job, Hopwood and Hele were then given the task of salvaging the situation, Hopwood wanting to scrap it completely and start again, but such was Turners influence this was denied and the impossible task to iron out the many faults on the bike took place. shame because it could have been a nice bike that in both 250/350cc would have seen BSA through well into the 80s, (If they had also not missed the short US selling season of 71, this plunging BSA into massive debt).
Interesting
Fantastic!!!
For sure!
Burt Hopwood 👍 A lot of the running gear is the same as the 650 Triumph/B.S.A.
Right on
I really liked your videos sir,love from india 🙏🙏🙏
Glad you like them! Will make more :)
At 1:20 you mention Harley had a 350, it was a 4 stroke not a 2 stroke, it was an Aermecchi Made in Italy, it did well in flat track racing due to it's low center of gravity.
You're right. Thank you for pointing that out. I may have confused it with the 2 stroke 250. Would love to find one of those early 350 and take it for a run. Wahoo!
Harley used two stroke engines in some of there bikes and scooters from 1948 to 1978, first using DKW engines, then Aermacchi’s.
Shame they never made the market. Triumph had 2 versions of the 350, one had the same motor as this and the other had a different motor and disc brake. Saw them both at the Birmingham UK Museum in 2016.
Yes, I saw the pics of them. The second bike looked like the engine had a different top end. Also, the forks had those outside springs. Very interesting.
@@forgottenmotorcycles I think the other Triumph you mention with the slightly different engine, a disc brake and external fork springs is in fact the first prototype DOHC 350 that was originally designed by Edward Turner a few years earlier which, according to Doug Hele, had a very fragile and unreliable engine and an unsafe front fork.
Doug Hele reluctantly took over the project and developed it into the bike we see here. BSA and Triumph were to both offer it as a roadster and a street scrambler all using the same engine and rolling chassis as this bike, but the triumph versions having a few cosmetic differences.
I think they were mainly aimed at taking a share of the market for the hugely popular and rather good Honda CB350 in particular, which was also produced as a roadster and a street scrambler.
Must be an amazing thing to have a BSA Fury in ones possession, whether it is a running example or not.
@@lathejack I actually saw this bike again today. It's really something to look at every time. I think your comments above are correct. Hard to find good information on this bike. Thank you
I ordered one from my local dealer in the UK .it never arrived si I went for Kawasaki 350 instead ...sad
dang!
going by that frame No KE00100 sept 1971 prod No 1 that would make it a 1972 model year bike (model year's august factory shut down to august shut down)
Sounds like you may know a lot more about his than I do. Thanks!
I know one in Germany.
Nice