CA95, C95, CS76, Etc.

[e3steve]

Wombat200, that is a superb précis and extremely interesting. Without the knowledge from guys like you the rest of us would not learn about what is possibly the most important reason for our pre-occupation with these bikes; namely The History!

And without the WWW we wouldn't have these time-delayed chats right across the globe. I work alongside many antipodean yacht crew; great people with an interesting, relaxed slant on life. You seem to fit well into that category, Rob, with your obvious love for your hobby(?). I hope I speak for many in asking you to post some pics of your bikes, please, when you can.

Incidentally, you're absolutely right about the British motorcycle industry putting pressure on dealers not to sell the Jap bikes in the '60s; I remember our dealers being very slow on the uptake to become agents for The Land Of The Rising Sun! We British have been very arrogant in the past, thinking that there were other nations that had the temerity to believe they could build rivals to the (leaky, rattly!) all-conquering Triumph & BSA bikes. Just as an aside, the early '70s (BSA Barracude/Starfire/Road Rocket era) saw a joint Tri-BSA (they were the same company by that time) prototype design for a SOHC 350cc twin with US-type bars, winkers etc., called the BSA Bandit; it was shelved, thought to be a ridiculous, over-complicated idea for a bike that would never sell!

Regards to the southern hemisphere......

PostScript:- I've re-researched my facts above: the shelved project was a DOHC engine; the Triumph version was the Bandit and the BSA was the Fury. See attached pic, along with C, CA, CS & CSA76 pics. Steve.

[wombat200]

Thanks, mate. I have to thank Bill Silver & others on this site for helping me along the way.

Interestingly, Soichiro only designed the early bikes with a dry-sump engine, in response to what he percieved as what the market demanded (some of his earlier 4-strokes were wet-sump engines) - remember, in the late 50's-early 60's, the British bikes were all dry-sumped. Once it was realised that a wet-sump was actually much simpler & preffered, the engines were re-designed.