seattle##gs said:
I don't mean to offend all the twin owners but I have a question that I have never really been able to solve. I have ridden several A-10 and A-65 bikes in good mechanical shape and in good tune and I have always felt a real lack of power, as though they were running 7 : 1 compression instead of 9:1. No punch at all to the motors, they are real grampa's bikes. They look good but no zip to them. What gives? A 650 Triumph would run away from them easily. Sorry to offend.
You have to remember that BSA stands for "Boring Standard Apparatus" , not Birmingham Small Arms as most assume.
I have a 63 West Coast Super Rocket, so it is as wild as the production A10 motors ever got, same engine as the RGS, 9 to one and Spitfire cams.
It's not that wild. The 650SS runs away from it, however in fairness, that bike also runs away from 650 Triumph Bonnevilles.
I do like the BSAa lot, it's very comfortable, has decent torque to pull up a long hill and is relatively smooth running at 65 mph. Not bad for an old 650 but not the crackerjack 116 mph machine that magazine roadtests raved about ( lied about) back in the day.
Glen