The BSA Lightning Rocket was a
Birmingham Small Arms Company
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and ...
(BSA)
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruisin ...
made in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
. A highly-tuned version of the
BSA A65R Rocket, it was BSA's bid to capture the potentially lucrative USA export market in the mid-1960s. Twin
Amal 389/206 carburetors and high-compression pistons, combined with an optional close-ratio gearbox, gave lively acceleration.
Sharing many
A65 cycle parts, the Lightning Rocket had a slimmer fuel tank and mudguards, with additional chrome. From 1965, the A65 was discontinued in the UK and the
BSA A65L Lightning became the main BSA production twin.
See also
*
BSA Royal Star
The BSA Royal Star was a Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) motorcycle whose new engine design paved the way for a range of successful unit construction twins. As well as giving a clean look to the engine, with the pushrod passages part of the ...
*
BSA Spitfire
The BSA Spitfire is a high-performance BSA motorcycle made from 1966 to 1968 with model designations of MkII, MkIII and MkIV. Announced at the Brighton motorcycle show held during September 1965, it was based on the earlier BSA Lightning with ...
References
{{BSA motorcycles, state=collapsed
Lighting Rocket
Standard motorcycles
Motorcycles introduced in 1964