BSA Closure Auction

After years of mismanagement and lack of investment the acronym 'BSA' came to stand for 'Bits Stuck Anywhere'.

"You can close a company down but you can never close down its spirit." So speaks a former worker of BSA motorcycles on the day that their machine tools are auctioned off and the factory breathes its last. Once the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world this Birmingham brand is just another victim of Britain's industrial decline.

In 1972 the government attempted to save the entire British motorcycle industry by forming the Norton-Villiers-Triumph group, which also incorporated BSA's interests. When that group failed it marked the end of mass production British motorcycles.