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B.S.A A65 Lightning 1965

We are pleased to be able to offer this BSA A65 Lightning in Clubman specification for sale, the BSA comes with a good folder of history showing extensive restoration work in 2008 and having regular but low miles since.

Introduced in 1962, the BSA A65 twin was the unit-construction follow-on to company’s venerable A10 series. The powerplant retained the 360-degree crankshaft and single cam mounted at the rear of the cylinder block, but now engine internals and transmission were contained within a single set of cases. Marking it as a bold new step forward, the engine was treated to streamlined “power egg” styling. Soon the factory catalog would carry no fewer than 11 different models powered by the new-style engine, in both 500 and 650cc displacements. The first high-performance variant, the A65R Rocket, arrived in October of ’63, aimed squarely at America’s speed-obsessed throttle jockeys. It was superseded the following year by the yet-faster Lightning 650, first of the BSA unit twins to be equipped with the new splayed-port cylinder head fitted with dual carburetors.

Produced through 1970, the original A65s are considered to be the last of the classic BSA twins, as first the Rocket III triple, then the updated oil-in-frame 650s met with mixed market response, no doubt hastening the company’s demise in 1973.

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