[NVDucati]

Well, this is pretty amusing. I just joined, haven't actually BOUGHT the bike yet but saw this thread and felt an immediate kinship with RalphG and zimmemr, since I'm 82 and have owned about 40 bikes over the years. I have my eye on a 2021, and was completely smitten by the "Glitter and Dust" livery. The person responsible for that name should be fired, since it sounds like a teenage girl's make-up kit. I've had a few posters of BSAs with the chrome tanks and I just have to have that colour scheme.

Harry

I hear ya ... One of my early on bikes was BSA Royal Star 500. It imprinted on me strongly. So yeah, I got a black and chrome Royal Enfield.

[zimmemr]

I hear ya ... One of my early on bikes was BSA Royal Star 500. It imprinted on me strongly. So yeah, I got a black and chrome Royal Enfield.

Not to be to much of a know it all, but the photo looks a lot like a 1967 650cc Lightning. Among the most obvious differences Royal Stars had a single carb, and no tachometer.

[NVDucati]

Not to be to much of a know it all, but the photo looks a lot like a 1967 650cc Lightning. Among the most obvious differences Royal Stars had a single carb, and no tachometer.

Not a smart ass at all. Mine was a certainly a single carb. I remember joking that it didn't have enough power to blow itself up. But it also definitely had a tachometer. Here is another internet photo. (mine are long gone) This one has a different side cover and a hidden air cleaner. I was not a BSA guy back then or now. I was a young guy wanting a full size motorcycle that roared and had that gorgeous chrome tank. Coincidentally, I got a email recently from the guy (back East) that I sold it to. He kept it for years until "that night". I'll ask him if he has photos of the actual bike.
PS: The exhaust also imprinted on me. 

[flattrkr]

I was a little worried about hijacking this thread with the mere mention of a Triumph motorcycle, but now, to my delight I find two Grand Gearheads debating the details of old BSAs.  I love this Forum already. 
To zimmemr, please don't be fooled by my username...my brief forays into racing were enough to convince me that my racing ability was on a par with my mechanical skills, both pretty abysmal.
On my helmet I had the decal "I'm so far behind I think I'm first", and sadly it was generally true.
Harry

[zimmemr]

NV: My memory may be playing me false, but as I recall adding a tach was pretty straightforward on the A series BSA's, so plenty of Thunderbolts and Royal Stars ended up with them. I serviced a few Royal Stars back in the day and always thought they were a very nice motorcycle. In fact I always preferred the Thunderbolts to any of the twin carb versions.

Flattraker: In my first year of dirt track I only qualified for two mains. Back then you had to time trial into the heat. From the heat you went to a semi, and from the semi to the main. At some tracks you had to win your heat just to make the semi. By about my third year I made most of the mains. At the end, after 42 years of racing I thought I was a lot faster than I was.

Oh yeah, never, ever worry about hijacking a thread, it's part and parcel of this forum and part of what makes it so much fun.

[ContiDarren]

I was a little worried about hijacking this thread with the mere mention of a Triumph motorcycle, but now, to my delight I find two Grand Gearheads debating the details of old BSAs.  I love this Forum already. 
To zimmemr, please don't be fooled by my username...my brief forays into racing were enough to convince me that my racing ability was on a par with my mechanical skills, both pretty abysmal.
On my helmet I had the decal "I'm so far behind I think I'm first", and sadly it was generally true.
Harry

Hijack away, love the chat