Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125452
.. ONE YEAR ROAD TEST OF THE BSA LIGHTNING 650 By the Cycle New s s ta rr a nd gues t ride rs FIRST OF FOUR PARTS • • • With t his issue we commence a road test repo rt whic h will be co mpleted in fo ur ins t allment s a ppearing ove r the nex t twelve mon t hs. W have lon g felt e that the brief road tests of vi rtually eve ry new moto rcycle on the ma rket attempted by mont hly publi ca tion s, while unq ue s tion a bly providing a va luable gui de , fa ll short i n many re s pec t s . Cycl e News ' Editor ha s partic ipated as a s taffe r in many of the road tests conducted by the two leading monthlies and s o he ha s first-hand know le dge of the diffi culti e s i nvolve d . It is to th eir e tern al gl ory t hat Cycle World, Cycle , Motorcyclist a nd Hot Rod pr e s e nt a s fair, comple te and imp a rtial road tests as t hey do , a ll things cons ide re d. But we i nte nd our road test to be a more com plete re po rt than ha s ever been attempted by a p ublication before , i n eithe r the motorcycle or a utomotive fie ld. It will cover a s pan of one ye a r, a pp roximately 10 ,0 00 to 15,000 miles in the ki nd of us e to whic h an a ve ra ge owne r wou ld put the mac hi ne , plus ti me out fo r performanc e tests at 1,000 , 5,000 a nd 10 ,000 miles . Approximately every three mo nth s we will re- e va l ua t e t he mot or cyc le a nd publi sh compa rative re port s , t elling how it i s fa rin g thro ugh 12 mont hs of us e . W may a dd a cc e s sorie s a s th ey ar e ne eded , o r e ven mak e c us to m mod ie fications a s any ow ne r would i f they improve th e ma chin e in hi s e s ti mation. If we fi nd faults we will te ll how t hey we re corrected. TEST REPORT Taking Delivery .. • F or la ck of a better c riterion, we chos e the nea rest BSA deal er to s upply our t est bike, whic h happ ened to be Lon g Beach Hon da on Atlanti c Blvd. General Manager Charli e SChott agreed to lease us a 1966 Li ghtnin g 650 for the period of our test. W took deli ve ry like e any customer would. Sal d mec hanic J ohn Ri ce, who prepar ed the BSA for deli very " If I' d known it was for you guys , I'd have give n it closer attention." W ase s ured him that that was the Idea , and t hat thi s wasn't the usual ki nd of "road test." W didn 't want spe cial treatment. e W were more in t erested In reportin g e wha t the a verage owner co uld expect from his new BSA Li ghtning. At this poim we 'd better explai n why we chose this particula r bike to la vis h our attentions on. Ha vi ng owned and rid den virtually eve ry type and bran d of motorcycl e a vailable In the pa st 12 ye ars, we had an indefina ble feeling that 1966 might be the year of the BSA, an d the Li ghtning seemed most promising for the gene ral use we put a motorcycle to. The Lightning is a unit -construc te d, 654cc four-stroke t win with a bore and s troke slightl y ove rsqu a re at 75mm x 74mm . Compressi on ra tio Is 9 to one and it breathe s through a pair of 1, 5/32 " Amal Monobloc ca rburetor. Ignit ion is by a 12'volt Lu cas AC/ DC system featuring dual coils and contacts (one for each cylinde r). BAY MARE PICTORIAL As this report is bein g writt en, the Li ghtni ng per ches perkily outs ide the Cycle News building with 2,686.2 mil es registered on its odometer. It is ju st well broken in . . • • 250cc NOVICE I . Dennis Miller 2. Jo hn Loahas 3. River Giles 100cc MAIN E VENT Gil · 1. Al Guzman Yam 2. H. Mendenhall 3. Marty E ndless Yarn 250cc EXPERT 1. Rick James Bnl 2. Le e Stumpenhaus Gre 3. Doug Ye rkes SUI OPEN NO"lCE 1. Brian Pros s er 2. Don Harri s 3. John Bed ford 175cc EXPERT 1. W e Zi nme rman Bul ad 2. Ronald Cox Bul 3. Dave Strona n Bul 350cc NOVICE 1. Ronal d Jenke s 2. Ric ha rd Wunde r 3. Bob Colman Hon Hon Hon OPEN AMATEUR ? 1. Bill McCoy 2. Bill McClelland 3. Ed Gerardy 500cc NOVICE I . Bill Murphy 2. P e ter W endorf 3. Dave Bastin T rl Tri EXPE RT OP EN 1. La rry Wilburn T ri 500cc AMATEUR/EXPERT 1. Chuck Beny BSA 2. Victor Nelli T ri 3. Clell Able BSA ~Iat Los Padres M.e. Hosts Scrambles • • .. • • • . _ ~· ~J '..._ _ ' S H-D T rl T ri 200cc A\IATE UR/ EXPERT 1. Joh n Riggn Bul 2. Lee Stumpenhaus Gre Bul 3. Scott Coyne 7 ' After t hat many miles we ha ve only one serious compla int a bout the ma- '" , chine , one buyers of BSA road models !i ' shou ld be warned about: Watch out for "" ove rcharging of the bat tery when runnlng ! the engine at normal California spe eds. iii Apparently the charging rate system on '" our test machine , and all othe r ne w ::: BSA' s that we ha ve seen, is set for ~ pot tering about the British count ryside. 3 When you run it around 65-70 mph for a to few hundre d mlles the genui ne Lucas .. battery boil s ove r and foamfng acid wipes out the marvelo us chrome an d paint on the left rea r section of the motorcycle . We caught the boiling act the first time we ope ned It up at 500 miles. Qui ck work wit h hos e and baking so da neut ralized the acid a nd s a ved the brightwork that time, but a few hundred mlles later it happened again when we le nt the bike to a friend, and the finish was left permanently scarred. Long Beach Honda offe red to replace the co rroded parts under the BSA gua rantee. We suspect that it would take an exhaustive analysis of the ' old boy system, ' to e xplain why En glish manufactur ers continue to buy Lucas ' st uff when so many good " electrics ' are are available in the world. The best thing we can say about Lucas gene rally is, they coul d s ure stand a lot of improveme nt. At worst it seems c riminal to handic ap good machinery and pla gue cus tomers with myste rio us electrioal problems . Anyway , Long Beach Honda in stall ed a Honda bat tery and made the damage right , at no cos t to the customer (us) and so our feeli ngs were somewhat mollified. But until further notice , we advise buyers of new BSA's to immediately wrap their batteri es (t here are two) in wat erproof nylon or acid-p roof pl astic and ins ta ll a vent tube to duct the in evit abl e overflow where it will do no harm. (Next wee k: ~-mlle acceleration tests result s at 2500 mil es ) T ri Tri Tri Bul Bul Bul " 1 ~7:":- Joseph Lucas Strikes Lightning ~ LOS P ADRES SCRAMBLES Bay Mare , Sunday, Ju ne 26, 1966 500ccAMATEUR/ EXP ERT 1. T. Mason Yam 2. J ay Louis Yam 3. Kurk Lo uis Hon I Photos by Bill Petti grew o' C'> Cll '" .., ::: ~. r.J ~ r.J ..J u GLIMPSES OF THE :... ITALIAN TRADE SHOW U You' ll have 10 hurry down to Century City (on Sanla Mon ica Blvd. In Beverly Hil ls) to catch Ihese beautie s (and plenty more like 'em). The Ire. show closes Friday night. Above Is an MV Four, below, Ihe M Val I exhibit. <' .