Mahindra's New Goldstar 650

[greg brillus]

Most likely crank figures not rear wheel........around 8% diff on most bikes.......looks better on paper........manufacturers still do it today.

 

[Monkeypants]

Yes they are crank figures from BSA. The dyno showed 28 rwhp for the SR which has a claimed 46 bhp at crank.
That's 40% of difference.
The dyno result would seem to indicate that in reality the Super Rocket makes about 32 hp at crank. That is in line with the way it rides.
So, if Mahindra is truthful with their rating, I guess this new BSA with 45 bhp would smoke my old SR.

Glen

 

[Monkeypants]

This new BSA doesn't hang about.
I think it might give the Rapide a hard time, never mind the Super Rocket.
Looks like that is an honest 45 bhp.

 

[greg brillus]

From what I've seen of these repo bikes, they look great from a distance but close up.......hmmm.......plus once they get to around 5 or so years old, the finish is terrible. Having said that, I've just bought Cath a 2019 Ducati Scrambler with less than 5000 km's on it........fabulous bike to look at.......but once you get up close and look at the finish on the engine, how much it deteriorates in so little an amount of time........Some things never change........Ducati's back in the mid to late 70's just shocking.......The Japanese bikes put them to absolute shame........actually the Jap stuff puts near everything to shame.

 

[Monkeypants]

Unfortunately the Japanese don't make a bike like this. Honda did for a short while, with the GB500, and it was excellent.
My modern Triumphs both clean up as new. One is Thai built and 7 years old, the other is UK built and 18 years old.
The Indian built bikes might be different.

Glen

 

[Magnetoman]

I have pretty nice 1963 West Coast Super Rocket. The West Coast HHC engine is what was used for all factory Rocket Goldstars.

It happens that for the past 26 years I've had a 1963 West Coast Rocket Gold Star, but I only discovered it in my garage this past weekend.

Making a long story short, I bought a basket case BSA A10 in 1994 that turned out to be the world's first 1957 Spitfire Scrambler (S/N 101). This was a one-year-only, U.S.-only model made in small numbers and having a Super Rocket engine in Gold Star Cycle parts, i.e. a Rocket Gold Star by another name. A few years later I bought an A10 engine to use as a donor in case it was needed when rebuilding the Spitfire's engine. As an aside, that same seller also had an ASCT gearbox that I bought as well, planning to use it in the Spitfire if I couldn't locate the proper SCT2. I finally found a rare SCT2, used only in 1957 Spitfire Scramblers, a decade later.

Nineteen years after I got the ASCT, a 1962 Gold Star Catalina came my way, with an SCT gearbox whose main shaft was very slightly bent, but quite functional. However, it happens that an ASCT is correct for that year, so I installed it five years ago at the same time I changed the sprockets to Clubman gearing for the wide-open spaces of the Southwest.

But, I digress from what is itself a digression. The same purchase that had the correct gearbox for my Catalina also included a DA10R donor engine, which I had basically forgotten about until a few days ago. I already knew that DA10R engines were pulled in somewhat random order from the same assembly line for both the Rocket Gold Star and the Super Rocket and, when I remembered I had the engine, I sent the number to the Gold Star Club to see if, against all odds, it might be from a Rocket Gold Star.

I learned the next day that my engine was in of a batch of "A10 Rocket Gold Stars" that were sent to the west coast in "Hap Alzina USA spec" in early October 1962. Who says lightning never strikes twice? Or, three times, counting the ASCT along with the Spitfire Scrambler.

Amazingly, I've owned a Rocket Gold Star for 26 years without even know it. OK, OK, if you want to get picky, I've owned the engine for a Rocket Gold Star. The donor engine I had bought in case I needed it to help restore the world's first Spitfire Scrambler, itself a Rocket Gold Star by a different name, turns out to be from an actual Rocket Gold Star.

 

[Monkeypants]

Rocket Goldstars have been built from less!
Re the frame lug difference- After looking at 2 1963 Super Rockets, both with 4 forged lugs, I wonder if BSA really bothered to make the Rocket Goldstar frame different for the Rocket Goldstar?
It doesn't seem so and it wouldn't make economic sense at the time. They weren't trying to build a bike with tiny differences that could make them identifiable when values went to the moon sixty years on.
I'm sure they had no idea nor cared about such things.
They just wanted to take up on Eddie Dow's idea to a build Goldie looking twin.
Change the tank , seat plus a couple of other things and you are there.
Very little cash outlay for BSA and a bit more cash coming in.
It's not unlike the Rapide to Black Shadow model change by Vincent. That involved some black paint, a big speedo and a tiny change in the carb size, not much else as it's the same parts book for both!

Glen

 

[Magnetoman]

Change the tank , seat plus a couple of other things and you are there.

It takes a bit more than that. BSA Parts Service Bulletin No. G.21 says all the parts for the RGS are listed in the Super Rocket and Gold Star Spares Catalogues, except what follows in the bulletin. What follows are nine pages of an estimated 300 parts. Although many are just nuts and bolts to attach various pieces, and some are essentially duplicates (e.g., front fork when lights are, or aren't, fitted), but 41 items have + next to them, which is explained as being new components not used on other models. Interestingly, one of the items with a part number and + is "Engine complete" and another is "Frame complete."

Of course, even if a complete RGS frame that the factory would supply as a replacement was trivially different than that of a Super Rocket frame, it would have been given a unique part number. Interestingly, Bulletin G21B lists the differences between G21 and machines supplied to the West Coast, and it has yet another number for "Frame complete." As for the engine, a pair of 8.75:1 pistons also are on the G21 list, implying those are different than the ones in a Super Rocket engine, which also would account for the + next to the complete RGS engine.

 

[Monkeypants]

The 62 and 63 West Coast Super Rockets were 9 to 1. That was at Hap Alzina's request.
East Coast and UK cr was lower.
So the RGS at 8.75 would be a slight detune from a late West Coast SR.


Glen

 

[highbury731]

I've left off a few minor players, like Ariel and Brough-Superior, but motorcycle brands that made comebacks are/were: BSA, Excelsior-Henderson, Indian, MV Agusta, Norton, Royal Enfield, and Triumph. Indian should be counted at least three times in this list, and Norton at least twice, but Royal Enfield arguably doesn't belong on it since it never disappeared.

If there's anything these have in common it's that, with the exception of Excelsior-Henderson, none of them had been out of production for as much as 30 years when the names were revived, so they retained some degree of brand recognition with the buying public. However, E-H only lasted two years before going bankrupt. Despite name recognition, Triumph is the only exception at this point because it's too early to tell with BSA.

Looking at the above list of expensive mass-market failures, the odds of someone reviving the name Vincent in other than a small-scale vanity project, or to make mopeds for underdeveloped countries, seem to be pretty small.

"Royal Enfield... never disappeared"
Being a nit-picking pedant, I have to disagree.
Royal Enfield did disappear, circa 1971. Royal Enfield's daughter company, Enfield India was set up in 1955, with roughly half the shares owned by Royal Enfield, and half by Indian investors Madras Motors. This company continued after Royal Enfield went bust. Eventually, the owners of Enfield India acquired the name and logos of Royal Enfield, and renamed their company and products as Royal Enfields.